Problem Letting Agent

I need help please. Had to move 350 miles away 5 years ago, instructed an estate agent to fully mange it when could not sell. Paying 12% for my peace of mind instead I find myself in constant state of distress, emailing, calling and dealing with endless troubles. They are negligence, inefficient, the staff is rude, slow to reply or explain matters, rent never on time, an endless list of expensive repairs (never seen a receipt) having being far away unable to check if those repairs were really done. In the five years the house been let for three or three an half (the house was in immaculate condition) the cost of repairs and damage might have ranked to 10,000 or more, that's apart from their fees. My mortgage is a couple of hundreds, the house let for £1200-£1400 and they still managed to cause me losses every year as my accountant informed me.
I had to put up with all of this because I could not sell and they are the only agent that deals with large companies. I am now thinking of lodging a complaint against the mistreatment , negligence, distress and the loss of time and money they caused me, I don't know how to find which body they belong to or how to go about it, FSA written in their site(can give their name if that's help). What brought this about is the last dilemma which is causing me so much distress at the moment (only a mirror to many similar). In March they sent me a photo of the back fence, the joint at the corner were disconnected and one string fallen with half the second, I replied straight away instructing them to re erect this fence back up and tighten the bolts, it was an easy job that would not have cost much, nothing was done about it in spite of my endless emails to do it before the rest falls, last week they sent me a quote of £1000 to replace it saying now the rest of the fence has fallen due to high winds, 10 metres of length! I was in shock, shall I be forced to pay for their negligence and mistakes, at the same time the more I delay the rest will fall. Please help as I had it and don't know what to do.

As a private landlord with a small number of properties, I tend to agree strongly with Antony on the SAFEagent issue. It seems that an agent is now expected to double up on joining yet another self-styled so-called regulatory body. How many more? Who will you recommend landlords engaging as a letting agent when the members of SAFEagent get similar complaints! The fact is there are too many poor and/or unethical letting agents. I have no faith that SAFEagent will eliminate these just because they also happen to have CMP

Alan, SAFEagent is not a regulator, nor does it offer CMP. Please, please, please watch the video embedded into the following linked article so that you can understand what SAFEagent is before you condemn it >>>
http://www.property118.com/index.php/happy-1st-birthday-safeagent/30681/

First you should terminate your relationship with this LA
Recover any deposit and use mydeposits issuing another DPC etc to tenants.
Then go to property yourself.
It will cost you about £70 in fuel and about 10 hrs of travelling time for a return trip by car.
Consider contacting NPG who post on this site and seem to have a national coverage and a good reputation.
You are clearly being ripped off.
Your fence could be repaired for about £200.

From Linda.
Thank you for the contributions. I have read the various responses with interest. Lino is being placed in the bathroom so if properly laid, this should take care of the bathroom. I have checked and the letting agents are not with any of the regulatory bodies- theyclaim to be registered with the Property Ombudsman. I have just had confirmation from DSS that the family is on housing benefits. So it seems that the Estate Agents have disregarded my instructions, withheld important information and benefitted immensely financially. I am not sure what my options are now and I will appreciate some steers before I contact the Estate Agents.
Thanking you

Hahaha. Thank you for posting that video. No praise like self-praise. The Politburo would be proud to produce such propaganda. No regulation, no training but its got CMP. Oh look, so have the others. Forget that The Law Society, NAEA and RICS (possibly ARLA) insist upon CPD and education, what does knowledge of what you are doing matter provided you have got a nice sticker on your window.

Hi Linda. What you need to do now is gather all of your evidence (e.g. copy emails advising no DSS) and send this this with a letter of complaint to your letting agency. Think carefully about how much of the damage you feel wouldn't have occurred if they had acted professionally and in accordance with your instructions and advise them that you hold them responsible for this amount. It's very important that you are realistic so there's no point holding them responsible for the any more than say 20% of the cost of replacement flooring in the bathroom for example. The carpets would have had some wear and tear and caused damp eventually whether the tenants were claiming benefits or not so again be realistic. Justify your losses in your complaint letter and give them seven working days to respond with their proposals. You may also want to hold them responsible for any costs associated with serving notice on the tenant, any lost rent which may occur as a result of doing so and the costs of re-letting. You should also give them notice that you will not be instructing them to re-let the property. If they don't get back to you with a satisfactory offer then it's off to the the Property Ombudsman In the meantime, I concur with Paul's suggestion of speaking to NPG. They are members of TPOS, ALRA, NALS and SAFEagent and their Director Glenn Ackroyd who regularly posts here is also an ex litigation solicitor so in this instance he does seem the obvious candidate for a chat and a potential switch to as Paul Barrett has suggested.

Hi Paul - Many thanks for the recommendation!

If your agent has put in tenants against your instructions, they are in breach of contract. Ultimately, you could sue them for loses that arise as a result. This will be difficult to quantify. You would need an assessor to quantify actual damage caused by these tenants compared to expected normal fair wear and tear.

If they are with the Ombudsman, they should also have PI cover and need to adhere to their complaints procedure. You should first report your complaint in writing, sending recorded delivery. Ultimately, if you are not satisfied with their proposed resolution, complain to the Ombudsman for Lettings. http://www.tpos.co.uk/make_complaint_rents.htm

The frustrating thing is that these things are avoidable! Agents should credit check tenants, get guarantors and visit them in their own homes. The last being the most important! We do this and take pictures of their existing lounge, kitchen and garden. We tell applicants in advance - and guess what - the undesireables do not apply.

Then we video the tenant and the property at their new house - then we do a lengthy photo inspection report.

Because we operate a cloud based bespoke system, all our landlords can see at any time all reports, inspections and tenant payments etc - We have landlords all across the world who log in and do it this way.

You can view various video's on the subject here; https://aqs.infusionsoft.com/go/Video/NPGL36/

LOL - like you said, let's agree to disagree. I didn't produce that video, Vanessa from Property Tribes, another major landlord forum owner who supports SAFEagent did. I accept that you think we are both wrong to support SAFEagent and also that the other 2,000+ members of SAFEagent who also subscribe to another professional body are also wrong. I'm not saying you are wrong, I do, however, accept that we share a different opinion and I'm cool with that. I may change my opinion one day, so might you, it will not be the end of the world if we do I can assure you.

On the issue of Safe Agent - I agree with both Mark and Antony (you should form an alliance to become a Roman Emperor).

Yes Safe Agent is a badge - and yes Rics/Arla have far more substance behind them because they require qualification, PI Cover, protection insurance etc - So I'm behind Antony 100% here.

However these organisation are not very good at conveying the benefits of their organisations to Joe Public -

Safe Agent - whilst it is a badge IMO are far better at getting their marketing message across.

I'm in business - therefore I'm pragmatic and commercial. I'm in Arla and qualified - but I also have joined Safe Agent because it gets the message across most clearly to a confused public.