I’ve a few questions regarding the RRA. I manage most of my properties and I emailed the 4 PDF pages to my tenants mid April. I have a letting agent whom I specifically hired because of the RRA and hoping they’ll show me best practices, whom I had to ask several times if they’ve sent the RRA PDF yet and asked them to copy me in when they email the tenants, but they still haven’t done this! So I now emailed it to the tenants but I read that if an agent manages the property, they are supposed to email it to the tenants. Will it be ok from a compliance perspective of it was me who emailed it to them? Even though I have this letting agent, the tenants contact me if they have any questions or requests. The agents are useless, which leads me to my next question. I used them for tenant finding and the tenants moved in 3 months ago. As I said, I took the contract with the agents for management because of the upcoming legislative changes and hoped to have guidance from them. This has not happened, they have been absolutely useless and I ended up having to chase them. Do you think I can go back to them and tell them that they are not providing the service I expected and cancel the contract? I’ll pay the balance for their tenant finding services but I’d rather not have their incompetence and my profit margin on this property is already really narrow, so not having to pay management fees for a terrible service would be meaningful.
I also wanted to ask as I’m not clear on this. Do we have to give a new contract to our existing tenants or just sending them the 4 PDF pages is enough?
recommend that you edit this to delete the second half of your post and create a new thread as that’s a separate issue.
In regard to your first query, whether you can cancel the contract depends on… er… the contract. What does it say?
When I was using agents (because abroad) I did not rely on them for anything whatsoever. That was when I signed up to a landlord association and became an accredited landlord via their training schemes. Saved me thousands because I could direct the agents, not rely on them to do what I was legally responsible for. So, I suggest you do the same.
Thank you - I deleted the second part and started a new topic for that.
Can you tell me more about what you did, where did you register, how much is that, do you have to register per house or just register yourself? What does this mean and how much does it cost? How can I find out more about this? I normally tell agents what I expect from them but these agents are just not very good. I think I signed a 1 year contract but it just seems like a waste of money as they are bad with communication and I’m having to deal with the tenants anyway. They just added a layer for me to deal with and now instead of communicating with my tenants directly, I have to deal with and manage the managing agent too.
There is no need for any new contracts with tenants - you just need to make sure you dont try enforce anything in old ones that is now null and void due to RRA [eg automatic rent increases, fixed periods/break clauses]
As for whether you can cancel your contract with the letting agents for not providing what you want - speak to them and find out/look at a copy of your contract.
Try the N R L A. There’s an annual fee (tax deductable) and then their landlord training courses also attract a fee. But it’s definitely cheaper than hiring an agent and you learn a huge amount about the sector. You also have access to helplines that can advise you on pretty much any issue you will encounter.
You’re under the commonly-held illusion that agents are fire-and-forget. Once you appoint an agent, all you do is go from managing the property to managing the agent managing the property. You still need to know exactly what’s going on so you can prevent the agent doing or forgetting to do something that lands you in legal hot water. At the end of the day, you’re the one that’ll end up in court.
A “1 year contract” doesn’t sound right to me. Agent contracts are usually ongoing and will have a clause in that refers to termination.
It’s also pretty common that agent contracts require you to pay a commission the entire time a tenant they find remains in residence. That’s a clause I refused to agree to when I appointed agents. That meant I could give my agents one month’s notice when I returned to the UK to manage the properties myself which I’ve done ever since. Hopefully, your contract will allow you to terminate it without too much cost to yourself.
Can you please use less of a sarcastic tone? Yes, I think. I’ll need to check.
I’ve multiple properties as I said and I manage those. I also have a lot of other stuff on and I’ve ADHD as well so trying to deal with everything might not be as easy as it is for you. I’m here asking for help, not to be judged.
Instead of ‘you ‘think’???’ ‘Check what the contract says’ is much more helpful and less judgy.
I will check the termination clause. These documents are 20-30 pages long which is very very hard for me to read. I’ll look through it now. Thank you.
I only have 1 tenancy that I have set up with OR, I have tenants I had for a few years, so those were set up before I knew about OR. I have 2 tenancies that were set up by agents.
Thank you for answering and letting me know that I don’t need to set up new contracts. Just wanted to make sure. I have sent them the 4 page PDF as required by law.
I asked you that in my first post. You didn’t answer.
I’ve had many contracts with agents. They never came anywhere near 20-30 pages long. More like 2-3 pages. Contracts are best read before they’re signed, hence my surprise that you only “think” you have a one-year contract.
You have absolutely no idea how tough life is for me. At all.
Even though agents are supposed to send the tenants a copy of the information sheet so that landlords dont have to, I would always recommend landlords not to rely on this and to do it themselves. If the agent doesnt then they could get up to a £7k fine per property failed.
There is no need to create a new APT for the tenant.
I’ve not read all the replies but as a landlord and agent it does seem as though you are not getting your moneys worth from the agents. Regarding your contract, a lot of agents use the term that you can only terminate your contract when your property is void and sometimes a fee. Mine is 6 months termination term. Yes, of course, as long as the tenants have the PDF. I have gotten all my tenants, my own and managed ones to email acknowledgement, quite time consuming but all filed away. Also, if there are two names on the agreement then both need to have sight of the PDF
