Here is a question to the blog clinic from Bryan who is a landlord
I am a landlord renting a property and I have made a very poor choice of agent to manage it. I used a small business based on a dubious recommendation. My fault I know.
Rent payments have been sporadic, the agent blames the tenants for the inconsistency but I have serious doubts about the man’s competency.
The latest situation is that I have not received any rent for three months and he cannot confirm to me that the tenants have paid. His last email to me just said ‘there are some arrears and they have housing benefit’, he didn’t tell me what he was doing about it or send a statement as I had asked.
My brother in law went to the property incognito to check who was living there and saw people entering the property, we presume they were the tenants.
I contacted the council and had to jump through hoops to prove I was the landlord, eventually they confirmed that housing benefit had been paid to the tenants.
It also appears that the tenants deposit has not been registered despite the agents assurance that it had.
I have signed a contract with this agent but cannot find the disengagement clause, although I have plenty of grounds to end the agreement but that is another matter. I cannot contact the tenants because I have never been given telephone numbers or email addresses and they do not reply to letters.
I am entitled to start a claim for rent arrears?
You cannot bring a claim for rent arrears against the tenants as you cannot prove that they have not paid without the operation of your agent.
I think the best thing to do is to either take over the management of the property yourself or to transfer over to a good agent who can sort things out for you.
You say you cannot contact the tenants direct, but you could put a letter through the letter box to them (with a witness to prove that you have done this) saying that [Agent 1] is no longer acting as your agent and that you are taking over the management yourself or that [Agent 2] is taking over the management of the property in their place.
Then go on to give details for the payment of rent in future. Make it very clear that as [Agent 1] is no longer authorised to accept rent on your behalf payment of rent to him will not discharge their liability for rent and you will still be entitled to claim it from them.
Ask them to contact you at the contact details provided in the letter to confirm the arrangements and to discuss the tenancy generally. It would probably also be a good idea to try to arrange an inspection visit.
Provided you are able to prove service of this letter, if they fail to pay rent, you will at least be able to prove non payment of rent from that time onwards, and that may be sufficient in due course to evict them under the rent arrears ground.
So far as the agents are concerned, you need to write to them giving them notice that due to their various breaches of their agency contract [and set out all the breaches you can think of in the letter] you are taking over the management of the property yourself or instructing XYZ Agency to take over the management of the property as appropriate.
Request that they provide you with all the paperwork relating to the tenancy within the next 7 days, account to you for all payments made to you by the tenants and give details of the tenancy deposit protection (if this has been done).
A visit to the agency office may be a good idea too as you can then request that paperwork be handed over to you there and then.
However a good agency firm will be able to do all this for you. Perhaps some of our letting agent readers could comment on what they would do if instructed in these circumstances.
Two practical issues. Check if the agent is a member of any trade associations such as the ARLA (Assoc of Residential Letting Agents).
Contact the housing benefit section and provide copies of the rent account, they will either suspend payments pending investigation with the tenants or will transfer payments to you
What stops anyone doing
“but you could put a letter through the letter box to them (with a witness to prove that you have done this) saying that [Agent 1] is no longer acting as your agent and that you are taking over the management yourself or that [Agent 2] is taking over the management of the property in their place.”
when they are not the landlord, so stealing the rent?
And the lack of deposit protection Tessa?
@Ian Possible I suppose. But a bit unlikely don’t you think?
@ Industry Observer – that is one of the grounds for being entitled to sack the agent! But it will impact on the possession claim, yes. I did not write about that as it is covered elsewhere on the site.
Issue a Section 21 Notice seeking possession without delay. You will need to know the date rent is due ie the periods of a tenancy, then issue S21, which gives 2 months notice from next rent due date. Then straight to court for accelerated possession process. Meanwhile hound your Agent! Extremely high penalties for failing to protect the deposit within 14 days of tenancy start. If you can prove 8 weeks or 2 months arrears, go for Section 8 for possession as well as S21. Tenancy agreement is between landlord and tenant, so you can do this on your own behalf.
Ian makes an excellent point. While the PRS remains unregulated, it is entirely possible for someone to obtain rent by deception, and it demonstrates just one reason (of many) why the tenant should always be in no doubt just who their landlord is, where their landlord lives and what their contact details are. “Unlikely don’t you think?” is the typical hands-off answer that tenants are used to tho.
@Nick – he won’t be able to issue a s21 notice until he has sorted the deposit problem
@Just saying – yes we have been saying here for years that agents (and also landlords) should be regulated. Its the Government that is dragging its heels. Although it looks as if agent regulation at any rate, may be on its way. Lets hope so, as the lack of letting agent regulation in this country is a scandal.
As a working TRO of some 24 years (Albeit with gaps) I can say that this sort of nonsense is increasingly common as more chancers get into the lettings agency business.
When so much money can be made without regulation then the criminal and the incompetent will jump on the bandwagon.
All that government are proposing is that from October (I think) all letting agents must join a redress scheme, well whoopee-doo. A long way from regulation which, government said last year might “Stifle competition”.
I have to say that I rarely get complaints about decent or name agents. Of course they arent always the cheapest but cheap isnt always cheerful