So, the long story is… The tenant gave notice on 6 June.
The agent called me on 10 June to say tell me that the tenant had given notice (didn’t tell me that it was 4 days ago) and in that conversation, agreed with me that that the end date for the tenancy should be 11 July because that was the end of the rental period.
On the basis of that conversation, I have organised the electrician for the EICR etc for after 11 July and had found my own tenant ready to move in a week later (I am taking it off the agent).
I then get the official notification from the agent on 15 June saying that the tenancy will end on 5 July, and when I queried it, they just told me that they take the month from the date of notice (despite the fact that is not what they did when I last had a tenant leave).
So, I am looking to the agent to cover the rent for that last 6 days (without trying to claw if back from the tenant - if they do that, I would repay it to her because she has agreed a new tenancy based on the information that the agent gave her) - if I can find out where (if) it says legally that the tenancy should end on a rent date.
If the agent did a good job, I would not be so bothered, but my rent this month was £114 short because they deducted a renewal fee that they charged the tenant in Feb 2019 that she refused to pay because there was no renewal done (as I found out this week myself - having paid the renewal fee myself in Feb 2019, so that is another £102 they owe me!).
Not that they have told me why the rent was short yet, despite me asking them a week ago - they tell me that they are investigating, but the tenant told me what had happened because they accused her of not paying all of her rent. I suspect they don’t want to admit what they have done!
And then the outgoing tenant tells me that the agent told them that if they did not pass the referencing for their new property, they could rescind the notice - when I queried this with the agent, they told me that “As far as we are aware she plans to leave the property on this date as it was the tenant that served her notice, however as she has served notice she does have right to tenure and is able to retract if she wishes to do so.”, which from my reading on the topic is BS. I believe that she can ask, but I don’t have to agree (not that I would make her homeless - it is the agents’ BS that I have the issue with!).
So, I had to then tell the new tenants that everything was not guaranteed to happen, so that is all up in the air, and I may lose the tenant.
In a nutshell, I am fed up with the incompetence of the agent (other issues include losing their set of keys for one of my properties, not organising repairs that I have authorised, not doing inspections, trying to charge me a checkout fee when my contract with them clearly says that there is no fee), and don’t think I should be out of pocket because of it…and you can see why I am not letting through them again!