Issue with letting agent on landlord's death

Landlord Discussion Legal
1

Newbie and accidental landlord alert, help needed please.

  • We signed a letting agent contract as LPAs for our mother in June 2024
  • Our mother died Feb 2025
  • There is nothing in her contract about the death of a landlord
  • We became the executors to her will and sole beneficiaries of her estate
  • Probate was granted in Aug 2025
  • We applied to Land Registry in Nov 2025 for a transfer of property ownership
  • The agent told us we were responsible as executors for the continuing contract
  • We continued with the current agent without formal agreement as there was a contract clause saying they could charge termination fees up 24 months from when the tenancy started
  • In April 2026 we gave the agent 6 months notice as executors because the agent lead us to believe it was required
  • We have since found online references stating the contract died with our mother and the agent would therefore be acting as an agent of necessity
  • We applied to Land Registry for a change of ownership in Nov 2025
  • The change of ownership for Nov 2025 was confirmed in June 2026
  • We informed the agent about the change of ownership and said we would continue as we are until June 2026 and then the change letting agent
  • The agent told us that, as executors, we are still liable to the notice period and fees on the original contract up to the end of the 6 month notice period
  • The agent told us that to complete the change of ownership a new contract would be needed with ourselves for another 24 months which would reset all the terms of business
  • The agent told us that, if we change letting agents before the notice period ends, we will still have to pay the remaining notice period agency fees and they will take legal action to recover them

In addition to all of this, there is a further issue as the agent has unilaterally given us notice that the management fees are increasing from 1st July but there is no provision in our mother’s contract for any price increase. We have informed the agent that, should the contract be still deemed to exist, this is a material breach of contract and we consider it is terminated with immediate effect

We would like to know if, once our mother died, the contract ceased to exist and therefore we are not bound by the 6 month notice period and fees. We would also like to know if we are correct about the breach of contract.

Sorry this is such a long post. Any help would be gratefully received.

Thank you.

2

Sorry to hear of this hassle. I feel for you having been through a similar situation.

As executors, you were bound by that contract. My understanding is that once the ownership of the property changes ownership, you are no longer bound by that contract because it is not one that you have signed with the agents. But I’m not a legal expert. I assume you will have used at least one lawyer for the will if not another one for the property transfer. What do they say?

What does the contract say about termination? Does it stipulate 6 months’ notice? Despite the detail of your message, you only allude to it with “the agent lead [sic] us to believe it was required.” On what basis did they convince you of that?

That’s complete baloney as far as I’m aware. They’re effectively forcing you to pay their fees until June 2028. Have you asked them to provide you with the legal/contract terms that stipulate that this must happen.

Well, to be fair, it would have to be unilaterally. You can’t do it together. Fee increases happen and unless there are terms in the contract that stipulate how they are supposed to happen, I don’t think there’s anything you can do about that.

Why not speak to a lawyer?

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Regarding unilateral breach of contract .

You are protected by the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

I would read the section in the CTA applicable to your contract .

You are citing a unilateral breach of contract . If their contract makes no provision ( that is an increase in fees ) for this then I would agree they maybe in repudiatory breach of contract and you are within your rights to cancel ( repudiatory breach is for the court to decide ).

You can either cancel or ask them to reconsider if you want to continue business with them .

Do they hold all the paperwork for the tenancy ? ( you may want to get all your ducks in a row before cancelling otherwise you will be up the creek without a paddle ) . ( deposit documents , right to rent check contract etc etc)

However , to ensure you are not the innocent party in a repudiatory breach by going to another estate agent ( which would mean they can sue you for not giving them the opportunity to correct their wrong ) make sure you cancel with a recorded delivery letter and email and retain all evidence .

It seems you are aware of breach of contract but you may want to consider a legal consult if they hold all your paperwork.

You only have 15 days before July 1st.

I would not pay the increase as payment implies acceptance.

I would consult a litigator regarding the contract terminating at death as this may not be the case and you have unknowingly continued it .

My advice is to take advice from a litigator so they can read your contract and advise you specifically as mistakes could be costly .

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Thank you for your reply. We are trying to find out if it’s actually worth getting any legal advice as we would have to pay for it or if we should just pay up as it could get very messy.

5

Take a look at this article from a lawyer turned landlord:

www dot theindependentlandlord dot com/landlord-death

Sorry but all my direct links go to moderation

6

Thank you for your reply.

We had a set agreed management fee in the original contract. The increase is coming outside of the contract.

As the new owners we’re trying to change agents. We’ve been told by the existing agent that we’re now in breach of contract because we’re not seeing through the 6 months notice period for our mother’s original contract and have to pay their fees before they will release any information.

7

Having just spoken to my solicitor ( I had this with a builder in April ) , his response was he would not give advice unless he read the contract .

That will be the response from any litigator .

I can say that if their increase in price is undocumented in your contract then it’s unilateral. The question is , is it a minor breach or a repudiatory breach of contract . The latter is for a judge to decide .

Minor breaches should be worked through. Repudiatory breaches allows you to cancel , but do it properly so you don’t get a counterclaim which is well documented.

Citizens advice has a lot of information about contract breaches .

I was in court in November. When you are a consumer the law is in your favour and as long as your evidence is solid so is the court ( although it didn’t feel like it when I was shouted at by the judge for two hours ) .

I don’t have experience of contract at death. The question is do you have evidence that you were mislead or given incorrect information.

The role of the estate agent is to bully and intimidate you . They bank on the fear factor .

You have clear legal standing if it’s repudiatory breach and signing under duress ( after death ) .

What I’ve learnt from my experience is read the consumer right act and contract law and don’t be scared .

My case was for £8k. If I’d have kowtowed I would have paid for nothing . It was well worth the claimant taking me to court. He lost 84% of his claim . It was a lot of work for me though ( I did it myself but a litigator helped me ) .

If you were grieving as a consumer and put under duress the court will favour you and you can sue them for emotional damages. The courts frown upon duress.

Sounds like you have a good case.

If it was me I’d get legal advice and stand your corner.

The n r l a may be worth speaking to .

Just because it’s in their contract does not mean it’s legal if it breaches the consumer rights act . It must be fair and reasonable .

A contract is subject to CTA 2015 and contract statute before the estate agent can manipulate you .

9

@ourfamily

7 June 2026

"Where do letting agents stand when a landlord dies?

A managing agent’s authority comes from the agency agreement with the landlord, and that agreement is a personal contract that ends automatically on the landlord’s death."

  1. Also see this ( the £65 cpd online training might be £ well spent)

"The agent’s legal status
The agency agreement, unlike the tenancy, is like other contracts held by the deceased; it will end immediately upon the death of either the landlord or the agent"

  1. See also

"The position is that their agency contract will end with the landlord’s death. This means that:

  • They will have no authority to deal with the property
  • The executors will not be bound by any action they may take, and
  • If they agree something with tenants which is not ratified by the executors in due course, they may be liable to the tenants for ‘breach of warranty of authority’."
  1. All these sources indicate contract will have ended. For any further informal arrangement you made with the.agents subsequently, unless there were clear and agreed terms and conditions agreed by both parties you didn’t have a contract (having clearly agreed terms and conditions is part of the defn of there being a contract). So it can’t be enforced.

5.so it may depend what you did or didn’t agree with the agents possibly. A verbal agreement to carry on on the same terms as previously would be a contract just not a written one and hard for agents to prove possibly, unless there was contemporaneous correspondence such as emails. It wouldn’t however be a continuation of previous contract.

  1. I would suggest pointing agent to all these sources and ask them to explain why they think the contract with your mother continued despite this expert.advice. Tell them that as contract has ended nothing is due but you are willing to follow up via their redress scheme whether their threatening demands are reasonable and to report them to the police for demanding with menaces which is a criminal offence. Hopefully they will back down.
  2. First check you have copies of the tenancy agreement, (plus if possible latest gsr and epc and eicr - tho new ones can always be commissioned if needed) and if not get copies from agent

Good luck

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Thanks to everyone who has replied. Unfortunately the Discourse AI bot muted her 6h ago and I can’t work out how to contact a mod to get her unmuted. She will reply if the bot or mods ever allow her to.

12

If you don’t want a costly battle then your other option is to raise it with the estate agents property ombudsman

In your complaint to the estate agent reference

Failure to supply documents

False information whilst grieving ( duress)

Unilateral breach of contract( make sure you quote the CRA 2015 so the estate agent knows you mean business )

Visibly cc the ombudsman in on the email and see if that doesn’t put a rocket up their proverbial

You can raise the issue with the OFT.

The OFT took Foxtons to court and won !

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I have been unmuted but unfortunately my wife (@ourfamily ) has not and the thread remains hidden from the main index.

It looks like the OFT no longer exists and was replaced by a number of bodies. In our case it was probably The Property Ombudsman.

@A_Z When you say CTA, do you, by any chance, mean the CRA 2015?

Currently we are drafting a reply along the lines you’ve said in your last two posts, throwing a possible Data Access Request through the ICO as well. Were leaving out the breach of contract issue for the moment as we are maintaining that there is no contract.

15

The Consumer Marketing Authority ( CMA) replaced The Office of fair trading. I would cc them on the email .

I would also cc money @ the guardian and Anna Timms is a journalist at the guardian who deals with these issues ( or find a reputable journalist at one of the broad sheets)

Make all your cc visible so they know you mean business and are willing to expose them

Write to the property ombudsman and the CMA

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@Nick67 @ourfamily

depending exactly how the agent has behaved, you can report them to whichever redress scheme they are part of - likely to be either the Property Ombudsman or The Property Redress Scheme - but I suspect likely they will say you have to go through agents own complaints procedure first.

Potentially you can report to the police too [for fraud] or Trading Standards at the council. The last thing the agents will want is trouble with the council.

however maybe a further step to keep in reserve. Get a copy of tenancy agreement etc first. They may hope you are going to pay up so have no reason not to comply.

good luck

17

Thanks. The agents use the Property Ombudsman but, as you suspect, you cannot go to the Property Ombudsman until you’ve gone through the agent’s internal appeals process, which will naturally find in favour of the agent.

We have a copy of the tenancy agreement, gas and electrical certs and EPC. The thing we don’t have is details of the deposit protection scheme and the agent won’t transfer it. There are another couple of bits as well, but we don’t know how relevant they are and if they will stop the agency transfer. We are waiting to speak to the new agents.

We were wondering if we could put up the deposit ourselves in the meanwhile, just to get the transfer under way. Another question for the new agent.

I remembered that when I was on a cycling holiday last week, there was a retired solicitor in the group. He’s said he is happy to talk through it tonight, but obviously not as a formal opinion.

18

Hmm, My post just before this has been moderated.

We’ve just had a chat with our friendly retired solicitor and he seems to think a contract is a contract and the executors still need to abide by its terms. Not good news.

How can we resolve it?

19

I’m afraid we’ve just hit another brick wall as my husband’s friendly retired solicitor’s view is that a contract is a contract and, as executor’s, we are liable for our mother’s contract and have to abide by it’s terms and conditions. It’s becoming very confusing as this conflicts with all the legal blogs we’ve seen about what happens when a landlord dies.

20

As executors then yes, absolutely you have to abide by the terms of the contract because you are acting on behalf of your late mother. But once probate is granted and the assets are distributed, you have fulfilled your duty as executors.

You are the owners of the property now and no longer executors. Once the property becomes yours the agent now needs to agree a contract with you.

I had exactly this situation although, in my case, we decided to sell up so didn’t bother terminating or changing the contract with the agents as there was no dispute regarding its terms.

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21

I would advise you to consult a litigator with interest in the consumer rights act and tenant law

You haven’t hit a brick wall you may have spoken to someone who does not specialise in the area of expertise you require.

When I spoke to my solicitor his advice was I was to speak to a litigator, as his area is landlord law.

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