How long should we wait on agent to get tenant in?

[Frecklesandspecs]

Firstly, sorry for typos. I am trying to write this on phone!
Our last tenant moved out at the beginning of May and apparently left the house in a tip. We got in cleaners and did general repairs which cost us nearly £2000
Agent said they were not releasing his deposit at the time but he went back to Saudi with his family so I guess we have no hope of seeing any of it and husband didn't want the stress of trying to get any of it.
Anyway
A week or so later agent said they had found us new tenant but they wanted to move in on 21 June.
We agreed and agreed to do the work she wanted done before she moved in.
We hear nothing for weeks and on the 21 June I call agent to find she had not turned up and had disappeared off the face of the planet.
They said they would find new tenants.
A week or so later they said they had and this oerson wanted to mive in asap.
3 weeks + later they are still waiting for reference s.
We just seem to be losing a lot of money we desperatley need at the moment.
To add to this we found out 2 days ago that the people who had done work in our house had left piles of rubbish in front of the property. The agent only told us because a neighbour had called them about it. So we have had to pay out again to have it removed.
I'm just wo.dering really do we continue and hope for the best or prehaps change agent?
We live a long way from our property and cannot get to it easily wbich is why we have rellied on the people to get things done.
Ty for any advice.

[Frecklesandspecs]

Bps

[Misty9]

Your agent doesn't sound particularly great... Why couldn't you have the deposit then? Who got it? The agent?! Or did you agree to give it to the tenant? Because the dps would have needed your agreement to release it (or the agent would if they held it).

What is the rental market like in your area? Because its very fast around here so I would be mightily peeved if my house took that long to let! Is it time to consider selling up...? Or find an agent who guarantees income perhaps? Probably more expensive commission, but worth it?

[Frecklesandspecs]

Misty we had thought seriously about selling up and continue to do so but we had just bought a property for ourselves and needed the bit of income to keep coming in.
The property is in Manchester. Fairly near center. 3 beds garden ect. My Dh used to live in it himself and always kept it in good condition. :-(
I just don't know what happened to deposit as the guy went back to Saudi Arabia without it and I thought he would have to agree to hand it over or it becomes a legal matter. Obviously the agent put it in tds at beginning of tenancy but thry wouldn't be able to acess if would they wighout his consent?

[Frecklesandspecs]

Ps hubby knows more about it all than me but I think I read through the stuff some time ago.

[Misty9]

Hmm, I would seriously chase the agents wrt the deposit. It can't have been given back to the tenant without your consent, which the agent should have mediated? It must be somewhere! Often these days agents sign up to the scheme where they hold the deposit (and keep the interest, I know) but the tds rules re releasing it still apply. Did your dh somehow give consent, without realising the implications?

Sounds v similar to our situation - dh had his house rented out after splitting with his ex. Few years later he finished with useless letting management agency and we sold it last month. Massive weight lifted and it wasn't even my house!

[Frecklesandspecs]

It is a huge weight and just a big pain in The butt. I very asked Dh to call them tomorrow and give them a shove. It seems we have made hardly any profit on it this year anyway and you never know what kind of tenant you Will get next.
On the other hand it could take ages road sell if at all than:-(

[specialsubject]

change agents. There is no regulation and lots of them are useless, but there is no reason to pay useless people.

the TDS scheme has systems for sorting out deposits. Read up on it, find out what happened, demand answers from the agent.

[centralmum]

I would be demanding to know exactly what happened to the deposit as it should be in a TDS. You would have had to give consent for it to be released which you wouldn't have done given the mess they made.

If the agent released the deposit you should come down on them hard.

[Frecklesandspecs]

Thankyou. Another day and nothing but stress. Can't find anyone to move the rubbish. Calling people who say thsy Will do it and get back to me and not. Looks like we May have to travel up ourselves at the weekend a few hundred miles to move some bloody binbags. Its a nightmare all of it and a complete mess.

We are thinking its probably best to put it on thmarket with someone else and sell.up.
I emailed agent this am to say if refs were not back by Friday but(which Will be 4 weeks from when they found her and nearly 3 months from last tenant) we would be pulling out.
Will also try and get to grips with this deposit thing. Ty

[Willow33]

Your agents sound awfully inefficient. They should not have released the deposit. Are they being deceitful and tried to keep it themselves? Do get onto them and the deposit protection scheme. It should be your money now if tenant has gone awol and agent cant trace them.

[Frecklesandspecs]

willow would it be fairly simple then if he has disappeared? They have not mentioned it at all since the guy left without it. My husband was thinking it would be a long drawn out legal process. The deposit is either still with tds or them but they would have put it into the scheme at beginning of tenancy.

We really are useless landlord s aren't we?!

[Frecklesandspecs]

.....Also are we still able to pull out if no contracts have been signed, even if the person put down a holding deposit?

[Willow33]

www.tds.gb.com/
Hi the above link should help re deposit scheme if that is the one your agent uses