No signed contract with agent and inventory not up to date

I’m not an experienced landlord & only started renting out my house last year, following relationship breakdown. I’ve used a very well known letting agent from the start, to provide a fully managed service for me as I have a busy job, little time & I haven’t got a clue how to manage it myself.

They have provided a really poor service, right from the word go and I’m really cross with myself for sticking with them after the last tenants left. Although I have a string of complaints about them, my main issue with them at present relates to the inventory and I’m wondering how I can go about extricating myself from them, without getting into trouble.

I asked the agency to source new tenants during October ’15. There were a couple of false starts as people failed credit checks. Then in the last week of November I had a call to tell me about a possible tenant. I agreed that he sounded fine, pending credit checks, and waited to hear back from the agent about it, assuming I’d get a call to notify me that checks were complete and to discuss timescales.

On 30th Nov I got a call from the agents, telling me that the tenant was moving in that day. I was a bit taken aback, there had been no mention of a moving in date and because the T&C paperwork I’d received from them was incorrect. The tenant moved in but despite me pointing out that the agency’s paperwork was incorrect, I never received an amended version. I have still not signed any contract or T&C paperwork at all, despite the tenant having been living in the house since 30/11/15. I don’t quite know what kind of position this puts me in?

I received the inventory through from the agents on 9th Dec. I immediately noticed that it was totally incorrect. It had been dated 30/11 but the pictures were stamped with 27/11. A lot of work had been done to the house between 27th & 30th, including new flooring in one of the rooms & painting throughout. I wrote to the agency the following day pointing out that it was wrong & followed this with a detailed email of exactly why it was wrong. I finally received a response on 11/01/16, with their solution to be new photos taken of the house that day & a new inventory sent to me. I still haven’t received a correct inventory & I’m really irritated as they have already charged me £120 for it.

I would like to get rid of the letting agency as they’ve caused nothing but problems from the outset. I don’t have any issue with the tenant and would be happy for him to stay there but I don’t know where I stand on this. Am I in a really tenuous position, having not signed any contracts etc?

Please could someone give me advice on how best to manage this?

Many thanks
Ruth

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