UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi there,

This may end up quite long so I truly appreciate anyone who is willing to read this and help.

My boyfriend and I moved into a flat at the end of June and have had a few different problems with our letting agent/landlord that we are still trying to resolve.

We got the keys on a Saturday morning but didn't fully move in until the following Tuesday just because it was a slow move and we had the time not to rush. When we returned to the flat Sunday we had no electricity; couldn't find a meter in the flat and so rang the agents out of hours line who were completely useless, didn't know what was happening, and never got back to us when they said they would. My mum advised me that the only reason I wouldn't have electricity is if we were on a pay as you go meter and it was out of credit. That turned out to be true, but said meter was in a cupboard under the communal staircase to which we had to ask the neighbors for the code to get into it. In short, we found the key that you put credit on in the flat and had to rush to the local co-op so we could get electricity as we had people coming on the Monday to install the internet and what not.

There was a debt on the account from the previous tenant that I had to pay so I could get electricity in the flat and when we rang the letting agents on Monday they said they couldn't reimburse us for it and had to chase it up with the electric company, and that if we had left it they would have cleared it. I am still trying to get that money back more than 2 months later.

At this point we were also missing our post box key, which the letting agent continuously lied to us about regarding who had it and when we would get it. The previous tenant had kept it and ended up dropping it off the same day we were told to collect it from one of their offices a good 30 minute drive away.

They hadn't completed the inventory on time and had to change multiple things when it arrived, but another issue was that we didn't have a door to the en-suite bathroom. Not a massive problem as we had the main bathroom, but it was still something we couldn't really use with a bit of dignity and thus began a backwards and forwards battle to get a door installed, with the letting agent claiming they were getting the funds for it from the previous tenants disputed deposit.

These were all somewhat minor issues until the Wednesday morning when I went out to my car and found I had a parking ticket on my window. The car park is permit only and despite being in my allocated parking bay was issued a ticket for not displaying a valid permit. We contacted the letting agent to which they claimed to have no idea that you needed a permit and that I should contact the building managers to get one. I call them and am told that they can only issue the permits to the registered owner; the landlord. So I go back to the letting agent and explain that I'm not paying for the ticket as it wasn't my fault I didn't have the permit and I'm told to appeal it with the ticket company. They unfortunately come back to me saying that because there are signs up in the car park (none of which I can read from where I park) it still needed paying. I didn't see them, at all. Once I got the ticket I parked on the road outside the car park to avoid any further tickets, which didn't always have room to park. Eventually we got parking permits from the letting agent, however they are still refusing to pay for the ticket. At this point I've been trying to obtain proof that they know about them because they've been in force for over 4 years and the previous tenant said they do know about the permit system as she also gave us some permits when she dropped off the post box key.

With the problems we had, we sent them an email outlining everything and asked for reduced rent or some compensation for the stress it has caused, which it did. I've had to call so many different people to try to get my money back for the electricity which have been hour long phone calls at a minimum and then not knowing if I would have anywhere to park when I finished work was horrible. There is only a short stretch of road outside the block of flats and it is often full. We asked to speak to management about it all and they said that they believed none of the problems we had had were their fault and the landlord was not willing to pay/contribute to the parking ticket or pay any compensation. They did offer us £15 which would only cover the parking ticket if it is revoked (I contacted someone directly who deals with the permits and they passed my case on for reconsideration), but that is still only an if.

At this point we know they have lied about a few things and just don't trust them or respect them. They are not willing to accept any problem and just keep saying the previous tenant did this or that, or didn't hand in keys or clear the meter, when they should have checked these things.

However, we discovered that they paid our deposit into the DPS late - they had it for exactly 8 weeks before they paid it in, coincidentally it was paid the same day we first received an email from the management team. We know it was outside the 30 day limit and we only received a generic DPS leaflet with our contract.

Obviously we want to take them to court with it and this is where we struggle. We don't really want to stay here because they have been awful thus far, but it would mean moving out at Christmas if we left after the 6 months. We're not sure when exactly to pursue court action as we have no belief that they will settle it outside of court. Additionally, we really want them to have to pay the full compensation amount just to spite them for being so rubbish but are the problems we've had something we can include in the paperwork to show the court how unwilling they are to take responsibility of anything?

Again, if anyone has read all of this I am very grateful and will provide more details if necessary. Thank you.

Could you provide some more details, please?

Is that a joke or you actually want more information? I realise I wrote a lot but sometimes it's hard to explain a situation in a short, coherent manner. :S

Quote from: KA08 on September 09, 2016, 04:34:14 PM
Hi there,

This may end up quite long so I truly appreciate anyone who is willing to read this and help.

My boyfriend and I moved into a flat at the end of June and have had a few different problems with our letting agent/landlord that we are still trying to resolve.

We got the keys on a Saturday morning but didn't fully move in until the following Tuesday just because it was a slow move and we had the time not to rush. When we returned to the flat Sunday we had no electricity; couldn't find a meter in the flat and so rang the agents out of hours line who were completely useless, didn't know what was happening, and never got back to us when they said they would.

You should've really checked things on the day of hand-over, this is a wise thing to do. Your lackadaisical approach is part of the problem here. You 'getting the keys' is not a hand-over or Check-In, it seems like you just went somewhere and collected the keys without bothering to check the property was as you expected - if you insisted on a Check-In then you could document issues with the person checking you in as they arose... and, yes, even decide not to take it.

My mum advised me that the only reason I wouldn't have electricity is if we were on a pay as you go meter and it was out of credit. That turned out to be true, but said meter was in a cupboard under the communal staircase to which we had to ask the neighbors for the code to get into it. In short, we found the key that you put credit on in the flat and had to rush to the local co-op so we could get electricity as we had people coming on the Monday to install the internet and what not.

Your mum is correct. What your paragraph describes here is a minor issue that you resolved. What's the problem again?

There was a debt on the account from the previous tenant that I had to pay so I could get electricity in the flat and when we rang the letting agents on Monday they said they couldn't reimburse us for it and had to chase it up with the electric company, and that if we had left it they would have cleared it. I am still trying to get that money back more than 2 months later.

Why would the Letting Agent reimburse you for someone else's debt? Of course you had to chase it up with the electric company - what else would you expect? That you are still trying to get the money back 2 months later says something about you or the electricity company (I make no judgement), but not the Agent - it's not their debt. Just because you're renting a property, from an Agent or not, doesn't put you into some kind of protective cocoon. I think your expectations here might be a bit out, sorry.

At this point we were also missing our post box key, which the letting agent continuously lied to us about regarding who had it and when we would get it. The previous tenant had kept it and ended up dropping it off the same day we were told to collect it from one of their offices a good 30 minute drive away.

Could be simple miscommunication. You accuse someone of lying... maybe the Agent got confused, they're not the brightest bunch. Fact is you should have definitely had all the keys you needed when you took possession of the property. Maybe you could've checked this when collecting the keys? If you had done a Check-In it would've been part of that.

They hadn't completed the inventory on time and had to change multiple things when it arrived, but another issue was that we didn't have a door to the en-suite bathroom. Not a massive problem as we had the main bathroom, but it was still something we couldn't really use with a bit of dignity and thus began a backwards and forwards battle to get a door installed, with the letting agent claiming they were getting the funds for it from the previous tenants disputed deposit.

You should have a door to the bathroom. You should not have to battle to get a door installed. However, one does wonder if it wasn't there when you viewed the property and agreed to take it? It seems really weird for it to disappear between viewing and the tenancy commencing. Again, a Check-In would've identified this.

These were all somewhat minor issues until the Wednesday morning when I went out to my car and found I had a parking ticket on my window. The car park is permit only and despite being in my allocated parking bay was issued a ticket for not displaying a valid permit. We contacted the letting agent to which they claimed to have no idea that you needed a permit and that I should contact the building managers to get one. I call them and am told that they can only issue the permits to the registered owner; the landlord.

This is perfectly normal, believe it or not. It should not, however, mean that you could not get one, via the Landlord, for your vehicle, just that the Landlord has to actually bother doing something.

So I go back to the letting agent and explain that I'm not paying for the ticket as it wasn't my fault I didn't have the permit and I'm told to appeal it with the ticket company. They unfortunately come back to me saying that because there are signs up in the car park (none of which I can read from where I park) it still needed paying. I didn't see them, at all.

Similar situation to all these other parking 'fines'... signs that can't be read. You have to make a judgement call as to whether to fight it or not.

Once I got the ticket I parked on the road outside the car park to avoid any further tickets, which didn't always have room to park. Eventually we got parking permits from the letting agent, however they are still refusing to pay for the ticket.

Again, why do you think they should? They didn't park somewhere without a permit, did they? We all have to handle the consequences of our actions.

At this point I've been trying to obtain proof that they know about them because they've been in force for over 4 years and the previous tenant said they do know about the permit system as she also gave us some permits when she dropped off the post box key.

They likely do know. Question is - do they know you needed one? Do they know everything they needed to know? Why didn't you ask for one? Why didn't you think - "oh, it's an allocated parking bay, there must be something that tells others that I'm OK parking here - a sticker or a permit or something... apparently, this just passed you by?

With the problems we had, we sent them an email outlining everything and asked for reduced rent or some compensation for the stress it has caused, which it did.

No chance. Any Agent who offers you reduced rent would be daft. You've just had some moving-in niggles... that's life.

I've had to call so many different people to try to get my money back for the electricity which have been hour long phone calls at a minimum and then not knowing if I would have anywhere to park when I finished work was horrible.

Horrible? Really?

There is only a short stretch of road outside the block of flats and it is often full. We asked to speak to management about it all and they said that they believed none of the problems we had had were their fault and the landlord was not willing to pay/contribute to the parking ticket or pay any compensation.

Quite right. I think you're barking up the wrong tree... you just need to be more aware in your life of the real world. Is this the first time you've rented? If so - may I suggest something with a positive spin on it? You'll never make the same mistakes again - it's a life-learning experience. No-one got injured and no-one died... it's OK, it really is.

They did offer us £15 which would only cover the parking ticket if it is revoked (I contacted someone directly who deals with the permits and they passed my case on for reconsideration), but that is still only an if.

Oh, so you were offered some compensation?

At this point we know they have lied about a few things and just don't trust them or respect them. They are not willing to accept any problem and just keep saying the previous tenant did this or that, or didn't hand in keys or clear the meter, when they should have checked these things.

Why? What do you think happens when you buy your first home and it's one someone lived-in before... does someone come and help you out with all this stuff? No, they don't... you seem to think there's the Tenant Protective Bubble in operation here for some reasons - they're really isn't - there never is. One presumes you're two adults, you just have to deal with stuff... the day to day humdrum stuff.

However, we discovered that they paid our deposit into the DPS late - they had it for exactly 8 weeks before they paid it in, coincidentally it was paid the same day we first received an email from the management team. We know it was outside the 30 day limit and we only received a generic DPS leaflet with our contract.

Obviously we want to take them to court with it and this is where we struggle. We don't really want to stay here because they have been awful thus far, but it would mean moving out at Christmas if we left after the 6 months. We're not sure when exactly to pursue court action as we have no belief that they will settle it outside of court.

You can start proceedings for up to 6 years after the 'offence'... so you can sit happily until you're ready to move on, then bring it on them after they're out of your hair completely - no need to rush.

Additionally, we really want them to have to pay the full compensation amount...

I'm sure you do. 

...just to spite them for being so rubbish but are the problems we've had something we can include in the paperwork to show the court how unwilling they are to take responsibility of anything?

No. The deposit protection angle is black-and-white, all on its own - the other stuff doesn't matter (for deposit protection).

Again, if anyone has read all of this I am very grateful and will provide more details if necessary. Thank you.

My comment would be... you're talking about late protection (and by a few weeks) rather than non-protection - so you're very unlikely to get 3x as an award. However, any Agent should really know better - so that's a good indicator of how poor they are... their actions (the Agent) will actually fall back onto the Landlord - the Landlord is ultimately responsible, rather than the Agent. The case would be successful, because it is black-and-white, but it would very likely be for 1x the deposit amount.

P.S. - it was a joke... that was too much information. You're grasping at straws for things that don't matter to matter... if you get my drift?