Updating post from Reddit.
Helping a friend who has an AST and paid the letting agent the deposit in 2019. This was before the fees got banned so the letting agent even charged a fee and issued a reciept for fee and deposit. They have not protected the deposit, they are still not protecting the deposit even though we've pointed out the illegal position.
Other than just suggesting the tenant goes after 3x the deposit, which I guess is against the landlord. Has anyone had any luck with getting the property ombudsman to actually do much against crap letting agents? These people shouldn't really be trading if they have so little understanding of english rental law. The landlord visits the UK infrequently and doesn't grasp.. well very much really.
He’ll soon grasp it when he has to refund the unprotected deposit plus 3x the deposit value.. And then he’ll counterclaim against the agent and get his money back.
Maybe, but the tenant is renting a room in a shared house (has an AST for the individual room), and struggling to raise the deposit to pay their next deposit when they are trying to move out. The landlord has also dismantled the kitchen as part of a refurbishment to try to force all the tenants out.
To think that they will have to find the money for the court fee (even if it is recoverable) to then try to force the return of the deposit and the compensation. Just seems like the power here is completely stacked against tenants who are low income but not eligible for near non-existant legal support. On the illegal eviction the councils private rental sector team just refers to the local law centre which is overwhelmed and tenant charity which also doesn't respond.
Dismantling the kitchen? That sounds like criminal activity under Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Have you spoken to Shelter?
I will ask her to phone Shelter. I asked her to speak to the councils private rental housing team who were particularly useless. Thanks for the advice.
From a LL perspective I have never found a good property management company. I sacked mine, Haart Guildford as they cost me thousands in repairs after they failed to send in competent trades to fix leaks that the tenants reported for 6 months.
I as landlord kept getting billed for emergency plumbers and not one actually fixed any of the leaks and I was not kept informed. When I turned up on site to do some gardening the poor tenants were steming the flow of water with their own clothes. I was shocked and so apologetic, ofcourse all leaks were fixed within 24 hours after I got involved but it was too late to save the kitchen as the cabinets had swelled and the entire kitchen ended up needing replacing.
This was just one of many occurrences over the 8 months I used them for before sacking them.
I instructed not to perform a check out report as I would go to property myself but they did anyway then charged me over 220 pounds that I then disputed and 10 months later they still haven't refunded me and I've never actually been sent the actual check out report that they said the performed.
They changed the locks on a front door then never sent me the key to the house. I requested the key for 8 months but they just ignored my requests. I eventually turned up to their office and physically requested the key and they gave me one to copy and I did but it was the wrong key. I went back and they gave me another key and you guessed it, another wrong key. In the end I asked one of my tenants for their key to copy.
They never gave me quotes for essential repairs which I asked for. I only once allowed a handyman from Haart to do a small job and the handyman charged 480 pounds for a couple of screws to guttering at a single storey level and an adjustment to a toilet cistern. I complained that the charge was outrageous because tenants informed me the handyman was on site for under an hour. Haart Guildford argued that the charges were reasonable and it's a normal charge for works carried out, that was the final straw and I sacked them immediately after trying to justify that job.
I had rental guarantee with them at 3% + vat of the rent. This equated to 980 pounds a year until I found my own insurance offering more than they did for around £200 so they were 5x more expensive for less cover. The one quote they did eventually supply for a replaster of a ceiling because of the leak their contractor caused was 3x the price of local trades I got to quote.
So it's not just poor tenants that are duped by property management companies but also LL too.
I'm so much less stressed now I do the property management myself even though my rentals are 75 miles from where I reside. Both me and my tenants are happy now I've sacked Haart Guildford from the management side.
I think there should be a distinction between incompetent and criminal. I think for the stuff that shows they don't know the law and put the landlord in an illegal position they should not be trading.
Where there's my net at be made, there will always be c rap agents.
My landlord has thankfully stopped using them but. Leaders! (UK?) are horrendous :
failing to book gas safety checks then banning us from using your gas powered heating and cooking
sending out rent increase letters 6 month after the increase, dated 3 months before the increase
Charging the landlord for repairs they haven't carried out either properly or at
The state they left my bathroomi when doing some work is enough for a whole reddit post