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 :(

I'd base the tenant's recompense on the amount of inconvenience he's had to put up with.

How long has the boiler been broken, is that just hot water he's had to do without, or did it also negate his central-heating through the winter?
Has he been able to use a separate shower, or has he been having to boil a kettle for washing and washing-up?

Same with washing machine, if he's within fairly easy walking distance of a launderette, then pay for the inconvenience and extra costs. If he lives rurally, the nearest one could be a 20 mile round trip.

Put yourself in your tenant's shoes, how much inconvenience has there been and for how long?

Take the agent to the small claims court and report them to their statutory body.

You will do a much better job than the agent because you have your priorities right.

This isn't an ad / plug (I don't work in property!), but our LL manages direct but has a company to help set up and advertise the tenancy. They use Letting A Property, didn't see it linked to elsewhere but I'm guessing there are other companies like this too?

The company organise the contracts, registering the deposit with a scheme, references and so on. As a tenant, I found them very good and quick, they were really helpful when I made enquiries about the property and connected me with the LL really quickly. They charge referencing fees but they were really low compared with any other letting agent around here (about 30% of what everyone else charges) so I felt that was fair enough. They drew everything up quickly. But, it was the LL who showed me the property, checked us in and decided to take us on, and who manages the property if anything crops up.

Just thought I'd share in case it's handy! I have a relative who does something similar, their arrangement is with their local letting agency (ie small business, not one of the big ones, due to previous negative experiences), and they're very happy with that. I think letting agents are possibly more useful if you have many properties but not the team to manage them all, or if you're letting and live abroad. If you're close enough to help out in an emergency (eg call the boiler repair) and you have the odd evening or weekend free (ie not travelling the globe for work!) then you should be fine.

Reality is unless there are major issues with the property, you're unlikely to get regular calls from tenants unless they're a bit of a nuisance. In this case it was just 3 things, so whilst unusual and 3 big things, you would have just been contacted about 3 things.

I would see if the tenants would like to stay if you get everything fixed & manage it yourself. I'd offer them any loss of deposit if they've already paid one elsewhere.

Then I'd go after the Letting Agents, big time. Solicitors letter demanding a full refund of fees, compensation for loss of good name, compensation for tenants & anything else I could hammer them for. Stupid lazy bloody bastards.

I'd see what I got out of them, then decide how much to compensate the tenants.

This is not your fault, I really don't think you should compensate the tenants out of your own pocket. Out of repaid fees, fine. Support them making a climbing against the agency - definitely. But I!d be very careful about making any compensation payment to them until it's sorted out with a solicitor into the agency.

Well this is an eye opener. I really despise Lettings Agents after dealing with a horribly unprofessional one while I was a tenant, years ago.
I had always thought of the Landlords kind of being in bed with the Letting Agents, but it seems there is a lot of dissatisfaction from their end too.

You sound like a lovely, reasonable Landlord, OP. You deserve brilliant tenants. I hope you get them.

I would make sure they got all of their deposit back, and an excellent reference from you directly, not the bloody awful letting agency.

I feel like 6-12 months rent is amazing but possibly too generous given that it's the letting agency at fault. If you can get the agency fees back, split them with the tenants, and then what about something like 50% of the tent for the months they were without hot water or had considerable damage?

This would make a big difference to their life and peace of mind which I do think they are owed, given the horrible circumstances they've been living in. That said, it isn't your fault exactly either - though ultimately your responsibility as the owner. If you can get the letting agents to pay up that would be fairer.

Sorry, mistyped, you didn't say anything about 12 months rent!

CafeCremeEtCroissant's suggestion is a good one:

I would see if the tenants would like to stay if you get everything fixed & manage it yourself. I'd offer them any loss of deposit if they've already paid one elsewhere.

Good tenants are good to keep, and they'd probably think you are the gem amongst landlords that you sound like.

I seriously doubt they'll want to stay! They've been living in hell really - unable to wash themselves or their clothes, unable to even sit on the sofa!! I'm guessing that they just want to forget, and hopefully enjoy their new place.

I've sacked agents in the past when I found out they hadn't done anything about broken window hinges which meant a huge ground floor window neither closed nor locked properly. It was December. I got it fixed within two hours of finding out. The tenant, who had a baby and was understandably pissed off, wanted to stay in the house and asked if she could deal directly with me.

Write to the agents setting out the issues in detail, with dates, supporting correspondence, etc. and them x number of days to respond and refund the fees you have paid them. You could send a letter before action - templates are available online, but you'd then need to issue small claims proceedings. If they don't respond, report them to any body they are a member of and issue a statutory demand for the fees. The amount must be more than £750. If they don't pay, you can apply to have the company wound up. That may make them take notice.

Get rid of the agents. I know very few ll's now who live local to their properties who use one. They are hopeless and, as you've found out are liable to lose you a good tenant.

I'd ask the tenant if they were interested in staying, but if they are moving in three weeks then they've probably already paid out on deposit/credit checks etc on their new place. I'd give them their last months rent back (and if you can afford it then do it now - gives them a cash boost at an expensive time), make sure they get their full deposit back, a good reference and then if you get some sort of refund or compensation from the letting agent split that with them.

Go through all of the emails - you have legal obligations and you need to know if the LA have put you in danger of any sort of legal action. Did your tenant have your details? They should have had a contact for you - why did they not use it? Did your LA refuse to give them it?

If you do consider using an agent again then you need to make sure your tenant can contact you (and knows that if the agent ignores them you want to know despite that opening you up to 3am phone calls about blown lightbulbs). I wouldn't bother. Spend some time on a landlord website (find facts, not opinions), learn your obligations and then run it yourself.

ombudsman for letting agents complaints
Get that sorted.
Speak to tenants and see if you can talk them around by getting everything fixed and off them some money back.

Never use an agency for anything other than marketing if you can help it.

Our tenants will call us and we will go and change a lightbulb, sounds like a pain but we have happy tenants and we know all is ok.

Peace of mind is gold.

OP my husband is property lawyer, read him you OP. your agents are in breach of contract. You may be able to recover your fees you've paid to them, in which case you could give those fees to tenant as compensation.
Both you and tenant are victims here, repaying rent would be disproportionate, (you are a very nice person.) Write to tenant expressing your apologies and upset and say you will fire agents and try and recover all the fees to pass onto them.
He also said you may have a fight terminating agents contract early. Good luck.

Work minimisation is quite common with agents. You werent to know - but now you do, raise hell. They have lost you a tenant and not done what you paid them for. Sue to oblivion and publicise.

As mentioned - will the tenant stay if you fix stuff, change agents and monitor in future?

Reminder to any tenants dealing with lazy hair flicking agents - demand the ll contact details. You are legally entitled to them.

But i am a landlord and am a total bastard as mn sees it...

We used agents for the first year we rented out and would never use them again, they do absolutely nothing for their fees and like you never contacted us with issues. Since then we have managed the property ourselves, fixed issues as and when reported, do our own 6 monthly check. Tenants are much happier and money saved on fees meant we were able to fit a new kitchen for the tenants

Do you have LL insurance?

That's outrageous.
Agree with the person who says to go to the agents in person, when it's busy, and make a fuss.

They are definitely in breach of contract and you should make clear you are going to small claims court.

The tenant: offer them whatever you think fit depending on how long exactly everything has been broken. Write them an excellent reference.

I'd take the amount of months the boiler has been broken, half that, and give them that as compensation plus all fees refunded from the agency.

Having a broken sofa is one thing, having no hot water or heating is another.

Zombie thread from 2016.

@IntermittentParps

That's outrageous. Agree with the person who says to go to the agents in person, when it's busy, and make a fuss.

They are definitely in breach of contract and you should make clear you are going to small claims court.

The tenant: offer them whatever you think fit depending on how long exactly everything has been broken. Write them an excellent reference.

Zombie thread from 5 years ago.

Bollocks

ZOMBIE THREAD ZOMBIE THREAD ZOMBIE THREAD ZOMBIE THREAD

I can relate to this. We are renting and the contents are in bits (as they were when we arrived) some of the agents are just so bad at their jobs and don’t bother. Covid has not helped as I think it has been used as an excuse for a lot of things!!!

ZOMBIE THREAD

I hope the OP has figured it out in the last 5 years!

I rent through an agent but I also have the landlords number and would send her a wattsapp message if there was any problem like this and she is very good at sorting things out.