Letting Agent has left us out of pocket

Letting Agent has left us out of pocket

11:14 AM, 25th June 2013, About 12 years ago 15

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Letting Agent has left us out of pocketWe had been using a Letting Agent to manage a property we own. The tenants were there for 16 months, leaving on 30 April 2013. Our Agent had phoned us telling us the property was “clean, in good order”, but we wanted to see it for ourselves.

A few days later we met with him at our property to find the garden hadn’t been touched for months, very overgrown etc.

Inside the property we were met with the overpowering smell of cigarette smoke – we had clearly stated no smoking.

The place had possibly had a vacuum ran over it, barely, so it was in need of a thorough clean. The tenants had apparently hired a carpet cleaner but the carpets were in an appalling state, badly marked.

A set of new ladders were missing as were a pair of hedge trimmers (electric), a gas lift bar stool was broken beyond repair, dumped in the garage and they had decided to dig up an area of our garden & throw a couple of slabs on it.

Obviously, we brought these matters up with the agent, who seemed keen to ignore our concerns. We left our property telling him we would go home and look at the tenancy agreement and the inventory.

We left him at 5:10pm, I arrived home at 5:30 and immediately sent the agent and email telling him NOT to release any deposit until we spoke to him. However, he ignored this email and our earlier instructions because, as we subsequently found out from The Deposit Protection Scheme. He released the deposit to the tenants the day after we had viewed our property with him present and after he ignored our email!!

We have been left out of pocket as we have had to re-decorate the entire kitchen, pay for carpets to be cleaned, the garden to be sorted out, missing items have had to be replaced…but we want to take action against the agent, who will help us??

Thanks

Catherine


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10:15 AM, 28th June 2013, About 12 years ago

oh thanks joe 🙂 before I send letter to the agent (I use the term loosely), can we ask for rental loss, due to his lack of involvement which caused the mess we were left with? thanks in advance.

Joe Bloggs

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10:28 AM, 28th June 2013, About 12 years ago

im not a qualified legal but you can claim for all the damage flowing from the breach of contract that was reasonably foreseeable. so yes. plus inconvenience, stress, upset etc.

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18:08 PM, 29th June 2013, About 12 years ago

thanks very much Joe ...... i thought so, but just wanted it clarified. I can't thank you all enough on here...... much appreciated. Will get this done asap and see what happens .... will update as/when we get a response from the agent who was so, so abysmal!!

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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18:15 PM, 29th June 2013, About 12 years ago

Hi Catherine, one way you could show your appreciation would be to sponsor The GOOD Landlords Campaign 🙂

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18:22 PM, 29th June 2013, About 12 years ago

Hi Mark. To be perfectly honest, I am not currently in a position to donate or pay to join anything, having had the horrendous time we have had. the whole experience has seriously dented our pockets aswell as our confidence - but if and when i can, I will. thanks

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