Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Borderline criminal housing agency

1 reply

Flowersinthewindowstill · 15/03/2021 17:30

Not sure where to start with this one Confused I've been renting a room in the same flat in London for almost eighteen months. Really nice room, great neighbourhood, nice neighbours. I rented off a so-called Managing Agent. As I'd just secured a job in London, I had to find a place quickly and admittedly didn't do my homework on this agency. I was very naive about renting in general.

Over time, it turned out that the agency themselves are renting from another managing agent, so they're actually sub-let ting to tenants. I've had a good experience with the flat overall, but an awful experience with the agency. They frequently haven't responded to issues and members of their staff are often rude and aggressive.

The managing agency (a professional agency, well-rated) recently contacted me as the landlord wants to start an AST with me as apparently the dodgy Agency haven't been paying him my rent for months Shock I was really happy about this, as the rent would be the same but I'd have access to a letting agent that wouldn't just ignore me if there were any issues. The lady I'd been dealing with emailed the financial director of the dodgy agency on Friday explaining that I would be starting a direct contract with them. They received no response. Two relatively odd incidents happened afterwards:

  1. My Internet mysteriously went off on Friday night. Tried re-setting the router, all the usual. It's never gone off for more than 30 mins before. I called the dodgy Agency to ask for the account number so I could contact the provider, and they refused to give it. They said they will contact them themselves.

  2. Someone new moved in today via the dodgy Agency. The flat has been empty aside from me for two months. This probably sounds judgemental, but the guy they've moved in is almost twice my age, not in a professional job (they state they only rent to professionals), super dirty/smelly and his behaviour when I met him really creeped me out. I was just speaking to him and he kept laughing hysterically. I'm a really anxious person after being attacked several years ago and now I'm absolutely terrified of being in a house with this guy. I received no notice he'd be moving in and they were just there in the flat when I arrived home.

After not letting the rooms for months, I'm very suspicious that they've suddenly 'found' someone. He's already got the keys now so the Prof managing agent can't do anything.

I guess the simple answer is to move out and I did plan to in a few months. The issue is that there's not much in the area at the moment and most viewings are remote. But I suppose my bigger question is whether they can actually do this? They were told on Friday and didn't respond till this afternoon. The dodgy Agency have said they'll release me and the other tenant from our contracts, and give my deposit back, provided the landlord writes off their 30k debt Shock

Not sure why I'm posting really, but needed to vent. I'm just not sure what to do next. I plan to seek advice from the Council, but beyond that I think I'm going to have to leave as I don't think this situation is ever going to improve.

OP posts:
MojoMoon · 15/03/2021 18:32

The council are not going to provide help.

You can ring Shelter's advice line.

I would strongly advise leaving. It seems very dodgy on all sorts of levels.

Look at spareroom.com. you presumably have individual tenancies now which means the agency can just move anyone else in as they wish.

You might be better looking for a small flatshare with a joint tenancy, perhaps with your one other person. Yes, technically that means if your flatmate disappeared, you would be liable for their rent as well but you would also be able to advertise, interview and choose a new flatmate for yourself - no one would be imposed on you.

Individual tenancies are to be avoided, I would say. No way of controlling who you live with

If you pick a flat in a reasonable area, then in normal times, it is very easy and quick to find housemates.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page