Urgent advice please: landlord & letting agent dispute

[Constantlybusy]

My DD's landlord turned up on her doorstep and asked her not to pay her rent next week. He wants to get rid of his letting agent and told DD that she shouldn't pay her rent to help him out. He implied that the agent has increased her rent (twice) and pocketed the difference. The landlord said he hadn't asked for a rent increase and there were a couple of other issues where , apparently, DD and landlord were told different things by the agent.

Landlord is now saying that if DD helps him, he will provide new contract with a different agent and lower the rent. This feels very dodgy to me. He wants to cone back to talk to her and flatmate in a few days.

I have advised DD that her contract is with the letting agent and if she defaults on her rent she will be breaking her contract and making herself very vulnerable. She has 6 months remaining on her current tenancy agreement.

I am looking for legal advice to pass onto DD so that she acts with caution. Thank you.

This is poor advice because it doesn’t prove he has asked her do this. The Landlord is the one that needs to be jumping through hoops to make sure the tenant is covered. Not the tenant.

Tenant is covered by what?
Are you suggesting he’s told her not to pay them will turn around and make a claim against her for non-payment of rent?

Why on earth would he do that?

Even if he did (insanely) decide to claim for non payment of rent all she’d have to do is pay it and the claim goes away. It’s preposterous to think she’d end up in court trying to prove he told her not to pay. (And yes, I have thought about late payment internet and costs in this scenario, no way there would be a standalone claim for those).

Because you (and she) have no idea if he is genuine or not and have no way to know.

I thought she asked him for ID?

Also, should something happen to him before he sorts all this out, she won’t have anyway to counter anybody else’s claim that she simply refused to pay the rent.

And should the agents take action against her she won’t be able to document the changes which could make defending herself more difficult.

I didn’t mean she has no way of knowing he’s who he said he was, I meant he could be scamming her or trying to scam the agents which could become tricky for her.

If this is genuine, there is absolutely no reason for him not to provide her with the request, formally, in writing. If he is reluctant to do that, it should be a red flag to her.

Ha ha, this is all turning into a bad crime drama. Is he going to be offed by an OCG do you think?

Then she gets sued by the grieving widow?

Back in the real world, she would never need to “defend herself”. She’d just pay the rent.

This
absolutely
AND she must get receipt on paying

frankly she has very right to be pissed off being messed around and should tell agent to sort the shit out with LL

Who knows what will happen? That’s why a good, written contract is useful for everyone.

Yes she should ask him to email this request to her along with his bank details which she should already have and pay him directly. A contract is between a LL and tenant and the Agent purely manages the contract.

There is a very good reason for him not to make the request in writing. It would be written evidence that he arranged to cut off the flow of money via the agent, which will be in breach of his agreement with the agent, because the agent needs to cream off their fee first.

To be honest even her sending him an email for confirmation would be a bit annoying to him. Not a great idea if she wants to keep him on side. She could ring and ask.

My landlord did just this.
Last year, he visited (emailed first) said he had had enough of the letting agent, they were rubbish, their contractors were extortionate and he wanted to manage himself.
At the time I was worried sick.
He had a new tenancy agreement drawn up, released our deposit (said he didn't want it, and wanted to prove he wasn't in any way being underhand)
Yes there was a rent increase, our first in 3 years, we still get gas safety certificates etc
It's fine, I think even landlords are feeling the pinch (no disrespect to landlords)

I'm a LL and I can fully believe that the LL could turn up on the doorstep.
We had a Letting Agent whom we had used for several years, who suddenly started to be late making payments and also my friend had a flat that he was "having difficulty " in reletting. (Was situated near the main line station in the commuter belt) I drove past on my work journies and had noticed that some days the curtains were open others not.
It ended up that we needed to sit in his office until he paid the rent into our accounts. What we didn't know was that he was using the money from tenants deposits to pay the "difficult" owners ( ie those who wanted their money.)
He ended up bankrupt, we lost a couple of month's rent and a tenants deposit which we had to repay, Apparently he had deveoped a massive cocaine habit.
I know another LL who arranged for his tenants pay him directly after not receiving rent. It turned out he had rented my friends highly desirable flat as if it was his- tenant paid him in cash.
As your daughter is satisfied he is the genuine person, she needs to request that he puts his request in writing to her, along with the bank details of the account he wants paying. A call to Shelter or CAB is worth it.

So you think he’s trying to scam his agents, not the other way round? And that she should leave herself vulnerable in order to facilitate her Landlord ducking out of his contractual obligations?

So she’s supposed to stop paying the agents (who currently could give her a good reference when she moves but won’t if she doesn’t pay rent in accordance with the contract) in order to pay her landlord who is trying to scam his way out of a contract with the agents. And you don’t think she should question whether that’s a good idea and what he might try to do to scam her out of her deposit or what he might insist on to give her a good reference or otherwise make her life difficult?

Absolutely. The LL is not actually named in the contract, just the agent. I found this out today.

She's sent him an email today outlining her concerns and for him to put his request in writing. She has made an appointment with CAB and LL is aware of this.

Unfortunately, the agent is pretty useless in general. He doesn't reply to her emails and hasn't done repairs requested months ago.

She's asked him to put it in writing and is speaking to CAB. I do think the agent is the problem here from other things that have been said and (not) done. He has also dropped the franchise that he was letting under when she first took up the tenancy and his office premises have closed down. He doesn't seem to have registered with a client money protection scheme or any other accreditation.

1. her deposit will be protected in a third party scheme. That is the law. He can’t scam her out if it.
2. he’s not trying to scam his agent. He is unhappy with the agent’s service/suspects him of fraud and so wants to stop the agent receiving any more of his rent money (see above re agent with a coke habit).

Glad she’s going to CAB. Since her contract is with the agent she needs to proceed particularly cautiously. It probably won’t do to simply get written directions from the owner as he may not, in effect, be her LL. The agent may have a valid contract with the owner that allows them to let out the flat as they please and pocket any difference, your DD has no way of knowing.

It’s a tricky situation if she wants to stay in the apartment as I can understand her wanting to stay on the owner’s good side but needing to not break her contract with the agent.

She's spoken to him on the phone and followed up with an email. He seems amenable yet I can't help but worry that any breach of agreement (from her or LL) will cause her problems. Hopefully CAB will be helpful.

Is your daughter’s deposit protected - please get her to log on and check. If not, I think the agent will not have a leg to stand on in any dispute. The LL will still be liable to repay it (with penalties).

Yes, it's really tricky because she loves her apartment and London rentals are both difficult to secure and increasingly expensive.
Why would the LL not be named in the contract? Is that unusual?

im on my phone so can’t copy and paste text. My coke head agent gave everyone documentation for the deposit scheme. It’s just that he had done a very neat piece of fakery. We’d used him for about 7 or 8 years at this point, no reason to check it. We lost the deposit as we repaid the tenant, so OP’s daughters money should be ok if she has paperwork and she has checked it on line.