Letting Agent Issues

[Lesson268]

Just wondering if anyone has taken a letting agent to small claims court and whether you think its worth it? I have been to the Ombudsman and the letting agent have offered a £300 settlement, which i think is underwhelming considering their shocking service levels and inabilty to follow up or carry out repairs.

Just looking at what my options are?

How have they cost you financially and how much? I doubt you'd win in small claims for inconvenience but if they have caused you to lose money then I don't see why you wouldn't be successful if you have proof.

How much has the letting agent cost you financially?

Well they did not inform me about a pre-existing driveway dispute with the neighbour, which after he threatened to remove and destroy my car, which he informed me about through a note through my door, he then went on to key it (i dont have a video of him doing this but it happened on my driveway and pretty obvious it was him); they told me internet was included in the rent - i was not able to complete an at home exam because the internet was so bad - that cost me around £300 - they said 'we said internet was provided but not at what speed LOL' - it was unusable. Due to all the issues, of which there were many, this affected my mental health and i was not able to keep my personal affairs in order - i had not checked my incoming payments from a company i was contracting through and they did not pay me for 3-4 months and then claimed they couldn't pay me and went bust; The issues included not be able to use the shower or wash propertly because it was broken, for 2 months a smell of poo in the house which they did not follow up or look into, even though there were flies everywhere in winter (turns out mess left by a previous tenant in a locked room); the electrics on the hob tripped daily for 13 months - they never got it fixed; harassment and intimidation by staff when i raised complaints and followed through; acknowledgement by the agent that they did not have sufficient staff levels to properly manage the property or attend to complaints; incorrect information about the property's condition and size prior to moving in (i was not able to view in person).. the list goes on.. basically they are in breech of contract.. i paid my rent every month on time, and they did not fulfil their responsibilities.. the personal cost to my mental health is not something you can put a price on.

please see above - but contractually they were suppose to provide a service which they did not uphold - does this have no consequences? Can they just 'get away with it'?

I don’t think you have a leg to stand on. They are not responsible for your mental health and not checking your incoming payments.

They are absolutely right that they are not responsible for the speed of the internet. If it wasn’t fast enough for what you need then it’s up to you to provide otherwise.

You should have viewed it in person.

Also, the landlord is responsible for the repairs. If the agent goes to the landlord as states something needs fixing and the landlord doesn’t want to spend the money, as shit as it is, the agents hands are tied.

It is shitty that they didn’t disclose the neighbour issue. But I can see why they didn’t.

You have my sympathy but I would take the money offered already.

As someone else said they are not responsible for your mental health. They didnt have to disclose about the neighbour nor the inernet speeds. Take the money, you do not have a leg to stand on.

in future view places before you move in!

Agree with all of this.

It was on you to check internet speeds before your exam. When I did professional exams at home (during lockdowns), this was all explained to me and I had to check my laptop and internet were up to spec beforehand.

You don’t have any contract with the letting agent, your landlord does.

Ok thanks for your replies - my contract is actually with the landlord. It does seem there is no protection for the tenant here, and i wonder what the point of a contract is, if its just so the landlord receives payment? My understanding was that this is a two-way process and for a landlord to rent out a property, certain rules need to be adhered to ie repairs need to be carried out. These are basic rights i would have thought, to have washing facilities and electrics that are not dangerous. Also, this same landlord had a previous tenant threaten to sue him, as the property is supposed to be pet-free, as per the contract, and another tenant was keeping a cat in the property - the landlord paid out £1000 to the tenant before he even took him to court.

Suing a landlord for damage to your mental health is absolutely possible, but extremely difficult. It can't be done in a small claims court.

You would need a formal psychiatric diagnosis, then you would need to establish with evidence that your condition was a direct result of the landlord's negligence/behavior. You would also need to establish that the impact on your life/work/health was significant. Something that has simply made you feel depressed/stressed would not meet the threshold. Something that caused severe PTSD that prevented you from working might.

Your landlord also has a duty to provide a safe and livable property. Having no washing facilities for an extended period is clearly not livable and the cooker sounds potentially unsafe. These would both constitute a breach of duty if left unaddressed.

You may also have a claim if - for example - you had to pay for a gym membership to shower, or eat only takeaway food due to a lack of cooking facilities, or if the faulty cooker injured you.

You say they provided incorrect information about the size/condition of the property. If they claimed a room was 'spacious' and you disagree, that's a matter of opinion. The assumption would be that you were happy with the property when you signed for it - doing so without a viewing is unfortunately on you. If you arrived at the property to find it materially different (eg, a flat where a house was advertised) you may have a case to challenge the tenancy under consumer protection laws. This should have been dealt with immediately though, you'd be unlikely to have a case if significant time has passed.

While it all sounds stressful and inconvenient, proving that the above were directly and solely responsible for a mental health condition (I am assuming depression/anxiety?) that significantly impacts your life would be difficult.

As you say, there are other factors at play - you lost a (presumably significant) amount of money when a client went bust. The neighbor dispute. You have general issues with the property being an unsuitable size, and the speed of the internet. None of these are your landlord's responsibility, and could be argued to be significantly contributing to your mental health issues.

If the internet doesn't work at all, they have a responsibility to get it fixed or reduce your rent. If it's a speed issue, not so much. They should have called the service provider to investigate though. The provider may have a minimum speed commitment that they're not meeting.

They cannot lie to you if you ask about previous neighbor disputes, however they are not required to inform a potential tenant directly in most cases. This is your issue to resolve with the neighbor/the police.

They are not responsible for your failed test or failure to keep on top of your personal affairs.

You say that the agency has offered a £300 settlement - is this in relation to their level of service when dealing with your concerns, or a settlement on behalf of the landlord for the issues with the property? If it's the former, take it. It doesn't prevent you from taking separate action against the landlord for the alleged breaches/personal injury.

A letter before action from a solicitor to the landlord setting out your issues and intent to sue if resolutions/compensation are not forthcoming would be a good place to start.

Are you still in the property?

Your issue is one of disrepair against the landlord not the agent. There are quite a few no win no fee solicitors/claim firms around who deal with property disrepair.

Anyone old enough to remember Not the 9oclock News?

"It was then I called the electricity board" They said "this has nothing to do with us"

Hi - No im not still in the property - left a while ago. This was a HMO - I asked for the dimensions of the room, as you can imagine its important - i checked 3 times and explained it was important and the minimum size i was looking for because i had furniture to fit and and i work from home etc - they gave the completely wrong measurements.. The video was stretched, as were all the photos so they gave no indiciation. The £300 was from the letting agent, through the ombudsman, for service levels etc. A previous tenant threatened to sue the landlord, who lives abroad, and he paid the tenant £1000 just from the threat of it, because the property was supposed to be pet-free and another tenant was keeping a cat there lol. I think what i experienced was far far worse. I have asked the letting agent for a SAR to see if they were requesting repairs from the LL but apparently due to GDPR again they would not need to share those emails. Either way, there were 6 people living there and only one working shower upstairs - the one downstairs was unusable. Property was advertised with 2 working showers. In 13 months faulty hob electrics were never fixed - clearly it was so old it needed replacing, like everything else. An architrave fell on my head with huge nails sticking out of it, it could have been very serious.The fact that a LL doesn't need to disclose a driveway dispute even if he is asked is absolutely shocking - this neighbour was obssessed - we called the police - he keyed my car.. funnily enough turns out he lost - the driveway in front of our house did not belong to him according to the 25 year old deeds he put through our door, which didnt show it did then and don't show it does now - shocker! The main issues with the landlord were simply not getting repairs done or approving costs. I had a textured wall paper on my walls, im sure there was asbestos behind there, and on the ceiling.My bedroom had bad ventilation so had black mold. How on earth can he be expected to get away with this? Everything should at least have been operational or fixed promptly. Agree a letter before action is the way forward.

Thank you i will try that, but will they be interested if it is under £10k?

It sounds awful. I don't have any knowledge or experience of the rules around HMOs so I can't say for certain but I expect the fact that there was one working shower would be enough to cover them on that front.

As for the room size, again, the fact that you signed for it and moved in would be seen as acceptance I expect.

The other stuff is clearly not on. It certainly seems dangerous and puts LL in breach. It could be that he's a lazy landlord, or it could be the useless agents not communicating the nature/severity of the issues. Or both!

Try the LBA to the LL. Maybe you'll get lucky and he'll chuck you some money to make it go away. Court is going to be time consuming, potentially expensive and there's no guarantee you'll get anything even if you win.

Realistically the amount you'd be able to claim for probably wouldn't be worth the hassle, so unless you have the time/money to fight a moral battle it's probably best written off as a lesson learned.

Did you stay until the end of your tenancy? You'd have had a better case if you'd left halfway through and sued for costs incurred.

I remember having an issue with a dodgy overseas landlord when I was young - they left 4 of us with no kitchen and only one bathroom for over a month. We ended up getting the local council involved. They wrote to the landlord, told them that we'd be deducting the cost of a takeaway every night from our next rent payment until it was resolved. That got things sorted pretty quickly 😅

Good luck 🤞