to be annoyed at my letting agent

[Wineonafridaynight]

We have lived in the same flat for about two years letting from a letting agent. We have had periodic inspections about every four months. Each one has been fine - we have received letters after each saying that

'You continue to keep the property in satisfactory order'.

Now we are about to move to a lovely new property with a different letting agent. New letting agent needs reference from current letting agent. Current letting agent says that we are messy and do not keep the place nicely!

This quite frankly really p*ed me off because we always clean the place thoroughly before they come to check and surely the letters stating that we take care you would think would reflect what they thought at the time!

They also said that we often paid the rent late. This annoys me as well as there were a couple of months where we paid the rent late because DP was made redundant and we were struggling. The day he was made redundant he went to see the letting agent to tell them that we may struggle and explain the situation. They said that was absolutely fine and just to keep them posted. We did keep them posted and only ever paid it late on, I reckon, two occasions. We also always paid the late fees as well.

AIBU to feel a bit upset that the current letting agent has said these things to the new letting agent? Surely a reference should be accurate so should state what was in the letters (which stated satisfactory) and i also would have thought it would be nice if they had said 'yes they were late but it was because Mr Wine was made redundant and he came to explain the situation to us straight away'.

Sorry, I know it isn't big on the grand scale of things but I'm really feeling quite annoyed about it and just needed to rant.

Speak to the agent. They may have just looked at computer records of payment dates rather than considering the situation fully. I would go round with the letters you received saying the place was well kept - this may shame them into doing something. May well have just been a generic reference rather than anything they actually spent time thinking about or possibly could the person who actually dealt with your case have been away when the new reference was written up?

YANBU, the letting agents are being tossers.

Do you have copies of the letters they sent? Also contact your landlord direct if you can, mine is lovely and hates the agents almost as much as I do but is stuck with them til she loses her tenants (wonder if thats why they dont like to lose tenants .

Thanks both!

We have copies of two of the letters. We couldn't find the other ones (which I'm now frustrated for myself for not keeping them more safely).

The new letting agent was nice about it when DP explained and he is going to go round early next week with both letters and his P45 showing when he was made unemployed, just in case there is any doubt.

DP was also talking about going to current letting agent to mention to them. Your right littleduck - your right. Maybe it was just computer dates they looked at. Just so frustrating when we have done all we can to keep them up to date on it all.

Losingtheplot sadly our landlord seems like a bit of a tosser as well! He is very slow about getting work done and we are pretty sure he has let himself in on two occasions.

We get the impression the new landlord will be more laid back luckily.

Go in with the copies of the letters you have got and the new reference and ask them politely to explain the discrepancy re: tidiness. Then ask them to check their files which should show that you have made more than every effort to keep them updated about your situation and were not made aware of any concern on their part at the time.

I would imagine that wuld get them tapping away to write you a new and appropriate reference PDQ.

Good luck!

Thanks Littleduck. I think we will do that.

Luckily the new letting agent was very understanding and since then the house has come down off the internet so I'm guessing we are OK.

They did also have our employee references. Although I found the question about 'Do you think wine would be able to pay the rent' quite odd as my line manager really doesn't know that much about my finances!