UK Landlord Forum / Life

I have just renewed the tenancy to my tenants and the house is fully managed because I'm not living in the immediate vicinity.  My tenants asked for the 6 month break clause to be waived, and as an incentive they have paid the whole year's rent in one lump sum to my agents and from what I can gather from the agents, my workmen and the neighbours are very good tenants; however, my letting agents have just withheld my rent for 2 months due to the Gas Certificate.

The agent reminded me it needed doing a few weeks before, and I sent my plumber - the tenants went away for a long weekend and weren't there so it was re-arranged and the plumber did the gas inspection/service on the last legal date and gave a copy of the certificate to the tenants; however due to other circumstances I didn't get a copy until this week so I asked the agent to get a copy from the tenant (they are a mile or so down the road and could have popped in and taken the tenant's copy to be photocopied). The agent called a couple of times to ask if I had received my copy of the gas certificate. In the meantime I was phoning every week asking about why I hadn't received a statement as I needed to know how much I was going to receive from them (I don't do internet banking and had been unable to get to my bank to check my account) but I was talking to the agents as the tenants had also reported work needed doing and I had authorised the agent to get this dealt with asap - at no point was I told that they were withholding rent until they had a copy of the gas certificate and they couldn't be bothered to go to the tenants or ask for a copy from the tenant but at the time they were able to confirm that the tenant had told them the gas service had been done and everything was fine. If the tenant has a copy of the gas certificate, can they legally refuse to pay me? I've sorted it now, but am interested in whether the agents can legally do this when they know that the gas inspection/service has been done as I've now had my statement but am still awaiting my rent?

Hi there,
I think that you should remind the agent that the rent is YOUR money and they cannot withhold it. The gas cert is a seperate issue. If they withhold the rent then you could charge them interest.