Escaping Letting Agents agreements...help!

platypus said:
...plus court costs which can end up pretty bloody high.
Click to expand...

So roughly how much would it be for say the letting agency taking him to the small claims court if he lost and had to cover fees?

might still be worth the risk - given that the letting agency might not even find out in the first place and/or might not even win the case if he's officially drawing up a new agreement with 2 tenants who weren't on the original lease...
 
Link posted by Rich_L said:
requiring a landlord to pay substantial sums in commission, where a tenant continues to occupy the property after the initial fixed period of the tenancy has expired – even if Foxtons plays no part in persuading the tenant to stay, and does not collect the rent or manage the property
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Bingo!

Bring this ruling to their notice, if they're stupid enough to carry on after that, take them to court.
 
Also if they were to disappear, you would only have recourse against the two on the contract. But if all 5 were signed up, you could pursue all 5 for any claims.
 
Best way to get around this is tell the tenants to tell the letting agent they are moving out.
You tell the letting agent their services are no longer required as you want to "manage" the property yourself during this current economic downturn......

Photocopy their tenancy agreement and away you go.

Agree a discount in rent to the current tenants so that you will all benefit from loosing the letting agent.
 
Forgive me in not really clued up about letting agents etc but can you not just tell them they are not required then rent the property to the tennants yourself like the above post or is there a contract with them.
 
without reading through this thread. the high court has just found against Foxtons for this very thing. they have ruled agents are unfair to charge this fee and that when they do charge it is not clear in their terms of service.

this has paved the way for 10 years of charges being claimed back.

quote the oft and tell them to do one. i just did that with Foxtons and they have disappeared very quickly!

good luck.
 
The original post says he'll need to pay £3000 for the pleasure of doing so.

The OFT's ruling on the matter will be sufficient.

Otherwise he can happily go down the path of leasing to the other two tenants, with all it's precarious issues. (Easily avoided by offering them a lower monthly rental to keep them sweet)
 
Thanks for all of your replies. I'm
replying via iPhone right now, so can't give the most detailed reply.

Those who have mentioned me getting the other two tenants to Sign the contract in exchange for a rent reduction were pretty much on with my line of thinking.
I'd offer a little off a month in exchange for their cooperation.

I'd really like to avoid going to court as Im not in the financial position to carry on if things go belly up.
I will read that article when I get to work tomorrow though and I may well have enough to make my agent reconsider their position.

My third option would be to stick with the agent but revise the contract to disallow anymore re-introduction fee.....
 
"Where the tenant is more than one person, then providing at least one of the persons who signed the original Tenancy Agreement extends, renews or continues the tenancy then the same fee shall remain payable.
In the evern of a third party (being person or body corporate) associated with the tenant or occupant entering into a subsequent agreement the same fee shall remain payable.
Furthermore should at least on of the persons who signed the original tenancy agreement vacate and then enter into a new tenancy on this property within twelve months of vacating, then the tenant shall be deemed ti have been introduced by Lloyds Residential Property Services and the aforementioned "Tenant Introduction" fee shall be payable.
The aforementioned fees are not refundable and are payable regardless of whether or not a new tenancy agreement is signed, and irrespective of whether the extension, renewal or continuation was negotiatedor arranged by Lloyds residential Property services."


:(
Doesn't really leave me with much to work with...
 
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