UK Landlord Forum / Life

I'm interested in peoples views here as to what I could do....which may vary with what I'm going to do as the priority is simply to get the property let again.

I have a a 2 bed victorian terrace which as with most properties of that age, has the odd bit of damp here and there. A couple of months ago my managing agent organised through one of their contractors to knock off plaster to an external wall, install membrane and replaster. As I'm between tenants I have my own contractor in there doing some things right now, which includes additional damp membrane work. The original agency contractor only did a one metre length of a 3 to 4 meter wall (the worst part) which wasn't what we expected but we let it go. As such we planned to also membrane the remainder of the wall - we were a bit surprised then to find that the original contractors (a damp specialist... ) had hacked the plaster off, dot and dabbed some plasterboard and then skimmed over, but no waterproof membrane for us to connect to.

We're just plowing on and doing the work albeit have one photo from our contractor showing what they found. The original work was organised through our managing agent, using their contractor and all monies were paid to the agency.

Was I to complain, who am I complaining to and who holds responsibility to resolve this? I assume the agency although I think I know what their response would be?!

It's the agency, from whom you commissioned and purchased the work.
They'll probably blame their contractor, but you need to continue to deal with the agent.

If they'd put you in contact and the contractor had billed you direct, that might have been different.

Although I have no way of knowing, in other cases landlords have found it helpful to use the (implied) threat of wanting to see the invoice from the contractor to the agent as evidence. Not that all agents are in the habit of uplifting charges or claiming hidden rebates.

Thanks for that - it's what I thought. Unfortunately the agency (a franchise of a very large national chain...) is pretty much useless. They haven't even bothered to reply as of yet and the guy who owns and runs it is never available.

Be very formal (and unbearably reasonable). Communicate in writing - a proper letter on paper in an envelope freaks out a lot of companies. Be sympathetic to their problem (which emphasises where the responsibility lies).

Suggest solutions - do they wish to engage their own contractors to address the issue rather than you using your own and then recharging them? "Fortunately, we spotted this issue, as it could have been much more serious and potentially impacted the property's value significantly."

You have to balance your wish to assign the responsibility and recover compensation with chucking time and energy after an already sorted problem. But a lack of response is often a sign of a poorly run organisation or a deliberate strategy to filter out the easily disuaded.