Can I get out of an estate agents greedy contract?

[Peter101]

Our tenants have just renewed the contract to rent one of our houses for a further year. This will be the fourth year that they have been renting from us. We use an estate agency (Rhymes with Poor Hoov) to handle the rent collection etc. We pay the agency over £100 per month to collect the rent. I have just received a statement saying that they are charging us a total of £375 this month in management fees to renew our tenants contract. I am getting a bit fed up of paying this estate agent all this money for doing very little, and on occasion messing up and paying us our rent very late. Does anyone know if there is a legal way to get out of this deal with the estate agent so that I can just collect the rent myself? Or am I stuck with them for the duration of the tenancy.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[DS3R]

So you'd like to get out of a legal contract, to which you signed and agreed presumably having read the terms and made sure you thoroughly understood them before you signed and agreed scott free?

Hint- there's an emphasis here.

[Peter101]

DS3R said:

So you'd like to get out of a legal contract, to which you signed and agreed presumably having read the terms and made sure you thoroughly understood them before you signed and agreed scott free?

Hint- there's an emphasis here.

I am not in the mood for unhelpful tts like you.

[Peter101]

I am wanting to know if there is a period of time after which I can terminate my relationship with the estate agency. I am sure I will have to pay some kind of penalty though.

[Soovy]

Peter101 said:

DS3R said:

So you'd like to get out of a legal contract, to which you signed and agreed presumably having read the terms and made sure you thoroughly understood them before you signed and agreed scott free?

Hint- there's an emphasis here.

I am not in the mood for unhelpful tts like you.

He's not being unhelpful.

This place is FULL of people who want to escape their obligations.


ANYWAY


1. What does the contract SAY about you having the right to terminate it an each anniversary, or at all? What is the notice period whereby you can terminate? Can you escape the contract at all when the tenants remain in place?

2. The answer to 1 above will be in the contract YOU SIGNED.

3. Therefore, get a copy of the contract and READ IT to get the answer.

4. If the contract states that you cannot terminate the contract while the tenants that are in there now are renewing, then you'll have to suck it up and get on with it lesson learned. You MIGHT have the right to terminate each year IF you giev them a certain amount of notice before the anniversary.


In short, the contract will tell you all you need to know. What it says, goes.

Edited by Soovy on Tuesday 13th July 09:47

[Wings]

[/quote]

2. The answer to 1 above will be in the contract YOU SIGNED.

3. Therefore, get a copy of the contract and READ IT to get the answer.

In short, the contract will tell you all you need to know. What it says, goes.

Edited by Soovy on Tuesday 13th July 09:47

[/quote]

Absolutely agree, read the contract, check to see whether the agents have adhered to their side/terms of the contract, also make referral to the Judgment in the Office of Fair Trading-v-Foxtons case, the same that were prove to be a benchmark for a considerable time in similar disputes between property landlords and letting agents.

Link to Judgment;

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2009/1681.h...

[DS3R]

Peter101 said:

I am not in the mood for unhelpful tts like you.

As if your original post didn't make you sound like enough of an idiot...

[Peter101]

DS3R said:

Peter101 said:

I am not in the mood for unhelpful tts like you.

As if your original post didn't make you sound like enough of an idiot...

Have you not got something better to do. Bellends like yourself are ruining these forums. I asked a simple question, if you cant grasp that or have nothing helpful to say don't comment.

[tonym911]

Hmm, quite glad you're not my landlord. If it makes you feel any better be assured that the estate agents will be ripping off the tenants as well.

[Piersman2]

Peter101 said:

Our tenants have just renewed the contract to rent one of our houses for a further year. This will be the fourth year that they have been renting from us. We use an estate agency (Rhymes with Poor Hoov) to handle the rent collection etc. We pay the agency over £100 per month to collect the rent. I have just received a statement saying that they are charging us a total of £375 this month in management fees to renew our tenants contract. I am getting a bit fed up of paying this estate agent all this money for doing very little, and on occasion messing up and paying us our rent very late. Does anyone know if there is a legal way to get out of this deal with the estate agent so that I can just collect the rent myself? Or am I stuck with them for the duration of the tenancy.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I can't see why you couldn't just terminate the lease, say for example because you wanted to move back in. Then once you have possession, put it back out with another management firm.

Of course, this is going to cost you a lot more than the £375 you've been billed for the renewal especially if you have to wait a month or so to find new tennants.

Unless of course your contract says you may terminate the management firm whilst retaining the tennants, which I think unlikely.

My father rents out 4 flats, himself, to avoid having to pay management firms, but then he is retired and has the time to sort things out. Do you have the time?

[Peter101]

I have spoken to the agent, they say that I can get out of the deal I have with them, but it will cost lots of ££££.

Ok, so the agent found my Tenants (within 48 hours!), But does this really mean that I have to pay them a fee every month for as long as these Tenants stay. Could be the next 10 years for all I know.

The Tenancy is up for renewal, so I am having to pay another £370 just to renew! To make things worse I have just found out that they have deducted this fee twice! And will have to now wait for that to be refunded. So I am in effect paying them to make things more complicated.
I ideally would like no agent involved, I don't mind paying a finders fee.

I nearly got stitched up by another estate agent(Mentioned above beginning with F) in London a couple of years ago after we sold a flat to the occupying tenant, the agent wanted commission, that later we found they were not entitled to.

I do not trust estate agents, so this thread was really asking if anyone knew if agents were actually allowed to do this, no matter what the paper work says.

[Soovy]

Peter101 said:

no matter what the paper work says.

That "paperwork" is the contract you agreed to.

You cannot escape it.


Sounds like tough st to me.

[Peter101]

tonym911 said:

Hmm, quite glad you're not my landlord. If it makes you feel any better be assured that the estate agents will be ripping off the tenants as well.

Whys that? Because I called the other guy a bellend? haha I am actually quite a good landlord I would think, Havent raised the rent in 3 years, even though I could have done as I am renting the house much less than market value.

[Peter101]

Soovy said:

Peter101 said:

no matter what the paper work says.

That "paperwork" is the contract you agreed to.

You cannot escape it.


Sounds like tough st to me.

Yeah your probably right. I was comparing it to my other situation with another agent, where the paperwork/contract said something that was quite illegal.

[Peter101]

Piersman2 said:

Peter101 said:

Our tenants have just renewed the contract to rent one of our houses for a further year. This will be the fourth year that they have been renting from us. We use an estate agency (Rhymes with Poor Hoov) to handle the rent collection etc. We pay the agency over £100 per month to collect the rent. I have just received a statement saying that they are charging us a total of £375 this month in management fees to renew our tenants contract. I am getting a bit fed up of paying this estate agent all this money for doing very little, and on occasion messing up and paying us our rent very late. Does anyone know if there is a legal way to get out of this deal with the estate agent so that I can just collect the rent myself? Or am I stuck with them for the duration of the tenancy.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I can't see why you couldn't just terminate the lease, say for example because you wanted to move back in. Then once you have possession, put it back out with another management firm.

Of course, this is going to cost you a lot more than the £375 you've been billed for the renewal especially if you have to wait a month or so to find new tennants.

Unless of course your contract says you may terminate the management firm whilst retaining the tennants, which I think unlikely.

My father rents out 4 flats, himself, to avoid having to pay management firms, but then he is retired and has the time to sort things out. Do you have the time?

Terminating the lease would be out of the question, we have amazing tenants. Ideally I just want to get shot of the place now, and buy a new Lambo with the money, but the wife wont have it!!

[tonym911]

Peter101 said:

tonym911 said:

Hmm, quite glad you're not my landlord. If it makes you feel any better be assured that the estate agents will be ripping off the tenants as well.

Whys that? Because I called the other guy a bellend? haha I am actually quite a good landlord I would think, Havent raised the rent in 3 years, even though I could have done as I am renting the house much less than market value.

Not so much that, although your response does make you seem rather intemperate – never a good property in a landlord – as the fact that you're obviously pretty well off but you're still hoping to get free advice on a forum like this (rather than being bothered to read your own contract) to solve a problem of your own making. Wish I could go through life nice and easy like that. Pure jealousy on my part I suppose.

[Deva Link]

Peter101 said:

....as I am renting the house much less than market value.

That's the kind of thing that you do if you're handling it yourself. Both ends of your stick are stty - you're getting a low rent and you're paying various managment fees.

[nomisesor]

Until we sold our London house we had a similar contract (which also included a fairly fat commission should we agree to sell to the tenants). Two comments - 1) it was clear in the contract that we signed that this would be the case, and 2) if the tenants are being rolled-over when each shorthold tenancy falls due, presumably you are happy with them, and, by keeping them on you have a steady rental with no void periods - a month of which would doubtless cost more than the roll-over charge, and which would entail new tenant costs? I'd accept the charge (which you can set against tax anyway), be happy that you've got good tenants, and invite the estate agents to your next youtube blat when they join you in the Lambo league!

Edit - or do as princeperch suggests below, taking care not to breach the contract as you do so.

Edited by nomisesor on Wednesday 14th July 08:51

[princeperch]

If they have renewed you are a bit fooked. If they are just about to, you may have an out.

My landlord was getting fed up of a certain estate agent taking money off him for not doing a lot. So we gave "notice" to the landlord via the estate agency and he told them he had found a "new" tenant.

We then signed a lease direct with him. I dont have to pay the "renewal" fee for the agent doing nothing, and he gets his rent without a cut being taken off.

Do I feel bad about it in terms of the letting agent losing out? Not for one second.

[Dr_Gonzo]

Do you/they have to renew the contract? Is there a reason why it can't just become a periodic tenancy?