UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi. I am hoping for some advice. My husband and I rented out our old house and moved to Australia. Our first agent was a nightmare, constantly late with rent, never checked the property, etc. We finally gave notice and moved to a new agent.

After 3 months of being with our new agent we were told our old one had gone bankrupt - and counted our lucky stars we had got out.

Another 3 months went past and we received an email from an electrician who had done some work on our house a year ago. Our old agent had instigated the work, dealt with the electrician and taken payment from us for his work. But the electrician is claiming he only received half the payment and that we owned him the rest. We spoke to a friend who is a lawyer who looked through our papers and said he didn't have a claim as all the contracts were with the agent. We also spoke to our current agent who said there had been a company who had taken over dealing with claimants and she would pass their details into the electrician.

That is the last we heard for another 6 months. But I have now received an email stating he has made a small claim against us. The email is reference only and the only address for us is the old house so I doubt the letter will make it to us out here. I am at a loss as to what to do. We have already paid for the work and don't really want to pay again. We did try and discuss things, and explain our situation when we got the first email but he basically ignored all our questions and explanations and just insisted we pay. He is using my email address as it was obviously included somewhere when the work was being discussed, and is assuming this is my current name - it is my maiden and that I own the house which I don't - it's my husband's.

I guess I just want to know if we do owe him or if he needs to join the other claimants.

Thanks

I believe the electricians contract would be with you. The letting agent was in effect acting as your agent for the purpose of organising work on a property. I'm afraid it is 30 years since I last studied law but I am sure that will be the position although I see your lawyer friend disagrees. I can see little difference here between an agent who takes a deposit and runs off with it leaving the landlord ultimately responsible and an unpaid electrician. Whether or not any legal papers have been properly served as the electrician must know you do not live in the house is of course another discussion.

If any landlords are reading this then let this be a warning and use an ARLA regulated agent.