Nightmare tenant

[princerupe74]

Mate of mine has let his house through a letting agent. Searches showed tenant had 2 CCJs against him but agents insisted those were minor, and tenant paid whole year's rent plus deposit up-front. Several months into tenancy and my friend has been contacted by a previous landlord of this tenant that this tenant refused to leave his property after tenancy expired and had to be taken to court to be ousted, which took ages and cost a fortune. How could this not have shown up in letting-agency checks? Mate now panicking this will happen at end of this tenancy. Letting agents have told him A) it's not their fault, and B) if the tenant needs to be taken to court to be evicted after tenancy expires, that is entirely (including financially) down to the landlord. Is that right? Are the letting agents really not culpable? Should the letting agents not be involved in the legal process, or even paying for it, considering they introduced a dodgy tenant?

[Buenchico]

Sorry, but the letting agents can't be expected to search a database which doesn't exist.

To check whether someone is an undischarged bankrupt they will have consulted the official register (free of charge) here:
http://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/eiir/

To check whether they'd got any CCJs against them they'd have paid the relevant fee here:
http://www.trustonline.org.uk/

However there is no central register (either online or elsewhere) of eviction orders. Without spending thousands of hours scouring the paper records of every County Court in the country, there is no way that anyone can find out whether someone has been made subject to such an order.

Chris

[Eve]

Did the letting agency not get a reference from the previous landlord? Was this the one immediately before he moved into your mate's house and was this part of the agreement with the letting agency in what they agree to do for whatever they are paid (was it a one off payment for letting the apartment or a continuing one for acting as letting agents throughout?).

What any agreement between your mate and the letting agents says would be important.

At least he knows in advance to get some kind of plan in place - how long until the tenancy expires? Could be this will no longer be an issue - what were the circumstances in the tenant not leaving the last time? Could it be there was some issue making them desperate hence the security of a year's rent in advance? Not saying there is but there could be more to the story.

[MoonRocker]

It is there fault, incompetance, sue them starting now.

[EcclesCake]

Sue? Sue for what nothing has happened yet?

[EvianBaby]

Of all the properties I've rented (all but one through agents) over the years I've never been asked to provide a reference by a previous landlord and even if I was, what's to stop me just giving the name of one my mates and pretending they are my ex landlord.

Your friend appears to be panicking for no reason as I assume the tenancy still has time left on it. Why would your friend want the tenant out if he's been good so far? There are also two sides to every story, who's to say that guy wasn't the landlord from hell. It wasn't really any of his business getting in touch with your friend.

[bednobs]

moonrocker - sue them for what? They found thr friend a tenant AND he/she has paid all the money upfront! HArdly incompetent

[Twenty20]

Very, very loud alarm bells would/should have been ringing when any tenant offers to pay ONE YEAR'S rent in advance!

Something was obviously amiss that the tenant had to off so much rent in advance.

Your friend must have been made aware of this at the time - it's hardly normal to pay a year in advance. Seems a bit late in the day to be worrying about it now.

As to the LA, no they wont get involved in legal wrangles - I'm pretty sure the agreement between them and the LL would confirm this.