to be utterly livid with our letting agent?

[TottWriter]

Okay, so we rent privately right now, and the landlord works through a nationwide agency which is quite well known.

Today I took my two DC to a p&t group for the morning. DP stayed at home but came to meet me at the end. We got home, and through the front door could see the silhouette of a person moving around inside the house. Somewhat concerened, DP struggled to open the door as it appeared to be unlocked (it's a yale lock and another key lock for security), and when we got inside, it turned out to be a man servicing the boiler on its six-monthly checkup. He had been booked by the agent, and picked up the keys from their office, assuming the property was empty, and then when he got there and saw it clearly wasn't, that we were out for the day. He was mightily confused when we got home.

Now, we've lived here 2 and a half years, and have had several boiler checks in that time. They send us a letter a couple of weeks in advance, and we say 'yes that's okay'. This time, nothing. We've not had a single letter or phone call, and there have been no messages on our answer machine or missed calls on mobiles so we know they haven't contacted us. So they have, without our permission, handed out the keys to our home to someone and granted them access to the property. Fortunately for my sanity I recognised the man from a previous check, so I knew he wasn't having us on.

DP is now upstairs exceedingly stressed out (he has clinical depression and problems with anxiety), and I am about to make an exceedingly curt phone call. I know they are legally obliged to give us 24 hours notice before anyone comes round, but is there anything else I can throw at them for this? Oh, and we went to check the latest copy of the tenancy agreement they sent us, and it turned out to be for a different house. Last year we also missed a rental payment because they were too incompetant to set up a standing order. So this isn't their first fuckup.

You don't need to throw anything else at them. That one thing is bad enough. You could tell them that if anything like this ever happens again you'll be changing the locks, as you are legally allowed to do.

Eek, I don't know I'd have the confidence to tell them that - I'd be terrified they'd give us notice.

i wonder if there is someone you could threaten to report them to? i know what you mean about the confidence thing but they are completely in the wrong here

did man not notice that someone was clearly still living in your home, i.e pictures on the walls, dishes in the sink etc.

The cant say anything to you if you do decide to change the locks your are within your rights to do so, quote specific points in your rental agreement which they have have broke. they let someone in your home without your knowledge, I would be fuming too.

For now just remind them that what happened is unacceptable, that they have to have your permission every single time to access your home.

Put it in writing to them, letter or email, that without your permission, you will not allow any access to your home, except in the case of a dire emergency.

Then leave it at that.

IF they gain access to your home again, then you are well within your rights to change the locks, being careful to not damage the doors, and retaining the locks (as they belong to the LL) and re-instate them when you leave.

You do NOT have to provide a set of keys to the LL/LA, given they have abused the privilege in the past.

Of course, the LA/LL is able to serve notice, all being legal, whenever they like, so you are right to try NOT to antagonise them, but they need to be reminded that this is your home and under no circumstances would you ever permit a stranger in your home unaccompanied.

CAB or Shelter will be your best information resourses in this matter.

mummys - I think he assumed that we'd told the agency it was alright as we were out for the day or something. He had been given the keys by them, and told that he would need the keys.

LMHF - I'm about to call them now, but yes, I'm definitely putting it in writing too. The worst part is the effect that this has had on DP; he's really not good at the unexpected right now, and this will shake him for days if not weeks. The rest I don't mind, principles aside - he was very quick about what he was doing, and nothing was damaged. I just can't believe they didn't bother to contact us even once.

They can serve you notice but they are very uunlikely to do that. They will be aware that even if they serve notice, if you decide you don't want to leave and you continue paying rent then the eviction process will be very, very long and very, very expensive for them.

I would get a cup of tea, write a couple of questions down that you want answers to, and ring the Letting Agent and ask them how this happened. Don't get angry. Write the email of complaint after you have spoken to them. It could boil down to crossed wires or an inexperienced member of staff signing the keys out without really realising that that's not how tenancies work. Of course it is wrong for that sort of thing to happen, so you need to know exactly what did happen in order to make your formal complaint. Are they a member of ARLA (it will say on their stationery)?

I would be livid as well.

I would tell them (if you haven't rung them already?!) how absolutely terrified you were coming home to a strange man in your home! (it's kind of true and you probably don't want to tell them how it has made DH feel)... ask them who the hell they think they are that the law doesn't apply to them - tell them you want a written apology and their assurance that it will never happen again!

This happen to us seven times in a year in our last place. I couldn't relax at all and I was terrfied every single bloody time. We complained etc but it kept happening, we eventually moved because I hated not knowing who had keys to our front door.

Do you have the details of the owner of the property? I would contact him and let him know, ours was hopping mad and changed estate agents shortly before we left.

They did what! Oh my god!

ChippingIn- yes, you're right that DP would be very uncomfortable with me disclosing his medical info to the agency!

I am calming down a bit now, and writing out points I'm going to make, as I have a tendency to get flustered on the phone and forget what I wanted to say. I'm going to write down their respone and then type it up into a formal letter of complaint.

namey- Yeah, I don't plan on shouting at them, I know that won't get me anywhere (thank goodness DP didn't call them when it happened as he probably would have). It's a good point about what may have gone wrong, but if that is the case, I'd be just as horrified at the lack of professionalism in their company. It's not as though we've ever given them reason to think we'd be uncompliant; we've accompdated every appointment they have made to view the house or have problems fixed up to this incident. Also, I've just checked, and they are with ARLA - do I have to let them know? I've never really complained much before (I'm a bit of a doormat at times!)

Stay calm, i agree don't discuss DP, it's wrong of them to do so regardless of your DP's condition.

Be matter of fact, no real harm done, cool, calm and collected. Allow them this ONE oversight, but then back it up with a letter.

Dear Blah,
Further to our conversation of today, this is to confirm that there is to be no unauthorised access to our home without our our express agreement to any and every visit.

Barring an emergency, the spare set of keys held at your offices are NOT to be used at any time except with our prior agreement.

All requests to attend our property must be made with a minimum of 24 hours notice. We will of course endeavour to reasonably accommodate any such requirement, but subject to our own availability.

Hoping that you are understanding of our position, it was highly disconcerting to come home to find a strange man in our home.

Many thanks for your cooperation in this matter,

Tottwriter

Please do not rush to change the locks! I would be very surprised if you are allowed to do that. The lease will almost certainly say that you cannot change the locks without breaching the tenancy.

I have quite a bit of letting experience on both sides. In my experience good agents are few and far between. This sounds to be like incompetence rather than anything malicious.

Lots of agents are doing the job temporarily, they're not experienced, they don't have good systems set up and they don't give a damn. There are some good ones but they are in the minority in my experience.

Great letter by LiitleMissHissyFit Write down your complaints and then sit on the letter for a day.

Tottwriter - you could copy your letter of complaint to ARLA.

Do try and find out what happened. As I said, yes of course, if it was incompetence rather than just being rather gung-ho about handing out keys, then that doesn't make it any less serious so you need the full facts at your disposal before making a complaint. And when you do complain, I would ask them to confirm to you in writing what steps they are taking (ie. staff training?) to ensure it doesn't happen again.

I agree it's serious. My point is that it wasn't technically harassment in the legal sense.

Are they ARLA registered?

I used a letting agent who had the ARLA logo on their website. They weren't members...

Easy does it on this first offence.

let the dogs out on the next one.

Unless you want to move Tottwriter...

Make a complaint in writing, reminding the letting agent of their legal obligations and send it by registered post. Other than that, there's very little you can do as there is little oversight of letting agencies.

ARLA registration is a funny thing as it's a basic reassurance that the letting agent is not a total scam-artist. On the other hand, they don't do a lot to supervise members post-registration. On their website, you can make a complaint and they have a tribunal procedure but ARLA actually spends most of its time lobbying the government for less stringent legislation for landlords, which goes to show where their priorities lie!

In my experience, letting agents often skirt within a hair's breadth of the law in doing their jobs. They also ignore complaints from tenants unless you are very persistent. One fairly high-end LA we dealt with refused to fix damp in our property and refused to acknowledge the need for repairs. They would even point-blank deny having received written communications that we had sent to them by registered post(!). Most fed-up tenants just move out. For every one persistent tenant who won't let LAs away with their unprofessionalism, there are 10 who just can't be bothered or are scared of notice being given. Your fear of being given notice is also holding you back, as you say earlier in the thread.

I'm with Hedgeblunder on this. I rent a property to a couple through an agent. If the tenant contacted me and told me about this incident I would be having severe words with the agent. Firstly it is wrong what they did but also no owner would want tenancies chopping and changing due to the incompetence of the agent. If a second incident happened i would be inclined to change agent. A happy secure tenant is what the owner would want. I say let the owner know!

They were lucky you didn't call the police and say there was an intruder on your property - which is what I would have done if I thought that there was somebody inside my house [scaredly cat smiley]

Definitely think it is worth copying the letter you send to arla - even if arla don't do anything, it shows that you are serious (and if they are using the arla registration without being allowed to they might pick them up on it).

Well, here's an update: I spoke to the lettings manager, and they are putting the blame on the landlord. Apparently he was the one who booked the contractor, and 'obviously forgot' to call us. The gas safety certificate had apparently expired so "there was a bit of a panic" to get it sorted, and when I pointed out that it was the agents who handed over the keys I was told that they "assumed he had called".

Frankly that's not good enough. If they're handing out keys I want them to at least do some basic checks, because as it is, it was only because the contractor had parking issues that he wasn't finished and gone by he time we got home. If we'd come back and discovered that someone had been in the house we would have called the police, and probably not have worked out what had happened for weeks. Also, what if DP had been home, and in the shower or something?

The whole story just doesn't add up, now that I think about it. If the landlord (who's actually quite a decent guy, from the experiences we've had with him) told the agent someone was coming today, why didn't he call us? This is a guy who always phones us before coming to do repairs, and does his best to work around us. He would have had no reason to assume we were out - he knows I'm at home during the day anyway, because DD is only 2months. So why would he have said to hand over the key? Oh, jesus. I'm just getting all in a muddle now. If the landlord just forgot to call us, surely the contractor would have turned up and not been able to get in. The last time he came he didn't have the keys to the house - he knocked. Arg! I'm almost scared to ask for the landlord's side of things now, but I'm reluctant to cast him as the baddie without it, because he's always been such a decent guy until now.

Why would the landlord be paying a letting agent, and doing the agent's job for them? They should have called you. And not having done so, they should have apologised (profusely) and not passed the buck.

That is appalling. It sounds like they're trying to pass the blame on to your landlord. I'd continue with your written complaint, include their response, and send a copy to your landlord. That way, he's aware of what the agency are up to if it IS their cock-up and if not, and the landlord just forgot, he's aware that it is a problem.

Purple As a (reluctant) landlord I do use my own plumber even though I have an (uttery useless) lettings agent. He's much better and cheaper and I know his work is 100%.

ARLA are terrible, I wouldn't even waste my time with them. I contacted them about my previous useless letting agent who still hadn't fixed my boiler after 5 weeks of no central heating or hot water and they were so rude. The woman refused to log my complaint and was so patronising all it achieved was making me get even angrier!

You should definitely put in a written complaint to the agency and send a copy to the ll, coming home to someone in your home is not acceptable. If that happened to me I'd have been terrified!