If you were my tenant what would you like me to do about this?

[Cocklodger]

House is let out via an agency.
agents never reported any issues to me.
Tenant gave notice, leaving in 3 weeks. I inspected at 10am this morning.
House is in good condition,however the contents are not.
Boiler is broken.
Sofa legs have snapped.
Washing machine is broken.
tenant showed me 50 emails sent to the agency, some were acknowledged with a 'we'll pass it on to LL'' most weren't,but NOTHING was passed on.
I will never use this letting agent (maybe not any at all tbh as this isn't my 1st bad experience) ever again.
But what can I do to make this right? of course I'll see everything is fixed,in good order and replaced if necessary,but the tenant is leaving now. they've been here for a year. stuff started going wrong after 4 months. Agents inspect every 6 months but I opt to do my own end of tenancy inspection as these are fucked up or over exaggerated by letting agents, like the time where a squash stain on the carpet (which took a steamer and a hoover to get out) resulted in agents attempting to deduct £400 from deposit for a professional clean!
anyhow would you offer any financial compensation? I can't really think of what I can do to make it better :(

6-8 months' rent refund is way too much, they were living in your propert but with some loss of amenity

The boiler was broken. No hot water is a fairly significant loss of amenity...

We've had an agent (built in oven that they never told ll about, blown down fence, broken gate, plaster falling off the walls) like that so now we deal direct with our landlord and he's great :)

I agree with Breakfast, demand a refund of management fees and pass it to your tenant.

Appologise, write lovely reference, fire agents, do it yourself next time.

It's physically impossible to do a worse job than a letting agent; unlike them you actually give a shit.

Appologise, write lovely reference, fire agents, do it yourself next time.

It's physically impossible to do a worse job than a letting agent; unlike them you actually give a shit.

I agree with Justwanttowee. And it's very easy to do it yourself. Join the National Landlords Association and that will guide you through everything, enable you to complete all contracts etc online and they have a really good telephone helpline should anything go wrong.

complain with your evidence to the agent and ask for fees back as they clearly didnt earn them

then give a months rent back to the tenants form that

i thin k 6 months is excessive

Give the estate agents he'll. Ask your tenants for the emails and report the agents to the ombudsman.

Our agent is just like this, they say it's the landlady and it may well be but since we can't contact her at all we'll never know.

I'd hit the roof at the "managing" agents, see where that gets you, then follow up as necessary/whatever it takes to get a refund of the management fees they've taken and done nothing to earn. Then and only then I would give something back to the tenants if you actually get any money back. Or you could give them something now with the promise of more to follow if you're successful clawing back management fees. Clearly you'll need email address and phone numbers off them to do that. Are they registered with any professional body you could report them to- there used to one called ARLA?

Going forward, is there another agent you could use, who might be better. I'd make sure any future tenant has your contact number as a last resort if they aren't getting anywhere with the agents. If you've got a good plumber electrician and general handyman it's not hard to manage your own property. It's harder when the tenant stops paying rent and you need to start eviction proceedings but when that happened to me I took advice from Shelter (the housing charity) on the correct process to follow, and even that worked out OK in a funny way as the tenants moved out immediately I served the first notice on them so I didn't need to start formal court proceedings.

Report the agent to a professional association if he/she belongs to one and ask what you can do. Let the tenant know you have done so. Refund what you can afford. There are review sites for agents but they may not be reliable. You may not wish to divulge where you are but perhaps a MNer might recommend an agent or perhaps there are MNers who are agents. I am a LL but I lease to a housing association used by our local authority - rent is lower but I get paid every month even during "void" periods and the HA notifies me of work required. How the agent has the brass neck to charge a percentage for doing nothing, I have no idea. Try posting in Property.

Report the agency, take yourself down to the office and kick up merry hell (busiest times are usually around 3-4pm).

They've treat your tenants in an absolutely disgusting manner, demand a refund of management fees, as they have lost you your tenant! If they refuse to co operate escalate the complaint (if a corporate company) or off to the papers, social media if not.

Stuff like this makes me so angry and is exactly the reason I quit working at a letting agency (chain, of a very large company). You will probably find that the staff are so lazy and unmotivated due to a complete lack of regard by senior management. And even if they did want to help (such as I did) you'll find that their hands are tied due to corporate bollocks from people who are more senior simply because their face fits. sorry for the rant but you really are better off managing property yourself nowadays.

I have to agree that 6-8 months refund is rather a lot. If my landlord gave me that as recompense for a broken boiler and furniture, I'd feel like I had won the lottery!!

Do not take any deductions from the deposit. Write clearly to the Agent saying this, copy to the tenant, and asking that the deposit is released immediately. This way the tenant can chase.

Very few agents are good at management. Either they keep referring problems to you so you might as well as well do it yourself, use horribly over-priced workmen (Central London agents are particularly guilty) or do nothing.

You sound lovely - if only all landlords were like you!

I'd suggest ensuring they get their whole deposit back (assuming that the broken items are fair wear and tear, not someone taking a pickaxe to them or something ridiculous). Once that's done, go after the agency for breach of contract, get your management fees back, and pass on an appropriate portion to the tenants (but I'm sure that even a £50-100 Ikea voucher for things they'll need in their new home would be much appreciated)

PS I once knew someone who quit working for a letting agent because they felt that they weren't enough of a bastard to do the job! Apparently this (large chain of) agents had a meeting every morning where they thought up lies to tell LLs and tenants to screw more money out of them. It says it all really....

I wish all landlords were like you. I think 6 months rent is very generous and about right (if you can afford it). My previous house had problems with the heating and we had to go a month without hot water once. It was awful and we couldn't stay at the house full time. Unless you've lived through it you don't know how difficult it is, especially in the winter. I would definitely give the agent hell for this.

My friend has had this and stormed into the agency and said "Can you show me ONE thing that you've done to manage his property in the last 5 years?" (they couldn't) "So why exactly have I paid you £3,000 to do that then?"

Drives me bonkers. Easy money for them, meanwhile your tenants are sitting there with no heating/mould on the walls or whatever and cursing you. I just wish this was an unusual story
You sound lovely OP.

I don't think you need to go as far as giving them 6 months rent back. I do think the agents need to refund you in full for whatever fees you've paid them during the tenancy, and you could pass some of this on to the tenants as compensation.

I would be absolutely raging with the agents in your shoes, op. If they won't fully refund you, despite the evidence you have of their incompetence, I would be speaking to a solicitor.

We had a similar issue with the agent not passing on notice of problems with our flat. Unfortunately the tenant was not a nice guy and reported us to the council (who found no issue in terms of fitness to live in) and threatened to sue us. We are both lawyers and knew he had a very weak legal position as none of the problems were serious but we also know how awful and expensive litigation is. Plus I was miscarrying following IVF treatment at the time, so we were not in a good place to fight him. So we ended up writing a fairly hefty cheque to go away. And all for things that could have been sorted out cheaply and easily if the agent had done his job.

Rightsaid I'm 99% sure that's the agency I also worked for, and the morning meetings were exactly that. utter bastards.

Broken boiler also may open you to a legal claim, as your statutory responsibility as landlord included keeping in good working order the facilities for hot water and space heating. If the agents knew of the disrepair, and did nothing about it (like telling you) they are almost certainly in breach of contract (but check the small print carefully). If there are doubts about a legal claim, report them to Trading Standards.

Assuming this is England or Wales I'm surprised that no-one has pointed out that tenants have a legal right to obtain contact details for their landlord. The tenants should have asked for these details.

I think agents normally take something like 12-15% of the rent? That seems a good starting point for compensation plus an apology and advice to use their right to obtain landlord details in future.

There are landlord associations and they run training courses designed to help those who want to do it themselves e.g. www.rla.org.uk/landlord/courses/landlord_training_courses.shtml

I have a very strong dislike of letting agents. We rented our flat out when we moved abroad through a property management/letting agency.
They charged a ridiculous amount of money for repairs and did a shit job of them too. Cleaned the gutters on our property and adjoining ones and properties billed it all to us. Lied their arses off about everything. Charged us £50 for attaching a padlock to a shed.
We were home on holiday and went for a wee inspection. I was heartbroken. Place was falling apart. We had left it pristine.
Needless to say we manage our own property now. Bit of extra work but worth it to get the job done properly and know that your tenants have somewhere nice to live where everything is in good working order.
I'd sack letting agent, demand money from them, apologise to tenants and maybe see if they'll stay, offer them 2 months rent free if they do, or if they leave give them a gift?

I don't think I would refund 6 months of rent. This is your agents fault, not yours.

I would demand your agents respond to the claims that the tenants informed them of broken boiler and washing machine.

Calculate what could have been due to the tenants if they were to have received compensation for lack of boiler. Suggest that the agency need to compensate the tenants for this amount in addition to refunding you your entire agency fees and any fees the tenants have paid.

In no way should you take the brunt of this as it is not your fault plus had you known, you would have corrected long before.