UK Landlord Forum / Life

We are not currently living in the UK and registered with a letting agency under the full management terms. We have recently had tenants vacate our property and were in the process of having the property redecorated. There painters have informed us that there is damp in one of the rooms and a leaking pipe has caused rising damp on the ground floor. I have seen pictures, the wall has signs of discoloration. in the garden area has vegetation caused by the excess / leaking water. In all of the reports from the agents, this was not mentioned. Do we have mileage in complaining to the agents in relation to duty of care in ensuring that appropriate feedback was given to us so we could have taken action in relation to the damp.

There's no harm in mentioning it to the agent: it lets them know you're keeping an eye on them. They'll probably reply that the purpose of the inspection was to assess whether the tenants were looking after the property, not to evaluate the condition of the rainwater goods, which are the landlord's responsibility to maintain. If you ask them to keep an eye on such things in the future, I'm sure they'll be happy to do so, not least because they can get one of their pet tradesmen in to fix it for a fat commission.

Thanks for the response. The issue is we are not in the country and haven't been in the country for 4 years. We are now lumped with a bill for 2400k to repair the damp. Surely if you are doing a full end of lease inspection and you see evidence of damp you include it in the report? or the tenants would have mentioned it?

"surely"..?

This assumption of yours is apparently what you are banking on. You are employing the Agent in your stead. You either signed up to their Terms of Business (which will tell you all that they've agreed to do for you) or you have been categoric in what you expect of them in return for your £s, and made an agreement to such an effect. You don't assume. You can't say "surely it's not like this" when something goes wrong. And, no, you can't just pass the buck all the time. It's your property. Your asset. Your responsibility.