UK Landlord Forum / Life

After noticing that my letting agents office has been transformed into a vintage nail salon and that their car has been parked at a unit, with an entirely different company name, in the same industrial estate as my work I decided to do a bit of digging.  According to companies house my letting agent has been dissolved as a company since 31st October 2014!!!!

What does this mean for my tenancy?  Is it even valid?  Should I not have been informed and issued with a new lease?

Any help would be appreciated as I am hoping to leave the property in the new year but want to know where I stand regarding giving notice.

Please be wary of advice from a blog (including my own)
Do your own research

Hi Jenemlou
You need to dig out your tenancy agreement and see what it says.
Most likely the agreement is between you and the Landlord.
Any reference to Agent or Landlord's Agent will no longer apply
The agreement will almost certainly have contact details for the Landlord.

Your agreement is therefore unlikely to be affected, no new lease is required
As with all business matters best thing is to develop a relationship with the counterparty (Landlord) as soon as possible.

Best of luck

Hi thanks for your reply - unfortunately the situation has gotten worse.

A new company (same people but new company) have issued me with my notice and a list of repairs totalling over £1,000 for the property - £25 plus VAT for lightbulbs!!!

I have now left the property.

As the landlord has not informed me that I should deal with this company in relation to the property and the fact that my deposit is not held with any of the deposit holding schemes in Scotland, I have contacted the landlord direct (as advised by Shelter), however as they live in France I am still awaiting a response.  This new company keep sending me emails demanding payment for these repairs even though I have emailed them to say that I have contacted the landlord direct and am awaiting a response - can they do this?  Surely I should have been informed by the landlord that essentially a new letting agent was taking over the property? 

I am also aware through my employment that this letting agent is over £20,000 in debt with their maintenance contractor and he has also contacted all landlords concerned.

Hi Jenemlou,

What does your ex-Landlord say about the alleged damage? Hope you had an inventory and photographs.
It's a rotten trick played by many unscrupulous managing agents and Landlords unfortunately, inventing a list of spurious damage. Fair wear and tear is part of the deal for which you pay rent.

Quote from: Angel_Commercial_Finance on January 14, 2016, 06:18:08 PM
Hi Jenemlou,

What does your ex-Landlord say about the alleged damage? Hope you had an inventory and photographs.
It's a rotten trick played by many unscrupulous managing agents and Landlords unfortunately, inventing a list of spurious damage. Fair wear and tear is part of the deal for which you pay rent.

I have written to the landlord direct (they live in France) detailing all the issues I have, such as the fact that the directors of my original company have been directors of 3 different letting agencies during my 5 years in the property (a new company is opened and a few months later the previous company applies to be dissolved), I have received no correspondence in relation to my deposit and  when I ask the letting agent they ignore the issue completely - even the list of damages does not say that the total will be minus my deposit!  However, there was an attempted delivery on 16th January and if the landlord does not attempt to collect the letter or arrange for re-delivery it will be returned.

The "letting agent" supposedly carried out an inspection on the 26th November (2 weeks after my notice was issued) and none of these damages were raised then, nor was there any issues after any previous inspection.  Surely any issues should have been raised after the inspection to give me a chance to put them right?

There was no inventory when I moved into the property - I simply collected the keys from the letting agents office!   One of the "damages" was a tear in the w/c linoleum which I reported just after I moved in as the previous tenant (or the letting agent) had attempted to stick it back down with sellotape!

They have sent me a further email today saying that they have spoken to the landlord at length and they have instructed them to deal with this, surely the landlord has to inform me if there is a new company dealing with the property and as I am the landlords customer if I choose not to deal with the letting agent then the landlord should deal directly with me?

Quote from: jenemlou on January 21, 2016, 04:37:53 PM...if I choose not to deal with the letting agent then the landlord should deal directly with me?

Nope. That's definitely not how it works. You have to treat the Agent and the Landlord as the same entity.

Be wary of advice from a forum
Always do your own research

Jenemlou

You cannot choose not to deal with the agent so long as the tenancy agreement contemplates the agent. e.g, words such as "the Landlord or his Agent" and the Agent being a defined company in the agreement.

Technically the Landlord should serve a notice under the Agreement changing the agent but 99.999% of agreements (drawn up by the agent) do not have a clause thats covers this possibility (as it would indicate the landlord can dump the agent) so it would then become a variation to contract.  You'd have to read the agreement to get a better grasp of whether the landlord can unilaterally by notice amend the contract to replace the agent or it requires a consent from the tenant.

Maybe he can but it doesn't appear he has done so in this case.
Furthermore 100% for sure the new agent cannot call you up and claim to be your agent.  Upon winding up the old agent effectively left the contract but nothing happened to let the new one in (as far as you know).  I could claim to be your agent if that were the case.

Do you know where your deposit is?
Were you given the prescribed information?
I'm afraid you have a problem here as you will almost certainly be chasing an overseas landlord to get this back or even to get three times the deposit back through court.

If the new agent is so keen to manage this though then maybe you can (i) ask them where the deposit is and then go to ADR or (ii) explain to them they /landord will need to stump via court up to three times the deposit and pay your court costs (assuming it isnt protected).

Best of luck

Quote from: theangrylandlord on January 22, 2016, 10:03:43 AM
Be wary of advice from a forum
Always do your own research

Jenemlou

You cannot choose not to deal with the agent so long as the tenancy agreement contemplates the agent. e.g, words such as "the Landlord or his Agent" and the Agent being a defined company in the agreement.

Technically the Landlord should serve a notice under the Agreement changing the agent but 99.999% of agreements (drawn up by the agent) do not have a clause thats covers this possibility (as it would indicate the landlord can dump the agent) so it would then become a variation to contract.  You'd have to read the agreement to get a better grasp of whether the landlord can unilaterally by notice amend the contract to replace the agent or it requires a consent from the tenant.

Maybe he can but it doesn't appear he has done so in this case.
Furthermore 100% for sure the new agent cannot call you up and claim to be your agent.  Upon winding up the old agent effectively left the contract but nothing happened to let the new one in (as far as you know).  I could claim to be your agent if that were the case.

Do you know where your deposit is?
Were you given the prescribed information?
I'm afraid you have a problem here as you will almost certainly be chasing an overseas landlord to get this back or even to get three times the deposit back through court.

If the new agent is so keen to manage this though then maybe you can (i) ask them where the deposit is and then go to ADR or (ii) explain to them they /landord will need to stump via court up to three times the deposit and pay your court costs (assuming it isnt protected).

Best of luck

The agreement states that the landlords agent is the dissolved company - so in effect the landlords agent no longer exists, as you say the fact that the company has dissolved means that they have left the contract - even though the same people have since started up this new company and still claim to be the agent for the property although I have received no notification of this from the landlord.

I have asked numerous times about my deposit and asked for the relevant information.  I was told that it was held with Mydeposit Scotland, I have contacted them and they have no record of this deposit.  I have also contacted the other 2 deposit schemes in Scotland and they have no record of a deposit in my name for this property either!  I have never been given any information in relation to my deposit and was only made aware of this new system by a friend when I was discussing this situation with them.  In all honesty I would happily give up the deposit just to leave this sorry state of affairs behind me and have this new company stop harassing me, however the new company are now threatening me with legal action over the cost of the repairs even though I have yet to receive an official invoice for these repairs!

Any advice on what I should do if the landlord does not contact me?  I can't really afford the legal costs as the fact that I have had to move back in with ,my parents and we are overcrowded has meant that my ex-partner has put in a residency claim for my son so I am having to pay legal costs to sort this out!

1. Tell the agent you will see them in court about the deposit and that they owe you three times the deposit (slight bluff as the judge decides up to three times). Unfortunately I am not familiar with the process in Scotland but this claim can be made simply enough in England without  the expense of a solicitor.  Maybe the threat alone will destabilise their position.
Technically you will serve this notice on the Landlord (who may sadly be totally unaware - but then should have answered your communications)

2. Demand a copy of the invoice and accompanying inventory/check out.  Don't stress about their demands if they are unfounded it's a common ploy by people that don't know what they are doing to threaten court action... Heard so may times before.... They won't do any such thing.

Suggest you get on the front foot on all this rather than worrying about their threats.
To say you will give up the deposit in order for all this to go away is exactly what these people want.

Best of luck

you can refuse now to deal with letting agent if they are dissolved they no longer exist they should not be dealing with you as they are no more