Legal question and help needed

[Perryashburtongroves]

Morning All,

I hope everyone is well and ticking along nicely. I've come down to the Cannonballs for a bit of legal advice and if anyone can help, I'll be very grateful. My wife and I rent out a flat to a tenant in Finsbury Park and the original 18 month deal is coming to an end in November. A local estate agent, who I shall not name, has 'managed' the property for us since the start and have been totally useless in every way. They recently sent me a letter asking if I wanted to renew the tenancy contract, take possession again or sell. We told them that the tenant is staying but we don't want them to manage it as they have been so bad. At this, they told us that we would then have to pay them renewal fees and 8% of the rent for the length of any new contract. find this a joke as we don't need them, no longer want them to have anything to do with us or the flat and want to manage the property ourselves.

Strangely enough, if we tell them that the tenant is going, then there is nothing we need to pay for. I My question at the moment is whether anyone else has experience of this and what they have done and also whether I can just tell them to do one and that when the contract is up our business has finished with them.

Any help that anyone can give would be very warmly received.

Many thanks,

Perry.

[QuartzGooner]

Citizens Advice Bureau.

Sounds like the estate agent is talking rubbish to me, if the contract is expiring then it expires, how can they have a claim to any future rents?

[northbank123]

Sounds bizarre from what you've said. Obviously you have an agreement with the letting agent - presumably a written contract? If you do then what does that say the term of your agreement? If it's not fixed-term then I'd imagine it has a clause pertaining to notice?

One way or the other this is likely to be a straightforward matter - and there's certainly absolutely no way that they can lay claim to a proportion of the rent ad infinitum. If you have the agreement there then post what it says but if you're in any doubt as Quartz said go see the CAB.

[Top Londoner]

I had a shitty time with a tenant. He fucked my flat up and,,,,,,,, well, I still get angry about it.

My advice is to read the small print of the agreement with the agent first.
Normally, afyer running down the initial (tenancy) contract, it then becomes a rolling monthly contract.
I am unsure if something similar applies to the agency agreement.
I found that to Google my question regarding a similar query, would throw up answers in a forum.
Anyway, I reckon that they are trying it on with you, rather like they are not responsible for any arrears on the account.
The agreement has run it's length and thus, you are ready to renegotiate with whoever you choose to, or not.

Of course, I could be hopelessly wrong about this, but good luck all the same.

Wenger out.

[GranadaJoe]

On a general point letting agents get a lot of money for doing very little work.

On your specific point, I had a similar experience and got a good result.

I was letting out a flat in Kenton and I needed to sell. I told the agent (who, as in your case, would not be entitled to anything if the tenants left) and the tenants. They loved the flat and said they wanted to buy it. Time passed, they got the money and bought the flat. Some months later the agent contacted me (again and again and again) demanding money as I had sold to tenants he had found. I told him to fuck off and sue me if he wanted to. He did.
We went to a small claims court. My argument was that, even though there was a clause in the contract granting him money if I sold to tenants he has found, the clause was in the small print and was an 'unfair contract term' as defined in the Act. His argument, supported by reams of examples. was that every estate and letting agent had had the same clause in their contract.
The judge basically told him that just because lots of agents had unfair terms in their contracts didn't make it legal. He found that, as a point of law, all such clauses were legally 'unfair' and therefore unenforceable.
I wrote to the letting agents' association to inform them of the decision and suggest they contact their members to tell them to remove such clauses. If they did it doesn't appear to have had much effect.

My case was different in that it involved a sale, but the legal principle is the same.
Was the clause highlighted and explained to you at the time the contract was made?
Is it an unfair contract term? (If a business is taking lots of money from a member of the public for doing very little it probably is.)
Unfortunately, only a court can decide, but don't be put off. There are thousands of under-employed solicitors and barristers around that could help you. I'd talk to one first, because there may well be recorded case law that could support your position. Either way, I'd be tempted to tell them to sue you. Given that the amount involved probably isn't huge, you'd end up in the small claims court, which isn't too scary or expensive. Also, such courts are very reluctant to award costs against plaintiff or defendant, so the worst case scenario is that you'd have to pay the money claimed, plus the costs of your lawyer. I found a solicitor who had just qualified as a barrister but couldn't get a pupillage, and he only charged me 100 quit (it was ten years ago though).

In summary, consult a solicitor (or CAB) first, but good luck and I hope you stick it to the man!

[Perryashburtongroves]

Thanks for all the information, gents. Granada Joe, thanks for the long post and the ideas, mate. I'm glad you got the better of them in the end and it shows that when you do take these types of people on, that the law is often on your side. I've managed to resolve the issue through a few phone calls, a bit of advice here and there and searching different websites and forums for a few days. The long and the short of the issue was that the estate agent was claiming that the tenant was 'their client ' and we had no right to be dealing privately with him. I told the company that this must surely be a load of nonsense as the contract and their interests end when the contract finishes. They then tried to claim that should we try and do a private deal, they would send a person round to enter the property and check up on the tenant to find out if he was still there. To this, I told them that should they attempt to enter the property without permission, I would instruct the tenant to call the police and claim trespass or loitering with intent to burgle. That shut them up for a bit, especially when I said that it is threatening behaviour to tell a customer that their company would break the law to enforce an unfair contract.
After a while, the estate agents started telling my wife and I that we could 'buy ourselves out of the contract' for £1900, this suddenly became £1600 and then quickly £1000 when we said that they were blackmailing us. In the end, they we haggled them down to a single £500 payment from us and a £250 end of contract payment from them to us. Probably a bit of hush money so that we wouldn't report them for threatening to enter our property illegally. From what I've read elsewhere, this particular company who are quite well known and located not too far from AFC, are total bastards. To get them off our hands for £250 was a bit of a relief, to be honest and although I would have loved to have taken them out, it is very hard and expensive from abroad to go through legal channels to potentially not win.
My advice to anyone who rents a flat or is a landlord is to look at all the small print and if not sure, question it at the time. This particular clause rang an alarm bell at the time but was brushed over by the estate agents very quickly.
Once again, The Cannonballs helps out and it's always nice to know that there are Gooners out there and on here happy to help and give advice. and top of the league tonight!

[GranadaJoe]

I'm glad you got a result and 250 net seems like a pretty good deal.