Updating post from Reddit.
So guys I have a dilemma. I want to leave my current estate agent as payments every month I have to chase some times takes 30 days. In the contract states they need 10 days for payment. This has been going on for 6 months. If I want to leave they will take 75% off one months rent. And will release me after 4 months. They have come down to 50% of one months rent which is still £1000 approx. What options do I have ? Or do I swallow my pride and stay with the the estate agents. I am in much need of advice.
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That is outrageous. I run a small letting agency as a 2nd income. I charge no cancellation fee and rents are paid out the day they arrive. Regardless of if a weekday, weekend or holiday. Its not my money. Its the landlords. It literally takes no time to make a transfer. I would question if they are using this money as funds for day to day running. No wonder people dislike agents.
That's exactly how my agent operates. Can't fault them.
They are in breach of contract, so they have broken it and so should be no exit charges… but you’ll prob have to take them to court to get it back.
No you don't. You have the tenants start paying you directly and then make the agent take you to court to try and get the fee.
Sure but then you are putting the tenants in the middle, and they have to agree to pay you and not the agent. Which i’d be unsure about doing, if I were a tenant, in this scam age.
Better option than being out of pocket £1,000 for who knows how long.
>Which i’d be unsure about doing, if I were a tenant, in this scam age.
If OP hasn't been a ghost landlord this won't be an issue.
Is the agent paying you late because they are receiving the funds from the tenant late? Or is the tenant paying on time, but the agency isn't passing it along?
The funds are always on time from tenant. The reason is that the accounting team is "overwhelmed".
I doubt they are "overwhelmed" - more likely they are robbing Peter to pay Paul.
"Dear agency - as you have been unable to fulfil your part of our contract, in that you have been failing to pass rent payments across in a timely manner - I have instructed the tenants to pay me directly in the future"
Properly read over the agency agreement, but I’d question what exactly this is for.
If you’ve been with the agent for a minimum of 12 months, paid the upfront fees (ie. agreement fee, inventory fee, referencing fee etc) then this is simply an admin charge for the sake of it. Often these can’t be argued well in court as they are entirely unnecessary charges. You could contact the tenants directly and have them pay the rent directly to you if you wish to self manage, this entirely bypassing the agents demand for a £1000 to cease business with them.
Alternatively offer them a much lesser fee, say £500 just to be done with it and see if they bite.
Good luck!
They may fight back very hard. I had agents who did not do what I said. They put the rent up despite my instructions not to. I sacked them. They said I couldn’t. They said they had acted in my best interests. Either they knew they were bluffing or someone told them they couldn’t deliberately breach the terms of their agency and try to rely on it.
They have not been entitled to keep your money.
Sack them and be firm. As said above, get your tenants to deal with you direct.
Whew, agents don’t know what « agent » means.
Can you start charging them interest for late payment? I am sure if you can pass the late payment interest fees over to the agent and total up back payment for all previous late days you could probably scare them i to paying on time.
You can charge late fees if your letting agent delays paying the rent into your account. According to the Tenant Fees Act 2019, you can charge a default fee for late payment of rent if it's more than 14 days overdue43dcd9a7-70db-4a1f-b0ae-981daa162054. The fee must be written into the tenancy agreement and cannot exceed 3% above the Bank of England's base rate for the overdue amount43dcd9a7-70db-4a1f-b0ae-981daa162054.
Leaders by any chance?
There's an oxymoron.
I was contemplating switching to leaders. I'm assuming that's a bad idea?
Ive only ever dealt with them as a tenant and they are hands down the worst. As a student on move in day they realised they miscalculated the deposit required by a thousand pounds and so the 5 of us had to pay an extra £200 each and if we couldnt then they told us tough they wouldnt be moving forward with the tenancy, they gave me the wrong key for my room so had to call a locksmith out at 10pm (room was open when we got there and hadnt closed the door all day as we were moving in and hanging out with flatmates) they took 10 weeks to refund the money for their mistake. And when coming to returning the deposit they took 3 months to return the deposit and only did so as i threatened them with small claims court. They also took 2 weeks to replace an oven that had broken and we had no way to cook food apart from frying or boiling. Horrid people.
Agent is in breach of contract. You don’t have to feel obliged to stick to one iota of your obligations to them.
Late payments of rent MASSIVE RED FLAG.
take you’re property away asap. They wanna try and sue you let em, they won’t cos they are skint, and don’t want the publicity.
Honestly, get the fuck out of there.