Help! Useless Letting Agents allowed house to be trashed

[bookbook]

Just asking for advice . Hope this is the right place.
My DD has let out a house for 4 years via a national, well regarded letting agents. Her circumstances have changed, so decided to end the contract and put the house on the market .
She thought deep clean/ carpet professionally cleaned and fresh paint would be sufficient before selling , but it is taking a lot more sorting. The house is in a state, and needs a lot of work .
They have complained ., and the Letting Agent has come back saying tenants have a right to new carpets and redecorating every five years ( New carpets were put in throughout less than 4 years ago) The contract they signed said no dogs , unless by prior consent. No consent was asked for, or given. Oh boy have there have been dogs . Every carpet along with underlay in every room has been trashed -( even upstairs) and had to be ripped up. French doors in the conservatory have had the glass scratched badly as if a dog has been clawing and jumping up to be let in. Skirting boards are all chewed badly on every edge . Custom blinds in the conservatory have gone . Its filthy. Gutters on the conservatory were so blocked they had weeds growing in them . Limescale in the toilet bowl has been scraped off with what looks like a screwdriver/metal scraper and left horrible scratch marks .
So -the question is - what are the chances of getting recompense for all this. A strong letter is being sent, and I suspect that though in the right, they may not get anywhere without a lot of time and effort. :(

She had a Managed Let with the Letting Agent, who took responsibility for running the tenancy. DD was charged for this .

What did her contract with them say about inspections? Sounds like none were done st all hardly the managed service she paid for. As a minimum I'd want their fees refunded for the entire term

And did she agree inspections with reports sent to her at regular intervals? Unless she did and the agents simply told her everything was fine then I don't see she has any come back. If the agents have breached their contract with her there is not going to be much she can do. Hopefully there was a proper inventory before the tenancy commenced and a check out has been carried out? If the blinds have been removed and are nowhere to be found, then the cost should be deducted from the tenants' deposit.

Even when you contract a managing agent you do have to keep an eye on things. Your daughter should complain and find out what was going on - she needs to exhaust the agents' complaints procedure before she can go further.

How is it the letting agents responsibility

Because when you pay for an agent to manage the property they are meant to take responsibility for everything.

Right - I will pass that all on.
I don't know the ins and outs of the contract . She is waiting for the checkout report .
She is chasing up with inventory .

I can't offer any advice but can give loads of sympathy.

Just before we were about to exchange on the house we were buying, we went to view for a final time. The house had been let out and the agent was supposed to have managed the tenant and all checks etc. The owners lived away and had trusted the letting agent (who was also their estate agent) to manage the tenant.

We turned up to view with the agent and it became very apparent he hadn't visited the property at all. The house and garden were trashed by one young man and his aggressive dog. The worst bit was that the tenant had used the house to illegally run a dodgy business.

The tenant also left masses of debts and we had debt collectors turning up and threatening phone calls. It left a very nasty taste. The letting agent (who also was also the estate agent) didn't care and made no attempt to help us. This was supposedly a reputable letting agent/ estate agent too.

Thank you golden - it does leave a nasty taste . 'money for old rope' springs to mind.
It wouldn't sting so much , but they did invoice DD for maintenance jobs that were required. One was for the french door. My DH has spent two days getting it to shut and work properly. Whoever they had used had changed the handles to one door, the key didn't work properly and so had removed one of the security latches, leaving a gap at the bottom as it still wouldn't shut properly .

If the checkout report hasn't come back yet, it sounds like your dd might be able to claim some of the deposit back to cover the damage done by the tenants. The agency's responsibility is a different matter - it'll depend on exactly what the agreement was for and whether they've broken terms of their contract with your dd.