Letting Agents Are Twats

[WheelieBinPrincess]

Ok yeah I bet they have a job to do, they’re humans too and all that.

But Christ.

Moving out of our rented London flat next month as we’ve managed to buy a flat after the years of saving. Great. So notice given to the landlord (who I’ve never clapped eyes on but is generally an ok sort with regards to repairs etc)

Now we have the dreaded viewings.

I am FULLY AWARE that I have a right to quiet enjoyment in my home, and at a cost of £1525 in rent a month I should bloody hope so. I said they can have Friday afternoon, two hours this Saturday and Tuesday lunchtime.

I’m at home with a nine week old baby which I’ve told them MULTIPLE times. I go out when they come, I find it uncomfortable to be in when randoms are trooping around my space.

Do they give a feck? No they do not. They’ve completely rough shod my boundaries, a viewing here, there, can we just do a quick viewing this evening?

They’ve taken the piss now tomorrow as I said 3 viewings only, they’ve booked in six.

Flat is in a state of disrepair- (needs new paint, bathroom is falling to bits, there’s no storage space, skirting in the kitchen is buggered and mice regularly wander in. I keep it nice and clean and tidy as much as you can with a two month old baby. They are trying to market the flat at £1650 a month.

Although I do collect taxidermy and they told me it was off-putting 😂 why would I care , it is not my flat!

I’ve fielded about 8 phone calls from them today alone, one telling he aged forgetter the set of keys so would I be in? Idiot.

Would I be unreasonable to test positive for covid next week?

Reminds me of the time one morning I was packing having already given notice. I suddenly hear keys rattling in my front door. I thought what the hell. Followed by loud knocking on the door. Luckily I've always been in the habit of leaving the keys inside the door after locking it.
Turned out the lettings agent were attempting to let themselves in with prospective viewers tagging along! Didn't even bother to inform me of any viewings! The flat was a state. Imagine I didn't have my keys in the door and I was in the shower. They would have walked right in!

[quote thenewduchessofhastings]@WheelieBinPrincess

Your contract may say you must permit viewings but that was pre Covid;I wouldn't be letting strangers wander around my home during a pandemic with a vulnerable young baby who lives in the home and isn't able to be vaccinated.

I'd be telling the lettings agents to feck off[/quote]
Very good point

Dear Agent
Further to our previous correspondence relating to viewings, I have taken legal advice and as the contract states about facilitating viewings, owing to the current pandemic, it would seem wholly in-appropriate for us to host viewings when we have a vunerable baby.

I'm quite sure you will understand our concerns and are confident the property will be let as soon as viewings are available on our departure.

Thanking you in advance

[quote thenewduchessofhastings]@WheelieBinPrincess

Your contract may say you must permit viewings but that was pre Covid;I wouldn't be letting strangers wander around my home during a pandemic with a vulnerable young baby who lives in the home and isn't able to be vaccinated.

I'd be telling the lettings agents to feck off[/quote]
Indeed. I think it's totally unethical to force tenants to do viewings during a pandemic. It should be completely banned. Why should the landlord not having a void period be prioritised over people's safety?

Just change the locks, then they can't come in when you don't want them.

@trappedbylife

"If yourselves had respected ourselves boundaries then yourselves would have been able to show the property to prospective tenants who could inspect it with themselves' naked eyes."

This is amazing 😂

Except there's a correct apostrophe in there...

"As you will have seen my hobby is taxidermy. I have some top quality new corpses being delivered this weekend and will be gutting., stuffing and mounting those in the build up to Christmas, so I suggest not bringing anyone round. It can get messy."

Op sounds like you've been more than reasonable.

We're seeing it from the other side as trying to view places that are currently let - one tenant gave 2 one hour slots 3-4pm midweek, no other time.

Another gave 1 day 10-4, unfortunately when we were both in all day meetings so couldn't attend. So we missed out on that one completely.

Thing is, I get its inconvenient for the current tenants, but as a prospective tenant most places I don't even need to view, because I already know enough from the floorplan, photos etc. However agents refuse to allow you to apply UNLESS you've viewed so its kind of catch 22.

@furlockbones I’d always suggest viewing!! The pictures being used for this flat are at least five years old. If you rented it without viewing you’d be very short changed.

I honestly don't understand why you let viewings at all...we had hell from viewing s (huge thread on them that shock you and I never deal with foxtons again) and decided to never let viewings happen again in any other rental property. Luckily now bought but never had a problem when we realised viewings as I always explained what happened previously. Our last LL was amazing so we let viewings happen on one day a week... I was pregnant and the LL contacted us to say thank you for allowing viewings and he decided to wait till we moved out. He was amazing LL and let us stay one extra week (we paid) as our house purchase too a week longer..he was vvv flexible as told he reminded doing the same. His agent seemed very relaxed so wonder if LL can put pressure on agent. Hope move goes ok

I’ve just remembered ours at a penchant for hitting email reply all and then bitching about the landlord to all as we were going through the application process.

I don't blame you for saying no more viewings, sounds like a ball ache. And surely at that price with so many issues the viewings could be going on for some time!

When we leave our rented house we have to organise all the viewings and show people around ourselves. Can't say I'll be particularly accommodating!

What does Foxtons are Smethwicks mean?

@Littleants in the c4 comedy Stath Lets Flats, Smethwicks are the ‘slick’ letting agents- they wear cheap suits and are arseholes.

I had the same issue when I moved out of rented, I always changed the locks when I rented to prevent estate agents breaking in. In my last flat I had put the old locks in a few days before I moved out, we have previously been burgled and there had been a spate of burglaries on the road. So when I arrived home one day to the door wide open I phoned the police who sent a car round within 10/15 minutes because there had been so many break ins, I got to see one of the estate agents being led out to a police car 🤣

My husband was a landlord, he used to have a void period between tenants for viewings, repaint etc.

If you have a 9 week old YANBU to the max. Keep those grotty stranger germs out of your bubble. It's not like they are going to struggle to let it, is it?

[quote thenewduchessofhastings]@WheelieBinPrincess

Your contract may say you must permit viewings but that was pre Covid;I wouldn't be letting strangers wander around my home during a pandemic with a vulnerable young baby who lives in the home and isn't able to be vaccinated.

I'd be telling the lettings agents to feck off[/quote]
Doesn't matter what your contract says. It cannot and does not over-ride the law.

You are entitled to quiet enjoyment of your home.

So you can tell anyone trying to book viewings while you still live there to FOTTOSOFOATFOSM [GRIN]

We had such an awful experience when our landlord sold our property. I was young and naive but looking back we should have just point blank refused entry till we left.

My husband was a landlord, he used to have a void period between tenants for viewings, repaint etc

Which is surely how it should be.
The tenant gets to move and clean properly.
The landlord gets to look over the property properly, and make any repairs necessary
The estate agent gets free access
New tenant doesn’t feel awkward and can see what they are getting.

I got a phone call at 11:59 from the letting agent asking why we weren’t answering the door (I had said they could do the Saturday hour I’d agreed to previously as a gesture of goodwill) the muppet hadn’t bothered to consider we might have our own lives to lead and didn’t bring any keys with him.

I could barely talk to him for laughing.

Oh God don't put yourself through it with a tiny baby.

@Foolsrule

Never met a decent letting agent. Absolute twats, the lot of them. We lived somewhere where they’d let themselves in every six months to do a spot check, without informing us. Thought I was crazy when I made a complaint. Had no idea about the actual law, jumped up wankers in cheap suits with a penchant for misusing the words ‘myself’ and ‘yourself’. National chain as well. Hate hate hate!

Misusing ‘myself’ and ‘yourself’ would seem to be mandatory for the job. I think there must be a special Letting and Estate Agents’ GCSE English, where they also have to spell cubicle (shower) as cubical, border (flower) as boarder, plus of course ‘accommodation’ with the wrong assortment of Ms and Cs. (Feel free to add any I’ve forgotten.)

When I was a student, making the house look as subtly unappealing as possible to next year's prospective tenants became something of a sport.

Strategically leaving mouse traps around the place and, upon arrival "oh hello letting agent, good news, we've caught 6 mice so far this week". There were no mice

Alas, our budgets didn't stretch to taxidermy though if we'd actually had mice we could have stuffed the corpses

Though part of the kitchen floor did collapse not long before we moved out...

To the PP who suggested they'd rent a flat without viewing - you must be mad. I once viewed a house that looked perfectly nice on Rightmove. Upon viewing, it turned out the kitchen ceiling had collapsed, revealing all the lathe and plaster. According to the LA it had only happened that weekend and would be fixed shortly. Yeah, right...

Oh I can’t wait for out agents to try this. Our house is fully alarmed and has cctv. He would be the type to as well.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER And of course use silly phrases like 'revert back to yourself' instead of 'get back to you' because they think it makes them seem intelligent.

We were challenging an unfair eviction and stated some dates were wrong, with original paperwork. At no point did the letting agents admit they were wrong, but they did change the dates we needed to leave by.

The whole time the agents tried their best to be superior and make us out to be stupid (I’ve been in the letting business for over ten years, I know what I’m doing).

Awful people.