Letting agent closed their office?

Hi – my letting and managing agent closed their local office and made the staff redundant, without informing me, or other landlords and tenants.

They tried to keep it secret, by re-routing phone calls and emails and saying the local manager was away, but after much digging and delving, I managed to find out that they’d been attempting to sell that office, but it fell through at the last minute, and they’d therefore decided to run it from another one, over 100 miles away!

It goes without saying that didn’t work very well and led to lots of problems and loss of income for me – properties remaining empty and not advertised or re-let, other properties not being properly managed and works neglected etc.

A couple of months later, they did manage to secure a sale, but the new agent was not given assorted important pieces of information – some tenancy agreements were missing as well as assorted inventories, photos, check-in / out reports, contact numbers for tenants, their referencing details, rent payment dates, copies of Gas Safety Certs, EPC’s and Electrical Condition Reports, missing records of inspection visits and details of repairs and maintenance, as well as keys that were jumbled up, un-labelled, or missing which all led to further problems and delays.

6 months later, the new agent has finally nearly managed to get the empty flats re-let, but it’s left me with missing rent, as well as other expenses, such as council tax and utility bills during the void periods.

I haven’t yet done all the calculations, but my guestimate is that I will be 8 – 10k out of pocket, as a result… plus all the stress and hassle?

My question is, can I take them to the small claims court?

And is it worth the extra hassle??

Thanks.

Ricky