Updating post from Reddit.
Hi all, I don’t post here often. I’ve terminated a contract with my agent 6 months ago due to the fact that they have neglected my email correspondence and literally done nothing of what I asked them to do. I haven’t paid them.
Now they are threatening with legal action and bombarding me with tons of emails. Is it possible that they will go ahead for 1.5k on fees that I haven’t paid them, in my opinion breach of contract was on their side…or is it one of their dirty tricks to get me into paying?
Your post is entirely too vague to give proper advice.
What contract/ agreement did you have in place with them? What did that contrsct state about ending it? Did you need to give them notice? If you did then did you give the the proper notice as required as part of that contract?
What info did the contract have about what is considered a breach of contract? Did what they do constitute breach on contract based on the contract you signed with them? You've said you feel they breached it but that can be very different to them actually breaching it.
Will they take you to court? Who knows. They very well might if you're the one who is actually now in breach of the agreement. If they will or not isn't something we'll be able to say with any certainty. Some people have gone to court for far smaller amounts and yet others have not bothered for larger quantities. It all depends on what they think is worth pursuing.
If you're concerned then you should probably seek legal advice. Because if you have breached your contract with them there is every real possibility they may pursue you for it and they'd be within their legal rights to do so.
You are right, I should have been more precise. Here is the snapshot of my correspondence:
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I am writing to follow up on my previous email, as my concerns appear to remain unaddressed.
According to the Landlord and Tenant Act, it is your responsibility to maintain the property in good repair and promptly address any issues. Additionally, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 mandates that services be performed with reasonable care and skill, which has not been demonstrated by you or the subcontracted inventory company. Despite the passage of over five weeks, no solution has been provided.
Furthermore, I have recently discovered that you have manipulated data and withheld information from the tenant at ADDRESS, despite the fact that you knew my answer and position on this matter. This is highly unprofessional and illegal behaviour. This has resulted in you denying responsibility and failing to resolve the tenant’s issues, thereby breaching your contractual duties to me. Additionally, you have not provided the official complaint process despite my requests. These actions constitute a fundamental breach of our agency contract, which is now terminated.
Given this situation, I demand the following:
This matter has already been escalated to the Ombudsman authority. I am already consulting legal and will be pursuing it in a small claim court unless my demands are met.
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In a nutshell, it is complete ignorance of any matters/correspondence from me. Certain issues have took them 2 months to figure, my tenant was without the washing machine…and I basically purchased the new one, although - it was damaged/broken by the tenant himself but they didnt bother to push the cost on the tenant and didn’t even had the washing machine reported in checkin inventory to start with. I was getting incorrect invoices, told that replacement tap/basin will be 150£ and than being charged 270£…bunch of issues like this.
You probably need to calm down a little to be fair agents are crappy but you will find they will only pay out when a small court asks them too. Basically you want £429 for a new washing machine but realistically you would only be able to deduct for a diminished portion from a tenancy deposit. Also if the tenant is to blame for the damage then this should have been a case for the deposit scheme not your agent to foot the bill. Management fees is a contract you signed and they may have not managed to your standard but this is still a legally binding contract that you would have to prove in court with evidence for any money back again I can't see your agent paying you back for this. I'm not sure what £379 has been illegally kept but I highly doubt they have kept money without an excuse are you sure you have enough evidence and a case for the courts to deal with this. Remember they are legal entities that look at evidence and not emotions so appearing angry will not get you anywhere unfortunately. Some agents add small admin charges to maintenance work so maybe the £150 tap was the work plus admin fee and maybe the installation might have been on top. All I can say is really think through how much effort and cost you want to throw at chasing money as agents will probably be lawyered up and you will find your legal costs aren't cheap. You can escalate it to the agents redress scheme which I assume is what you mean by ombudsman and all you can do is see the outcome but I don't think demanding will get you far.
I stopped reading after the first sentence. No it is YOUR responsibility to do XYZ under the L&T Act. The agent acts for you and is contracted to do what they are contracted to do. It is perfectly possible that the agent is in breach of their contract with you and is terrible (most are a useless waste of time or even outright crooks). But you are approaching this in the wrong way. You were stupid enough to sign an agreement with an agent in the first place, and with this agent in particular.
It is perfectly possible that you signed a contract that allows them to do absolulutely nothing and rake in the cash. We have not seen that contract.
Thanks for your reply. This letter/demand from me was something that I used as an excuse to break the contractual agreement. I was just fed up with ghosting on their side and continues bs. I am not chasing anything atm. They are, the remainder 1.5k of a total 3k annual agency fee
This is a contractual dispute between you and the EA. The EA has zero legal responsibility for maintaining your property. You need to read your contract carefully to understand what you agreed for the agency to do for you in exchange of their fee and under what conditions you can exit the agreement with what notice period.
From my experience the 10% management fees typically only covers collecting rent, sending it to you, acting as an intermediary for repairs between you and tenant (ie telling you of the issues the tenant has reported) and acting on your advice in terms of arranging repairs or replacing stuff.
Regarding the inventory, did the the estate agent not send you a copy of this? Did you ask to see it and check that you were happy with everything that was in it? When the agency reported an issue with the washer how do you know it is the tenant's fault and did you tell EA to pursue the cost from the tenant? You are aware that if the tenant is at fault you can deduct a proportion of the cost from the deposit?
Definitely agree on the other comment. You are not doing yourself any favours by being angry in written communications and by making yourself difficult to understand. Yes some EA are shit but if they have clearly breached the contract and you clearly have demonstrated you will have much better chance of getting them or ombudsman to side with you. This is much less likely if you are sending out ranty garbled mess like here.
If you have £1.5k in fees (and a bit more) then I woudnt worry. If they take legal action, you can fight your side and if you lose pay them and the fee.
However, I doubt they will take further action against you. You do however want to start recording everything the tenant has said, the agent has said, what has been done or has not been done. etc..