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.

If he’s not trying to scam his agent it won’t matter if he commits his request to change the bank account for rent to writing.

But, as OP has just confirmed, her DD’s contract isn’t with the owner (who, given this, may not be her Landlord), it’s with the agent. So all of this is moot. DD shouldn’t start paying the owner until she is certain her contract with the agent is cancelled, or the agent may have grounds to sue her for the lost rent.

It’s possible the agent has a contract with the Landlord whereby they are, in effect, a commercial tenant and can sublet the flat to who they like at whatever rent they like.

This sort of arrangement normally guarantees the owner a stable rent whether the flat is occupied or not and insulates them from the ups and downs and legal requirements of residential letting. But it also means they have much less control and fewer rights over the property and the rental agreement with however actually lives there.

I don’t know if that’s the case, but it’s one possibility.

But the agent could just be playing fast and loose.

Yes it is and she's logged in to check all is OK today.

I guess there's no way of knowing what kind of contract the owner has with the agent.

You say that she says her contract is with the agent, not the landlord? This would be highly, highly unusual and I wonder if she is misreading the contract. The agent may well have signed on behalf of the landlord- that is what my agent used to do for me- my agency agreement grants them authority to execute the lease on my behalf. But my agent was signing on my behalf, simply for practical reasons (eg to save me having to sign and scan or visit the office to sign in person); the final contract was still between me and the tenant.

Now it is all digitally signed and I do the digital signature myself via an online e-signature platform.

If the lease contract is indeed with the agent, it will should say in it somewhere how the agent has the authority to grant a lease of the property. Remember that he is not the owner so would only be able to grant a lease if he himself had leased the property from the landlord , and he had express authority to sub-let. This would be at the beginning, in the sort known as the “Recitals” which is often headed up “WHEREAS” and explains the background to the agreement being made.

Other than that, all terms of the agreement between landlord and agent would indeed be confidential between them.

There isn't such a clause in the contract. I have read through it all myself. He has taken a previous contract from when he had a franchise with a large property company but this must have ended in 2022. Her flatmate changed at the start of this year so a new contract was drawn up, which is identical but with the franchise logos removed.

I have just looked at it closely and at the top it says landlord/agent then his company name (whereas in the previous contract it just said 'landlord'). And at the bottom there's a space for the 'agent' (not 'landlord') to sign so that's hopeful.
However, he has not given them a signed copy and the witness box is also blank. Furthermore, the dates are wrong! In the summary at the top, it has the correct date but in the body of the contract and at the end where signed, it has 2022. So he has obviously not altered it when he simply copied their previous agreement and emailed it to them.

So is the contract even legal?

Get her to speak to Shelter for advice

She's been trying to but their agents were busy and she was holding on for ages, then they closed. Trying again this morning.

Sounds like a right old mess.

As to whether that piece of paper forms a legally binding agreement between landlord and your daughter- hard to say without seeing the full doc and knowing more context of what the agent said to the all at the time. However I wouldn’t worry about it too much- the landlord clearly does want to continue the arrangement and he can get a new one executed when he gets rid of the crap agent.

How is this playing out @Constantlybusy ?

It's all been a bit of a tangled web. Suddwn development last night: agent emailed saying that he was terminating his agreements with both the LL and DD with immediate effect. LL has followed this up ro say he is keen to put a new contract in place with a new, legitimate agency ASAP. I don't know if it's possible to just terminate an agreement when her shorthold tenancy doesn't end for another 6 months.
It's been impossible to get help from either Shelter or CAB. She tried a drop in at CAB and phoning them but they said it needs to be passed onto a legal team and there's a wait. Getting through to Shelter on the phone is impossible. Each time you ring it goes to a message saying they've got no advisors available, to check their website and then cuts off. Their chatbot is the same. Always busy! Such is the sorry state of affairs this country is in with so many made homeless.
I've spoken to a family friend who's a retired solicitor and used to be a CAB volunteer. Just hoping that the agent can legitimately drop the contracts qith immediate effect and that she can start afresh with a new one.

I have replied but forgot to tag you.

This is all good. Agent is out of the picture, he should never have had an agreement with your daughter in the first place so it means absolutely nothing that he has decided to terminate it, other than he won’t be chasing her for rent. The landlord is happy to put a legally binding lease in place asap and he’s obviously not going to evict them. They are there with LL’s consent even before a new doc is signed.

It’s all fine. Nothing to worry about.

Shelter’s lines are probably clogged up with a billion Mumsnetters calling them as always advised to do so on threads here. It’s as abad as “log it with the police”!