UK Landlord Forum / Life

Can anyone help...we live abroad and have been renting our house out for the last year...the lease is up on 11th Nov but the tenants have already paid and moved out of property...they are cleaning up in the few days left as far as we know..we have had several issues with our agents..they have allowed the tenants to make changes to our property without asking us first...we don't think this is the tenants fault as they believe that they had permission...when I mentioned this to the agent he stated that we were a long way away and we would only have consented to the changes anyway...just not the point!!! he has also allowed the tenants to change the locks on the front door...he says that the lock was damaged which would be fine had he informed us of this at the time or shortly after the event but he did not...once we found out we asked him to make sure that he had a key for access...we have had to ask for inspections to be carried out which have been very vague to say the least and have asked for photos to be taken several times now that the lease is up... we only received two of the inside of the property after some complaining... a few weeks ago we instructed a new agent to look for a tenant for us who tells us that our present agent had denied them access to our property...they then called the tenants who have been happy to show the new agent and her clients around...we have now instructed two other agents to work on behalf of us as the lease is nearly up, but our present  agent has  again denied them access when they have turned up for the key even though the house is now empty...he stated that the tenant has the key and would drop it back to him and the new agent could collect it to take a copy so that he could access the property...the new agent arrived for the key once again and our agent said he still didn't have it...I have emailed several times now and have stated that as our agent he should have a key himself in order to access the property...it should not be just the tenant who has a key...can the agent deny another agent access even though we have given permission for them to look around the house? If not what can we do about this situation

Trace1

I'm kinda having the same trouble.  My agent still hasn't given me the keys after numerous requests. I phoned the police on the non emergency line (101) for advice as I was getting frustrated.   They advised that I can break into the property with a locksmith (and to ring 101 prior to inform the local police) as I own the property. 

You may want to go down the route of getting a locksmith because I would definitely recommend changing your locks after reading your story.  The obvious obstacle is getting credentials to a lock smith to prove that you own the house and who would be there to meet them to provide this and collect the new keys.  Sorry I cannot be more help.

Andy.

Hello trace1

Rockandy79 under-sellt his advice.  It's good.  In addition I would get hold of your original agents by fax and e-mail with the following points:
+ You apointed them on their assertion that they were professional agents;
+ A professional agent controls the situation where locks have to be changed so that they obtain a set of original keys
+ To not hold a set of new keys is to have acted unprofessionally.
+ Their unprofessional conduct has cost you money.  You are unable to start renting because they are preventing you from marketing your property with a new agent.
+ If they do not release the keys the final time your agent visits theor office you will bill them for: Lost rent; Your time; Locksmiths costs; Agents costs to accompany locksmith

This will hopefully give them the jolt they need to realise you know the law and aren't afriad to use it against them.  Hpe this helps.  Please let me know how you get on.

Thankyou all for your replies...after some too-ing and fro-ing the agent now has a set of keys so they should be available to the other agents...we do however have other issues with him...I have been lucky enough to speak with the tenants of the property who have now moved out...they are telling me that they were given permission to make alterations to our house and yet we were not informed of the changes either until some time later or not at all...we have just received our checkout inventory which states that a bedroom has been repainted a different colour without our knowledge..also apart from the door lock being changed..curtain poles being put up which we knew nothing about....we were asked if the tenants could  either have our gas fire fixed at a cost of £40 or have it capped off as they had an electric fire that they wished to use...we gave permission to do either at a cost to ourselves of course but received no comeback following the email ...I even emailed the agent to ask what had happened to the fire but had no reply so assumed that no changes had been made...we were not charged for any changes........we were eventually told by another agent that had been to the house some months later that the tenants had actually removed our fire and put in their own electric fire..that the hole in the wall had been bricked up and concreted over..so I asked our agent if this was true...he confirmed that the tenants had actually put in their own fire but that nothing had been bricked up or concreted he stated that the old fire was in the loft and could be replaced...this may seem naive but I thought when I was asked if the fire could be capped off that they meant just to stop the flow of gas...not that they would have to remove the fire to do so..am not even sure if you have to remove the fire first or if the fire can be capped off and the fire left alone...we thought that the electric fire the tenants had was just an ordinary electric plug in fire..there was never any mention of removing our fire...of concreting over holes in walls..of removing the marble surround.obviously if you remove the fire then there will be a hole left in the back of the wall..if this is not covered then anything can enter the hole from the outside...we were told this by the tenant and they state that they had permission to do this work...but my point here is that we have not been informed of these changes adequately..we now realise that this could be the reason that our agent has refused to send photos of the property...as we would then have seen the changes from the photos...we have now been told by the agent that the fireplace is an issue...he states that there is no point in replacing the fire as it does not work although at first he asked us if we would consent to it being fixed....if it is not replaced we will then be left with a hole in the wall...this has already been an issue with someone who was interested with renting the hose but requested a drop in rent due to the state of the fireplace...the old tenants told us that the fire could not be replaced as it is in a thousand pieces in the loft...we now feel that the hole should be completely filled in and the wall replastered at the agents expense as he gave permission for these changes without our consent and did not let us know what had happened to the fireplace when we asked...his attitude is appalling as when we asked him why we had not been told that the tenants had put up curtain poles and made changes to the fire he has stated that we would have consented to the changes anyway...we know however that he will probably bill the old tenants for thie work to put right the wall which seems unfair....what do you think!!! any advice would be most helpful...

Trace1