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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think lettings agents are cheeky fuckers banking on us not rocking the boat?

88 replies

LRDtheFeministDragon · 09/04/2018 13:50

The house I've been renting the last couple of years is currently being advertised again as we're moving on. The agent came round last week to take new photos and do a floor plan, and out of nosiness I went to see how they'd come out on the website. Turns out they've taken some rather nice-looking (well, I would say that) photos, and advertised the house as 'furnished' with a nicely kept garden and a recently updated bathroom.

Except, most of the furniture is ours (the landlord provided a beat-up sofa, an ok table and some rather crappy Ikea side tables, and not much else). The nice garden will still look nice, but an awful lot of it is pot plants we're taking with us. And the 'updated' bathroom wasn't updated this side of the millennium, so far as we know.

I know it sounds as if some of this could be an innocent mistake, but it's clearly not because we told the agent when he took the photos that he'd need to know what furniture was ours and what wasn't, and we said it'd been advertised to us as part-furnished.

Round here, it is common to be told you can't see an inventory until you sign the tenancy agreement (shite, I know). I have a feeling the agents are hoping they can show the place round while we're out. We weren't ever going to let them do that, but now I've seen this advert, would it be very wrong to conscientiously tell all prospective tenants exactly what's what?

OP posts:
opinionatedfreak · 09/04/2018 19:25

I suffered from this. Rented furnished flat.

Previous tenants trashed the sofas and we had a long drawn out saga to get the letting agent to change them. When new Ines were finally purchased the cheeky fuckers paid extra with no consultation to get them delivered on a Saturday because their office was shut trying to force my flat mate and I to be in to take delivery. Shame we were both shiftworkers and working that day.

The "independent" inventory was full of mistakes.

They kept appointing useless tradesmen who never actually effected proper repairs and the flat was littered with previous evidence of their crap workmanship eg. The backs were all bashed out of the kitchen cupboard presumably to enable access to fix a leak and the ceiling mounted pullcord lightswitch fell off the bathroom ceiling no fewer than 4 times in a year.

When we finally managed to talk to the landlords they were actually lovely and were horrified about the state of the place as they hadn't been in for serveral years.

On the other hand when I rented out my flat it was well furnished with a combo of ikea and habitat furniture, I spent ages making sure everything worked and that all the appliances had instruction booklets etc. The tenants really looked after it.

GabsAlot · 09/04/2018 19:38

speical no -its managed by the agnet they keep saying they cant get hold of ll

GabsAlot · 09/04/2018 19:39

agent*

londonrach · 09/04/2018 19:41

Op...you do realise you dont have to allow access for viewings ever no matter whats in contact. Id refuse all viewings and remove out with your furniture. Not your circus and fairer to any future tenant as they view whats available.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 09/04/2018 20:11

Thanks expat.

london - yes, I do realise. I'm quite happy to let people in for viewings.

OP posts:
MrsKoala · 09/04/2018 21:26

Some agents really are bastards. When i had just come out of hospital with ds2 a week after a c-section with a 2 year old and no one else to help, the agents kept turning up at the door with viewers and pleading with me to let them look round or calling me up to tell me someone was on their way and could i show them round. Once i was sitting like a zombie bfing on the sofa and the agent opened the oven right in front of me and said loudly 'don't worry we'll make sure the oven is properly cleaned'. The viewers kept apologising to me and looking so uncomfortable - poor buggers - i must have looked like hell.

I look back now (only 3 and a half years ago) and kick myself for not saying no.

magoria · 09/04/2018 21:57

I remember an agent showing around a potential next tenant.

Tenant asked if white goods were included.

Agent said yes.

Hope they brought some for them as all the current tenants went with them!

TheIcon · 09/04/2018 22:50

"I've met one.. the whole office was fantastic in fact - competent, they did stuff when asked, they were brilliant. Then they were bought out by Countrywide"

I am currently in a conference centre hotel that is full of car salespeople and Countrywide estate agents. If a group of double glazing salespeople come tomorrow, I'm checking out as we're bound to be struck by lightning

Should1stayorshould1go · 09/04/2018 23:17

we have had this issue: rented an unfurnished flat and were ready to move out into our own place. When the advert came out it stated the flat was fully furnished and the photos were from a completely different property that the estate agent managed on the same road.

Made sure I was there for the first viewing and forestalled any issues by welcoming them in and then explaining to both the viewers and estate agent it might not be the flat they were expecting to see and all furniture was ours.

In fairness the poor wee agent looked completely out of her depth and was really apologetic, and the prospective tenants took the flat unfurnished anyway (nice flat in a good area)

I think the strangest thing I've ever had with a letting agent was when a previous landlord contacted us directly to say she was not happy with their services and was going to change the letting agency she used. She felt they were not really acting in either of our interests as they were not arranging routine maintenance as she had requested, and they had several times attempted to charge us to renew the tenancy (not legal where I live, and we politely pointed this out)
She was very happy with us as tenants and wanted our contract/rent terms etc to remain unchanged with the new agency.

The old agents then sent a notice to us to inform us they were ending our tenancy, 2 months into a new contract. Absolutely gobsmacked, I contacted the landlord and she had been sent a letter explaining they were doing this because she had ended the contract with them, and as they had introduced us as tenants our contract would end together with theirs, and she could no longer rent to us.
.
Quite how they felt they had the right to insist we moved against our wishes because they were no longer managing the property I have no idea!
Landlady and I both had a great time writing very scathing letters pointing out the lunacy in bemused terms. They have since (deservedly) gone out of business.

PenCobSwan · 10/04/2018 14:05

Place marking for later......

expatinscotland · 10/04/2018 14:16

I'm not at all surprised at their arsehole behaviour, MrsK. I've had letting agents say, 'Can you show them around, I have some stuff I need to catch up with?' (involving their phone). 'Um, no. I'm not a letting agent or your secretary (then I immediately contacted the agency to let them know their employee isn't doing his job). 'We're just round the corner so popping in for a viewing. Can you all go out?' 'No. There will be no viewings without 24 hours prior notice per our tenancy agreement. And we will not go out during viewings without prior arrangement and compensation.' They still came round and chapped the door, tried to get in (key was in lock). 'Told you, no viewings without 24 hours notice.'

Because a lot of them will absolutely rip the piss out of tenants.

MrsKoala · 10/04/2018 18:21

When we moved to Canada we rented out our house and left agents to manage it. They told us all was fine and charged us £150 per month. Then we got an email from the tenants saying they weren't happy with the rent increase (er what increase? we hadn't agreed to one) because of the damp (er, again WTF?!) that the agents hadn't addressed at all despite them sending pictures and numerous calls. We went nuclear. We felt so bad. We sacked the agents who denied all the contact apart from the initial email and said the tenants had been difficult and refused entry - Bollocks. It ended up costing us £6k in remedial work which would only have been a fraction of that if caught early. Not to mention the months of living in damp conditions that our poor tenants had.

When the tenants moved out we had to have the inventory done by them and they sent us pics of the house not being left clean and said they would deduct £200 for cleaning. I contacted the tenants directly and said that some bits had needed a bit more of a going over and they could either get some money deducted for a cleaner or if they wanted go back and finish it off themselves. Which they did and the agents were really angry and said we were over generous. Only because they wanted the fee - there's no way a cleaner doing a shower tray and a few cupboards would charge £200. They also doubled what the gas guy charged for the safety certificate.

I would never have agents manage a property again. They seem to have no regard at all for tenants and seem to think as landlords we don't either.

ToEarlyForDecorations · 10/04/2018 21:50

In my experience, letting agents are lying, scheming scum who will do anything to get their commission, so you shouldn't really expect anything else...

This^

I would never have agents manage a property again. They seem to have no regard at all for tenants and seem to think as landlords we don't either.

and this^

Why should either party care. The Tennant is just a sum of money to both of them.

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