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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

aibu to be annoyed letting agent dropped rent by £50

382 replies

toohoottoday · 30/05/2020 10:34

I have just found out my letting agent has dropped the rental for the property I rent by £50. This rental income represents over half my income, and I can't really afford a drop. He had chatted with me about rental but we didn't agree to drop it. He had said we may have to, but then rents had increased since our last tenant came in, so the drop due to the covid situation may even it out to the current rent level, and that he already had three households interested before it was even advertised. So given that, and being as we never agreed a decrease, I wasn't expecting it to be dropped. There are now several tenants who all want to rent it and he has asked me to choose this weekend. I am therefore surprised therefore after checking his website to see he has advertised it as lower than the previous rent.

AIBU to be annoyed about this? I don't suppose there is anything I can do about it now. That is £600 a year that I will be poorer off and I am already on a low income with two kids to support.

OP posts:
Original poster
toohoottoday · 30/05/2020 12:28

You haven't answered what you would do if the tenant fails to pay rent though OP. Seriously, if finding £50 a month is difficult, how will you find the whole rent?

Jesus H Christ! This is laughable! I have answered that REPEATEDLY. RTFT

OP posts:
Amberfest · 30/05/2020 12:30

Surely it is the agents cock up so it comes out of his fees?

ArgumentativeAardvaark · 30/05/2020 12:30

Ignoring all the landlord haters on here OP, you have had some good advice about what to say to the (liberty-taking) agent. What do you think you will do?

titchy · 30/05/2020 12:33

Tell the agent he either re-lists or he reduces his fee by £50 a month. Don't get taken for a ride by unscrupulous agents.

justasking111 · 30/05/2020 12:33

This is why I do not use agents but do it myself. I have a relation EA who says lettings are a licence to print money. They can make up anything they like and bill you.

strandedatthedrivein · 30/05/2020 12:34

OP, I've not RTFT so sorry if this has already been suggested. Can you manage the property yourself? You may need to wait for the 6 month tenancy to run but then you can give notice and take over.

This would save you agent fees.

ArgumentativeAardvaark · 30/05/2020 12:35

@justasking OP has explained that she lives in a different country to the property, so she can’t manage it herself.

Fairenuff · 30/05/2020 12:35

I have read the thread. You said you had money put back for repairs but if you use that to cover missed rent then you won't have any other savings to fall back on if future repairs are needed.

I just think that if £50 a month is already causing financial hardship you are putting too much stress on yourself. You need a much bigger safety net really.

What if the boiler needs replacing and the tenants stop paying rent? Do you really have enough saved up to cover that. It happens you know, I've been a landlord myself but only when I knew I had enough to cover these eventualities. I certainly wouldn't have been struggling to find a relatively tiny £50 a month.

Destroyedpeople · 30/05/2020 12:35

Or another way of putting that could be 'let's ignore anyone with direct experience of greedy amateur landlords who can't afford to be landlords ' ........stick your fingers in your ears and go lala la la I can't deal with truth. ..

heartsonacake · 30/05/2020 12:37

Wow, there are a lot of jealous people on this thread.

It is totally irrelevant what OP would do if the boiler breaks, how much money she has set aside, how she came to be a landlord or why she is one. None of those things are what she asked advice on and your bitterness isn’t welcome here. (And no, I’m not a landlord, I’m a tenant.)

OP, YANBU. Your agent should never have dropped the price without asking you. I would consider going with a new agency if I were you.

Purpletigers · 30/05/2020 12:37

Don’t accept the decrease in rent . Instruct the agent to sort it out and come back to you when they have a list of prospective tenants for your to look at .

Purpletigers · 30/05/2020 12:39

Also please don’t stress I’ve a situation that is not of your making . Email the agent and encourage them to sort it out asap or you will have to consider taking your business elsewhere.

justasking111 · 30/05/2020 12:41

Different country that is a headache my friend lives in N Wales manages a block of flats in London which is a massive headache. Personally I would sell the UK property and buy in my home country.

Original poster
toohoottoday · 30/05/2020 12:42

What do you think you will do?

Urgh! Not good at decisions. I think I will email the agent to say I am surprised to see the rental was dropped when we had not agreed that, and when there was a lot of interest. I do want to get the property let asap, though. Despite this mess up, like a previous poster said, it may just be a communication mix up-. I know someone who rented through him and said he was a really good letting agent to her as a tenant. And, despite what haters on this thread think, I do want an agent who will treat tenants well.
I may see if we can ask if the rent can be increased by £25 a month as a compromise - he can explain there was a mix up and that is still a reduction on the previous rent. If they refuse I will just have to suck it up I think.

OP posts:
ArgumentativeAardvaark · 30/05/2020 12:43

I think she lives in England and the property is in Scotland, or vice-versa.

MajesticWhine · 30/05/2020 12:43

This is really lazy of the agent, and really should be their problem to sort out. But if you push back, you might then have vacant months which would cost you even more. If it was me, I would accept the lower rent and be glad the property is occupied to be honest, so there is no risk of losing a month. But review the rent in line with market prices as soon as you can.

Fairenuff · 30/05/2020 12:46

It is totally irrelevant what OP would do if the boiler breaks, how much money she has set aside, how she came to be a landlord or why she is one. None of those things are what she asked advice on and your bitterness isn’t welcome here.

Is that directed at me? How am I bitter? I agree that it's the landlord's mistake but OP has said that he/she doesn't want to follow the advice to make the landlord accountable.

It's not good for OP to be so stressed and forced into financial hardship over £50 a month. If OP does not have enough to cover the eventualities I mentioned then, yes, it could all get far more difficult than this.

Original poster
toohoottoday · 30/05/2020 12:48

let's ignore anyone with direct experience of greedy amateur landlords who can't afford to be landlords

Or lets just make up shit about people we don't know because hating is so much FUN! And because we believe that one can demonstrate what a caring compassionate person one is by how much one hates other groups in society. 'I hate because I care.'

OP posts:
ArgumentativeAardvaark · 30/05/2020 12:51

Any reason why you are not prepared to ask the agent to cover the financial loss that they may have caused you by acting outwith their authority?

I liked a pp’s suggestion if telling them agent what a problem they have caused and the financial impact on you and asking them what they propose to do to sort it out.

Given that you have 3 interested tenants and you have also said that it is a popular property type/area so should not sit empty for long, I think that you should get the agent to tell the interested tenants that they made a mistake (making it very clear that it was them and not you, to address your fear that they might take against you as landlord and care less for the property). If all the tenants walk away then sounds like there will be more out there and the agent should cover the shortfall while it is in-let as the delay is their fault.

SorryDidISayThatOutLoud · 30/05/2020 12:52

Gawd, loads of posters on here advising OP on how she should run her life!

OP, you asked a question - Are you being unreasonable to be annoyed at your letting agent. Answer - No you aren't. You have a price on your property - that is YOUR choice. You - and other landlords - are keeping the agent in a job!

If the letting agent asks for your choice from the three prospective tenants, tell the agent that the price was advertised wrongly, it should have been £ and can they please inform the pros.tenants and ask if they are still interested.

And yes, you can change your letting agent if he does tricks like this. My daughter rented for university from a landlord who was abroad and the agent changed after one year. Not sure why. But she had to sign again with the new agent.

Destroyedpeople · 30/05/2020 12:52

I haven't made up any shit about you though have I?
No.
I just related some experiences I had had with some other amateur landlord.

RandomLondoner · 30/05/2020 12:55

Interesting that I've been called a 'wanker', a 'cunt' and a 'sour-faced hag' for pointing out that professional landlords really don't contribute to society by making things, providing useful services to people etc

You have a faulty understanding of economics, which leads you to believe someone who is doing fuck-all wrong is an enemy of society. Being nasty to someone while having zero valid basis for hating them means you'll get a reaction.

StillCoughingandLaughing · 30/05/2020 12:55

How about not buying it at all, thereby not driving property prices up by commoditising basic needs, and letting someone else buy and live in it for a more reasonable price.?

You’ve made a common mistake in assuming that everyone renting could a) afford to buy if the house was available and b) would actually want to do so.

Eleven years ago I moved cities for a new job. No way, at a month’s notice, could I have sold my house and bought another in the new location. Without private lets, I’d have had nowhere to live. My options would have been crippling hotel bills or to not take the job at all - so much for climbing the ladder! Instead, I rented for an initial six months and eventually did buy. Also, the tenants who moved into my house were also relocating - junior doctors on placement. Where were they meant to live without a private let? They had no interest in buying until they knew they’d be in the area long term. We both needed somewhere to live; neither of us wanted to buy the properties we were in. What were we supposed to do?

Some close family members unfortunately lost their home due to repossession. Were they meant to just go out and buy another one? You try that after a repossession! Even if they’d wanted to buy again, it wouldn’t have been immediately. They needed time to decide their next move. Eventually they did buy again - but somewhere to live in the meantime was, as many have pointed out, an essential.

And what about people who never want to buy? I remember when I first bought more than one person looking at me aghast and saying ‘But what if you need to move?’ Granted, I was buying young, but at least one of the people questioning my decision was still renting in his fifties, by choice. Home ownership is not everyone’s dream.

ChicCroissant · 30/05/2020 12:55

I think I will email the agent to say I am surprised to see the rental was dropped when we had not agreed that, and when there was a lot of interest.

That's agreeing to the drop - you need to specifically say that you don't agree. While the initial drop may have been down to the Letting Agent, it's down to you not saying anything from that point on.

Fairenuff · 30/05/2020 12:57

Letting agents can be awful. I know one who agreed a let to a 19 year old student and his girlfriend when the landlord had specified single working person only, over 21. The landlord only found out when they met their tenants through chance. The agent had lied to them about who was renting the property.

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