To think this letting agent was bloody rude to me?

[ziggiestardust]

I'm moving to a new area and have found the perfect house in the perfect location. The letting agent has been quite slow from the start, but when the tenancy agreement came though, I noticed the rent would be due on 27th of each month. We get paid on 30th, so I emailed the letting agent to politely ask them if we could move the payment date to the 30th of each month to coincide with when we get paid?

The reply was this:
Dear Mrs Ziggie,
The rental payment should be made on the 28th each month due to the bank
transaction system which it takes time, around 4 days, to send to the
landlord as well as to receive the rent from the tenant. To manage this, you
may need to save money to pay the rent on time, I suppose.
Regards,
Letting Agent

I am not asking for the earth here! I'm not asking for a rent reduction, and I've never missed a payment in my life.

AIBU to think that I am a bloody customer, paying an absolute fortune for this house and I deserve to be treated with respect, especially when I've been nothing but polite and courteous in our exchanges? I'm more than a little under pressure at the moment and someone speaking to me like I'm the scum under her shoe is fucking not on.

ok so you think the letting agent is rude. tell her you have confirmation the ll says its ok. get it in writing. move in and enjoy your house. and if it has wound you up so much (still think its a bit ott) email her back cc her boss and say so in a polite manner.

Send the email to her boss and ask them if that email was an appropriate way to speak to a client and whether it was standard practice to act without instruction on behalf of the LL's the represent. I'd mention the word negligent too.

YANBU, agent is a twit and request is highly reasonable given a LL would prefer their rental income in full, and on an agreed date!

It's reasonable of them to say no, but "To manage this, you
may need to save money to pay the rent on time, I suppose" is patronising and rude.

Yes I've got in writing that the ll says it's ok. Just don't see why letting agent couldn't do what I did in all of about 10 seconds; fire off a quick email to ask ll's permission to change date.

Like I say, I am quite wound up and stressed at the minute!

Does it have to be direct debit? If not, you can do an internet banking transfer. That usually transfers in 2 hours rather than several days.

I don't think it was rude, but it was certainly unprofessional.

Glad you've got it sorted OP.

It wasn't rude, but it was fairly typical of estate agents.

I am a landlady. I prefer now to deal more directly with the tenants, and really only use an agent when I have to. They are a law unto themselves.

Your landlord OK'd it so that is all you really need. Set up the order as you want to now, and just present the agent with a fait accompli.

YANBentirelyU.

The principle of what she said was not unreasonable, had she actually referred your query to the LL, but she could have worded it in a much more appropriate and professional way.

It is correct though that you are not her customer - her contract is with the LL, not you. They are facilitating the fulfilment of their client's request and part of that process happens to involve charging you an exorbitant amount of money.

Usually the first payment is scheduled so that cleared funds (e.e deposit plus 1 month rent) arrives at the letting agents bank on the day before your tenancy starts. Or you could even just pay it direct to the LL bank account.

The way you get round this is just pay 1 month plus 1 week rent in advance on the first payment and that moves the next payment forward by a few days so you can agree the next payment falls due on 1st of each month. Its an easy problem to solve it just needs an extra clause in the tenancy agreement.

Letting agents often impose stupid rules and don't even ask the LL - really I rented for 30 years and letting agents are often the cause of friction between LL and tenant.

I'd burst into flames if I got an email like that! How cheeky! It reads to me "No, save up cos you're clearly broke."

YANBU

Spongebob - Ziggie is still a customer regardless of how much more they are getting from the landlord.

If you own a shop and someone spends ten pounds and another spends a thousand they are both still customers.

I think the agent was rude BUT IME of letting agents it was quite mild rudeness.

I'd follow the sensible advice upthread to email back citing the landlords agreement and asking if rudeness was standard practice CCing the boss. However, I wouldn't expect to get a polite/any response.

A letting agent once asked me what I was worried about, (landlord had failed to pay mortgage, house was under threat of repossession) as I wouldn't be homeless for at least six weeks anyway.

That analogy doesn't quite work, curious. The LA is providing different functions to LL and tenant, and their primary responsibility is to the LL. The tenant forms part of the service they are providing to the LL, they've just worked out a way they can get even more money by charging the tenant as well.

But they should still be polite. They are selling a service to them.

Fucking rude.

I love that the LL was fine with it, too. I would be tempted to write back.

'Dear LA,

Thank you for your polite email concerning payment dates. However, I have now heard from the landlord that he is perfectly happy with my suggestion of an alternative date, and since I now realize you may not always remember to contact him, I thought I should let you know.'

Obviously you probably shouldn't send that, but it would be dead satisfying.

I would tell the LL that the agency didn't seem to be running these important details by them, then tell the agent "thanks for your reply- although ultimately unhelpful, I have spoken with the Land lord directly who has graciously agreed to this very reasonable request, please expect my payment on the dates I have provided. Best wishes"

Ooh letting agents do really annoy me to be honest. They are usually juniors who really want to work in the sales side of an estate agency so their attitude to anyone who isn't a home buyer is 'you are only renting because you really cant afford to buy and we all know that home owners are people of substance and you are obviously untrustworthy'.

The last letting agent that took that attitude with me I told him straight:

"No actually, I choose to rent because I want to and I am paying the LL mortgage who I know cant afford to move house at all if I don't rent it from her".

That shut him up.

Oh yes, definitely a breezy reply to the letting agent making them aware the Landlord has okayed your request and you have amended your direct debit date accordingly

Estate/letting agents are all cunts.

It is the law.

Is the LA collecting from hundreds of tenants each month? Often they have one collection date (1st of the month) and 1 transfer to landlord date (10th of the month). If your payment arrivea after the bank rec cut off date the payment to the landlord may be delayed by a month forever more.

The landlord may be happy with you paying a couple of days late but not with his payment arriving a month late.

my rent is due on the first of each month. I usually pay the day before by internet transfer, so the last day of the month, that way its out of my account on payday and there in plenty of time. so not unusual to not pay by standing order/dd.

That was definitely a snide email from the letting agent. YANBU there. But if you change it to the 30th, what will happen with February's payment?

I don't think it comes across as intentionally rude, more like an inexperienced lettings agent. But I could be wrong.

You could simply email a reply:

Dear Inexperienced Lettings Agent,

As I don't get paid until the 30th, it makes sense to move the rental payment date until then. I have obtained written agreement from the landlord of the property that the revised date is acceptable. I would be grateful if you could inform the landlord about any requests I may have in the future to ensure smooth running of the tenancy.

Please could you update your records to reflect this change.

Best wishes,
etc

PS File this in your lessons to learn about dealing with tenants, without which you wouldn't have a job.