Letting Agent Withheld Landlord's Money

[newbie99]

Hi Poster,

I am quite new to use letting agent to manage my letting property.

The letting agent have not piad me the rent they received from the tenants.

I have confirmation from tenants that they have paid the letting agent. It is now two months over due.

What can I do ? The letting agent suppose to pay me on 15th of every month. They have breached the contract.

As for the rent for September should I ask the tenants to pay me direct as I am concerned I may notget the rent from the agent.

Any advice is appreciated as without rent I potentially can't afford to pay the next month's mortgage.

[Mamyalynne]

What has been the Agent's response to your requests for payment?

[newbie99]

The agent told me that they think they have processed the payment and seems to blame the bank. But it is clearly my bank account does not have the money. I suspect the agent is running into financial difficulty. I have emailed them and they never reply to my email. When I phone to ask for payment they said they still looking into it.

[KARL]

Sadly, for landlords, letting agents are sometimes (too often) unsatisfactory, and also sometimes for tenants. From what I have seen, they far too often simply exist to skim off a percentage of everything - rent and tasks such as arranging maintenance. I understand your dissatisfaction but you can only go against any stipulations in your agreement with your agent by invoking such things as notice to terminate the agreement and then following the terms of the agreement.

In my view, the best thing agents can claim is being able to locate tenants. However, I know of one case local to me where the agent took on a tenant who is a drug addict (poor/no vetting, I would say) and until recently was dealing but now appears to be selling herself to feed her habit. The result is pandemonium (noise, disturbance, violence, etc.) in the entire building owned by the landlord. Tenants are leaving - damage and income lost and meanwhile it takes months to evict the problem tenant, if that is even achievable (should be possible but involves court action).

While there must be good agents about, finding out whether one's own is any use can be a bit of a roulette.

[newbie99]

The only agreement signed is to authorise them as the agent to manage the property. But I will inform them my intent to cease my agreement of this authorisation.