I’m a new Landlord having some issues with the Agent (Fully Managed Service). My current problems:
The Agent made a mistake in the Tenancy Agreement, and they haven’t rectified it yet. Every time I ask about that, they don’t seem to be “interested”.
They are withholding the rent for 2nd week now and I’m being fobbed off every time I ask about the money. In your experience, how long it usually take to be paid by the agent?
Smaller issue: The Agent took the holding deposit for the tenant which “changed his mind”, is it how it works?
Currently I’m considering notifying the Agent and/or tenant that from now on I’ll be collecting the rent directly.
What is the best way of doing that? Are there any legal aspects I should be aware of? or should I simply tell the agent to inform the tenant that I want to collect the rent directly?
Keep pushing them. You may be tied to what you have signed for a period of time but if they really are not delivering the service you signed up for then you may have a claim against them
It should say somewhere in the contract you signed how soon or on which day of the month they will pass on the rent.
I had an agent mess up and the solicitor wrote him a letter to say that the contract was rescinded.
When I used an agent, they usually transferred the rent within a couple of days.
You may struggle to get out of the contract if you want to sack the agent. The standard contract of the agent I used to use said that you had to pay management fees to them for as long as the tenant was in the property - there was no cancellation clause. I refused to sign that, so did manage to successfully sack them firstly because they were useless (lost keys, didn’t organise repairs, didn’t do inspections etc) and secondly, they nearly doubled their charges without any prior notice - first I knew was when less rent went into the account!
What error did they make in the tenancy agreement? Its not always possible to correct a contract error once its signed. However, this behaviour from the agent doesnt sound good. However, you need to be careful not to do anything which breaches your own contract with them. I suggest you make a formal complaint in writing to them and then escalate it to whichever redress scheme they belong to.
The mistake they made in AST is they forgot to include my wife, we both own the property and we are joint landlords but they forgot to include her in the agreement. I’m worried that this will have some tax implications later down the line.
Regarding termination, just checked the contract again. In theory I can do that after 6 months (May 22) and it’s subject to a minimum fee (minus fees pay to date), which I guess it’s not bad.
HMRC care about ownership, not the contract. If husband and wife own it jointly, the income is automatically split 50/50. If actual ownership is different, you can make an election to have it taxed according to ownership.
Yes I was about to mention this. I have changed agents when the tenants moved out as this essentially terminated the contract between agent and landlord. When I was reviewing the Ts & Cs of a fully let service by some of the major estate agents, they try to tie you in for YEARS if you have the same tenants so do be careful you are not in breach of your contract, no matter how rubbish it may be. Best of luck.
Terminate the agreement and use OpenRent to collect the rent. Easy and reliable.#
Most agencies in my experience to little to nothing for their outrageous fees and then hang on to your money!
Read you contract in detail, if you can move rent payment direct to your bank, set bank alerts so you know when it’s in.
These contracts can be brutal to the naive and getting out a nightmare and costly.
You may be able to find breach of contract if they fail in their duty.
Otherwise you maybe stuck with them and their annual increase in fees!!!
There might be a way to migrate to a non fully managed contract but your T&Cs will mandate this.
As Cath has said IR don’t care about contracts but legally there may be a loop hole worth pursuing if you want the hassle. Their made the mistake so is that a breach of contract?? Did you have it in writing?
Otherwise you’ve just got to suck it up and learn your lesson.
