To be wth - letting agent advice please

[whyarepeoplesobananas]

Need some advice on this to see if it's as weird/unprofessional as I think.

No hot water last night, boiler well and truly gone, ok not great two DC's under 4. Letting agent has an online reporting tool so nothing to do but log and call in the morning. Which we did.

When we clicked the issue on the digital tool a pop up tells us to continue reporting on there but for this problem to also call the emergency line, I mean in my head it's v urgent but not an emergency as summer. Called twice no answer.
Gets an auto-response from agent saying that this problem (heating and hot water) is classified as urgent and that they will attempt to deal with urgent queries in 3 working days.

We were a little eeekkkk, what does that mean, have someone out or just respond, being Thurs eve we were a little panicky and the thought of it not being dealt with until the start of next wk - we have nowhere to go as the three people we could ask have covid!!! I called the emergency no again and left a vm saying we've just received this email, if someone receives this tonight I'd appreciate a quick call or text just confirming that 3 days won’t be the case and stop me panicking I was nice and jokey about it.

45 min later nothing, and as we have a really good (small city) FB page I thought I would ask on there to set my mind at rest;
"Does anyone rent with xxxx and has had experience of no hot water/heating, and their xxxx online reporting system? We reported the problem via xxx but have received a response back saying this has been categorised as urgent - it then lists all the urgent issues (emergency issues above this are basically major structural problems). And that they will aim to deal with the issue within 3 working days of the issue being reported.

I'm not sure what deal means, but I'm taking from this it could be into next week before its resolved given it's Friday tomorrow😅😱. Surely this can't isn't right, is it? I was thinking there would be some kind of 24hr call out for boiler issues??"
We're all just recovering from covid, DC have conjunctivitis and just wanted some reassurance before I went to bed that I wouldn't be waiting 3 days. I haven't rented since 2007 so have no idea what is to be expected.

Fast forward to this morning they email DH to say someone organised for today, great, they then followed up with call to confirm - I picked up, I was bright and breezy on the phone and like oh thank god, thank you, yes seen email etc. and was about to say we were panicking as your online thing says the above, but, to say the agent was being aggressive was an understatement, I thought DH had maybe complained this morning or there'd been some kind of altercation and he'd not said, so I said sorry is there a problem do you need me to get DH, when they exploded at me, not in volume more tone IYKWIM. How they would have expected me to come directly to them if there was a problem, how disappointed she was in me, at which point i was like I'm sorry what, they then proceeded to to tell me how they were members of the facebook group and they had seen the post last night and they were really hurt (they sounded more angry but ok) that we were complaining on there and we thought they wouldn't fix the problem they always fix problems like that in 24 hrs, so I was like, whoa, well if you've seen the post you'll know I was talking about your reporting platform and the message generated from that, which distinctly does not say 24hrs it says 3 working days!!!

She then said “well that's what the emergency phone number is for you should have called that as per the tenancy agreement....."we did, 3 times, left two messages one asking the exact question I put on facebook. No one ever got back." Her response was to shut me down and say "we can go round and round on this I don't think there's anything more to say". I was just completely baffled and kept saying what, sorry, I then said look I'm not sure what's happening here...." at which point she slammed and I mean slammed the phone down.

I just feel hair dryer'ed and I do not appreciate that, I mean this is unprofessional right.? Also feel a little spied also who is she to tell me what I can post on Facebook.....I looked at the member list and none of the lettings team are members of that group.

DH has emailed the branch manager asking them to call him - emailed back saying they are on leave today and can't call.....picking up emails and no out of office though 🤔

This ^

OP isn’t in the wrong; the letting agent was a cunt

But it wasn't outside of working hours - it's an emergency line that wasn't being manned!

It's some poor bugger from the office who has messages sent to their phone out of hours so they can monitor for real emergencies, they are unlikely to be able to do anything in the evening anyway for something like a broken boiler

Your FB post comes across like you are moaning so I can understand why they wouldn't be happy. I do believe you when you say you didn't mean for it to come across as a complaint; the letting agent has overreacted hugely to the FB post and was very rude.

I'd delete the FB post and email the branch manager, cc'ing in the person who called you (or vice versa) and make it clear you have deleted the post, you didn't mean for it to be read as a complaint but in return you would appreciate an apology for how you were spoken to. Perhaps they will be more professional, apologise and you can all draw a line under it.

This

Once you posted a negative on SM, it's there, people only remember the negatives.

You may say it was just a question, but it will be regarded as a negative.

@myuterusistryingtokillme previous to moving for work we owned several properties and have always had British gas Homecare then a similar thing from a large local heating business both offered 24 call out guarantees as part of their policies, i'd have thought a large letting agent - which this is would have the clout to have something similar in place. Clearly this isn't the norm but it's all I've known.

Doesn't matter. You have an emergency line, you man it! You don't give wrong info, not have the provision you claim to, and get to be annoyed

i’m not sure what scheme your letting agent is in OP but here is the property ombudsman code of practice www.tpos.co.uk/images/documents/Codes/TPOE22-7_Code_of_Practice_for_Residential_Letting_Agents_A4_FINAL.pdf paragraph 15c covers out of hours reporting and a message saying an issue will be dealt with in 3 days would not comply with the code. An unmanned phone line is not appropriate and not what is expected.

The phone behaviour from the agent was poor too regardless of what was posted on Facebook there is no excuse for rudeness from someone who is supposed to be a professional.

Love this.

Three days with no hot water is do-able. When our boiler went in January, we were left with no heating or hot water for several days, because we had to arrange a plumber and wait for them to be free. It was bloody freezing with no heating, and we ended up going swimming in the evening in order to be able to have a hot shower and wash hair. There was no way I could go to work without washing properly for that long, and a split-second freezing-cold shower in the morning wasn’t quiet enough. Is there a leisure centre near you?

What do you do for a living? Rare is the job where you have to be on call twenty four hours a day and that not responding to a answer phone message within forty-five minutes is not good enough.

Whatever you do, you must run a tight ship.

Yabu

the point of the post was should we take further how I was spoken to.

op, with all due respect, what do you think you can achieve by "taking it further"? As a pp pointed out, the letting agent do not work for you. They work for the landlord. You can't fire them and find a new letting agent as you do not have a contract with them. They have no obligation or need to keep you happy or apologise for their behaviour.

Also all the landlords saying they'd be pissed off if their agent spoke to a tenant like that. I'm a landlord, I'd be really pleased if my agents put the tenants in their place like that. I've got no time for this entitled behaviour from tenants. As a homeowner, if my boiler breaks, I may well have to wait a few days or even weeks if it's not a quick repair. Tenants are no fucking different. If the parts aren't in stock or a new boiler needs to be fitted, it takes time. Suck it up like homeowners have to

Actually you are wrong @satelliteheart the agent does have a duty to keep a tenant happy and the behaviour demonstrated by the agent would not be classed as industry best practice. A quick response to maintenance issuers protects the landlord as it means further damage isn’t caused to the property.

The OP was concerned that she hadn’t received a reply to her report not that she had to wait for the repair. As a tenant you have no control over organising the repair or any information about what is going on and that is what makes the situation more stressful than if you are dealing with it yourself.

No, they don't "have a duty" to keep the tenant happy, they have a duty to fulfil the contract they hold with the landlord. Which most likely includes a clause about arranging repairs in a timely manner, which was done here. No landlord-agency contract I've ever seen includes a clause about keeping whiny tenants happy

Industry best practice is just that, best practice, doesn't mean the agent needs to adhere to it and op has very little recourse if she's unhappy about the way she's been spoken to. As I said, she can't replace the letting agent so there's no point taking anything further

Actually you are wrong @satelliteheart the agent does have a duty to keep a tenant happy

That's absolute rubbish. What sort of a duty?

Also, quite hard to 'keep a tenant happy' who isn't willing to wait three quarters of an hour outside business hours,

Actually, the OP has an excellent option open to her - she can go back on FB, and post about what happened, and how the agent spoke to her. That seems to be the only time the EA in question minds about customer service.

The agent has an overarching duty to abide to a code of practice for the redress scheme that they are a part of. If they don’t abide by the scheme rules they can be banned from trading so industry best practice does matter.

The OP can complain if she is not happy with the agents behaviour and if she isn’t happy with the outcome she can take it further to whichever ombudsman scheme the agent is part of.

The phone agent person was so unprofessional. Big cry baby. You only asked for advice and she's taken it the other way. I don't/wouldn't like the idea of no hot water for about 5 days either especially with little ones. Best just to forget about it now. Hope you get the boiler sorted out.

Honestly, you're not coming across great yourself OP

And by your reckoning then @satelliteheart they shouldn't have given a crap what I put on FB....I'm not their problem, they don't need to keep me happy so if that's the name of the game I'm not sure why care what a tenant thinks or writes.

@whyarepeoplesobananas well aren't you truly delightful.

This thread is full of people telling you your behaviour was out of order, ott and rude. But feel free to "take it further". Take it to the ombudsmen if you want to. All it will result in is you being blacklisted by all the local letting agents and landlords because believe me, they do talk. It's not fun being homeless. Is that a risk worth taking just because you were called out on your unnecessary FB post?

@satelliteheart so you think I should be threatened with eviction now do you, again just delightful.

This!