UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi, I am letting my first rental property thro a letting agent on a fully managed basis, as I thought it the safest approach at the time. Having just completed the first 6 months AST and being very happy with the tenant we have entered a 1 year AST (they had stated from the outset that they were looking for a 5 year let, when they would consider downsizing as they offload their teenage kids). I feel that when this 12 month AST ends I would like to manage it directly, with the same tenant, but without the Agency (who do next to nothing for their money). What issues should I be aware of before I try to let the Agency go. What conditions/costs could they throw up at me.   Thanks in advance for your assistance Ken

Hey spindleken,

This very much depends on your agents. They could just let your tenant go, but they also may put up a fight and claim the tenant is their client (which it strictly is), so as soon as you end your ties with the agent, they may take their client with them. Generally, most agents will have a "renewal fee" - so every time the tenant stays in a property, beyond the fixed periods in the contracts, you pay them a fee, regardless of who is managing the property.

Maybe this blog post will be useful to you: http://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=305

I am in exactly this situation right now with leaders. The contract is up for renewal in october and I would like to take the tenant on myself. I spoke to leaders and there response was "as long as this tenant is in your property we retain an interest and there are fees due to us as the tenancy is on a rent collection basis".

Surely there must be something i can do to get rid of them and just manage this tenancy on my own terms?

Also landlord, the link above is linked to the post in wp-admin and not as the publicly accessible url!

Just had a little google around..... interesting 

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090807034155AAzv6pW

http://landlordlaw.blogspot.com/2009/07/oft-victory-in-foxtons-unfair-contract.html

I am looking to manage the letting instead of my lousy agents who never manage to pay the right amount to me and its never on time either. Funny how their cut is always taken to the penny! Surely as they fail to manage they have breached their own terms?
Is another way out to say 'fine then, take your tenant'? If the tenant wishes to stay and does not wish to be re-housed by the agent then surely you can strike an agreement between you?

I do not yet know how I am going to handle this situation. I need to have a read through my contract again just to see exactly where I stand. I'm sure there is a way out of this and I will keep this thread updated with anything that I find out and with progress on my little 'situation'!

Not wanting to confront the evil bitch woman in the letting agents, I decided to ask another agent if they could do the dirty work for me and transfer it over to themselves. They said it would not be a problem. It is a simple letter to notify the other agent. They said it did not matter what my agreement was with the other agent, as a year had passed it was out of date and not a problem. I didnt enlist the new agents in the end. I just sucked the information from them like they suck money from us.

interesting!

So basically if I just send a letter saying I don't want to renew the tenancy and get the tenant to do the same, then we are done, the tenant can stay in the property and I'm £60 a month better off?

Good job Jeffo

I dont want you writing your complaints to me from debtors prison but I am convinced it is the case. As with anything, proceed with caution. Though in this case all you can do is keep copies of correspondence. If the agent says you cannot do what you are doing, assume they are lying until they prove otherwise.
Lets face it, you would be upset to lose £60 per month for doing bugger all too!

Thought I'd post a quick update on this in case anyone is interested. I did write a letter to the agent and state that I did not want to continue our professional relationship. I got the tenant to write a letter saying they did not want to renew the AST and that we agreed it would lapse into a statutory periodic tenancy.

The agent came back saying that whatever I did, I would still owe them money as long as the tenant was in the property. If i wanted to end the agreement with them, they would serve notice on the tenant and ensure that they had moved out with a final property inspection and inventory check before wrapping up our business. Obviously i don't want to lose the tenant, just the agent: So i wrote another letter offering them a compensatory amount of one full months rent (which is their standard tenant finders fee) to end the agreement. Still no dice.

So i got in touch with a solicitor who agreed with me that the terms of the agreement seem unfair. I also contacted another letting agent in the area who said that they have no such clauses in their contracts and if a landlord wants to end the agreement he/she can do so based on a negotiated compensatory fee paid to the agent for loss of continued business (which seems fair enough). When I contacted the agent again stating I had a letter from a solicitor waiting to be drafted I was contacted by the branch manager saying that they although they "never do this", they would be happy to "confidentially" offer me a settlement. Their offer however was a full 12 months fees, plus a tenanct renegotiation fee (erm WTF... i don't want to renegotiate the tenancy, it is going to statutory periodic until I get rid of this pesky agent!) plus VAT. This amounted to over twice as much as I offered. Naturally I have declined their 'kind' offer and will be contacting my solicitor to send them a letter.

hopefully this wont have to go through court as honestly I haven't got the cash to fund a court case but I have kind of backed myself into this corner now. But I am convinced I am right. The terms of their agreement which stipulate I can never terminate the contract unless I evict the tenant are ridiculous. Fortunately I seem to have a solicitor onside with this and I clearly have a case.

I will continue to keep this updated.

One question though.... are the legal fees I will incur for drafting the letter to the agent tax deductable as they are property related?