Letting agent hasn’t collected enough rent?
We have been using a letting agent to fully manage one of our properties for the last 8 years and we pay 10% commission for doing this which includes Landlord insurance.
Around 2 years ago he found us a new tenant and she moved in and everything was fine. A couple of months after she moved in I checked our account statement from him and could not ascertain why we were getting less money than the rent we agreed.
I phoned him and asked why it was less than the rent and his reply was “that as she is a council tenant her money comes in at different times of the month but don’t worry as it will all sort itself out over the coming months” I assumed that he knew what he was doing as he has been a letting agent for many years and before that he was a senior manager at a large estate agents company.
We have recently been checking the rents on another of our properties that we run ourselves and decided to check this one as well. We have found that he was not collecting the correct amount and so she is now over £2500 under what she should have paid. We originally agreed a £50 reduction in rent per month to enable her to take the property.
We are not sure how to resolve this situation. Does anybody know how we stand with recovering the rent, is it the agents fault and do we have any recourse or should the agent/we contact the council.
Any comments would be greatly received
Simon
Comments
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Comments: 6
1:54 PM, 13th August 2015, About 11 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Helen Shiels” at “30/07/2015 – 10:32“:
Hi Helen
Many thanks for your reply, sorry for the delay in getting back to you but I have been very unwell.
Your reply was most useful and we will now ask for compensation and reduced fees from the letting agent in a formal letter, so if we need to take it further we can.
The agent is now looking at issuing a eviction notice as she is not responding to any his phonecalls or letters. ( I think it is an Ostrich syndrome!). I am therefore not sure if we will get any of the money back unless we sue the agent!
Simon
Comments: 6
1:56 PM, 13th August 2015, About 11 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Paul Franklin” at “30/07/2015 – 10:36“:
Hi Paul
We are still receiving the less rent at the moment and the tenant is now not answering any calls or letters!
Simon
Comments: 6
2:02 PM, 13th August 2015, About 11 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Michael Barnes” at “30/07/2015 – 12:05“:
Hi Michael
Thank you for your comments. The agent has confirmed that we are not getting enough rent and he has put a plan together to the tenant to recover the oustanding amount and to increase her current payments to the correct amount. I think that the discrepancy has arisen from the agent’s lack of checking on the rent after I brought it up with him after the first few months of the new tenant starting.
We will now be writing to the agent to clarify the position based on all your comments.
Many thanks again
Simon
Comments: 6
3:23 PM, 13th August 2015, About 11 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Eduardo Prato” at “30/07/2015 – 10:01“:
Hi Eduardo,
I have checked all my paperwork from the agent and also his website etc and it doesn’t appear that he belongs to any association or the property ombardsman etc. It looks as though the agent is going to evict the tenant and therfore hopefully we can reclaim the deposit as rent arrears and then we will have to claim the remainder in the small claims court from the agent through lack of managment I think.
Comments: 85
11:24 AM, 22nd August 2015, About 11 years ago