Closing the door on hidden letting agent fees

Letting agents usually offer to renegotiate a tenancy after the initial period, for a fee, this is unnecessary as an assured shorthold tenancy automatically continues, the only difference is that after the initial period, the landlord must give two months notice and the tenant, one month.
letting agents also frequently charge a fee for arranging repairs.

I am a landlord and have lovely tenants, I consider myself to be a fair landlord and deal with any repairs or queries as soon as they arise. I have also had tenants who have caused no end of problems with the neighbours complaining and the police calling, it took me around six months to get them out and when they left there were no doors left in the property, holes in the walls and a kitchen which was completely unusable, it cost me over £3,000 to put right and it was only a one bedroom flat! I have great sympathy with tenants who are not treated fairly, but there are problems for both parties and the landlords are always seen as money grabbing and uncaring which is not fair to those of us who do the best we can for our tenants and are badly treated sometimes in return.

I have been a landlord for 20 years, I look after my tenants, who move into a palace, & usually move out of a sty, in rent arrears, I am owed 10’s of thousands by absent tenants who ripped me off, I have 12 rental properties I can’t remember the last time my bank account was in the black, forget nasty landlords, there are far more nasty tenants, & everything is stacked in their favor.

Ombudsmen are generally slow and useless. The answer to this problem is extremely simple. Regulators should prosecute obvious criminal activity instead of issuing reams of guidance, and victims should stand up for themselves and sue. Most long-established estate agents would quickly collapse. See http://anjaliszt.blogspot.com/2013/10/will-civil-claims-bankrupt-foxtons.html.

My daughter has 45 houses and lets them to, mostly, non working people, in other words, people in receipt of benifits. The council has the stupid idea that it is o.k. to give the tenants the rent money to hand to the landlord! As most people would realize the money often gets spent and the landlord gets excuses. This ends up with the tenant having to be evicted which takes 6 months and in the meantime no rent to the landlord! Then its bailiffs fees sometimes Police assistance and a really unpleasant time for all.

The other rather horrible event is when having been in arrears for several months, the tenant disappears usually taking the keys with them which costs the landlord hundred’s of pounds to replace the locks this is the tip of the iceberg as when they get in the house everything is ruined inside. Then its replace carpets, wallpaper/paint, doors,cupboards, virtually everything! This is the thanks for all the trust and and help they would have been given, as usually land lords will not entertain these people. No deposit is taken from them as they can not afford it.

I used to get my own tenants but had no end of problems. Now I use a reputable agent to find tenants. Since doing this I have had few problems. Certainly, when a tenant leaves I usually have to go in, clean and repaint but I no longer go in to a trashed house. If you take this route, check on the agent, at least one in my area is very careful if they are managing the property and, in their own words, couldn’t give a monkey’s if they are not.

Fiona, Gary and John describe some bad behaviour by tenants: I have heard similar things from other people who let property. Some use letting agents and some don’t and those who do have a similar experience to Peter’s with fewer problem tenants and more likelihood of the rent being paid on time. Psychologically, perhaps bad tenants have no qualms about being a nuisance for a private landlord but think twice about getting on the wrong side of a letting agent. But some landlords who manage their lettings themselves have had excellent long-term tenants. There does not seem to be any certainty under either scenario, except that employing a letting agent adds to the expense.

I am left wondering sometimes why landlords like Gary stay in the business if it is so unremunerative and indeed is positively destructive of property value with very little compensating satisfaction. John’s daughter, with 45 properties let to benefit claimants, is also persevering against the odds. Even the tax allowances for mortgage interest and the 10% repairs allowance cannot make good the depredations of delinquent tenants, defaults, voids, possession actions, and so on, especially if there is no capital appreciation, and little prospect of rental increases due to the changes to benefit rules and the state of the local economy, as is the case in many parts of the country. Perhaps London and certain other metropolitan areas are different and renting out properties is a better bet [although the entry threshold is very much higher and has to be factored into the arithmetic]. I should be very interested to learn from any private landlords what it is that keeps them going despite the adversity.