Simply I want to know, can I dump my letting agent? (in a nice way, so I can crawl back to them in the future)

My letting agent, has never done a property check in 1.5 years the tenants been in, they don’t pay me on time (I regularly have to ring and ask for my money) & expected the current tenant to handle the viewings for the prospective new tenant (as they handed in their notice then reconsidered).

Little annoyed, as other than getting the original tenants in, who turned out to be friends of the neighbours, they seemingly are giving me no service at all.
Any idea’s where I stand?

What does your contract say about termination?

You may have the ability to terminate by giving them a specified period of notice. This is very straightforward and the most common way to bring contractual relationships to an end. There will often be a minimum contract term (e.g. 12 months) during which neither party can terminate other than for breach.

If you are still within the contract term, you may be able to wiggle out on the basis that they have breached the terms of the agreement (although that will come down to what the contract requires them to do and whether you can demonstrate that they did not!).

Just tell them straight they are not providing value for money and they are no longer managing the property.

It isn’t anything to do with Belvoir is it? Muppets of the highest order, at least the ones here are.

read the contract? Eh?
Do something sensible when I have STW to ask? Pah! 😉

D45yth – nope.. nice recommendation though.

z1ppy, email me your contract if you have it handy.

It’s a 2 minute job to check your ability to terminate by notice.

should have mentioned this at the beginning… I’ll want to keep the current tenant.. how would this work?

Edit: what does the lease say about payment etc?

If it is just you and the tenant who are parties to the lease and the agent simply collects the rent on your behalf, then it won’t be an issue.

However, if the lease specifically refers to the tenant making payment to the agent, then you’ll need to have that changed.

cheers for you help Peter, would/will go searching through, but literally just had a potential job offer, so need to follow that up for a while.

Funnily enough I have exactly the same issues with an agent I use in Aberdeen. Unfortunately the property is too far away for me to manage myself.

You could be sneaky and speak to the tenant, I’m sure they would be happy to terminate their lease with the agent for a reduction in the monthly rent. My tenant has to give 3 months notice I think.

bugger I start tomorrow…

No my tenants are happy, they even suggested it (without rent reduction), due to the letting agent being so rubbish (from their point of view too)

manage them yourself.

I live in Spain & manage mine from here – just get good local people should anything go wrong.

Having good tenants is also a good start!

My agent wanted 15% full management – I can do it myself flying over & staying in hotels for that.

Having shit agents/factors can be worse than having shit tenants, although I tend to find that they both happen at the same time.

Before you do anything rash, it might be worth asking for a different property manager within the agency. I went from having a great relationship with a super manager to being right royally shafted when the individual left and I got lumbered with a complete dicktard who struggled to tie his own shoe laces. Unfortunately the dicktard I got lumbered with shared the same ethics and level of motivation with the director, and it transpired that I had got lucky with the original property manager.
Needless to say I have since changed factors, got new tenant in and have even had the rent paid after only one call to chase it up.

Factotum in Edinburgh = shit*
Braemore in Edinburgh = less shit

Good luck

*It’s only libel if it’s not true!

It’s not much more than a 3 1/2 man show: 2 agents, tea boy & a back room “financial guy” who is where the issue lies.
Agents aways say it’s the financial guy’s fault & that they have no control over him. I suspect he’s either one of the director or a m8 or one…

Fineholm in Edinburgh – tolerably shit, but no worse than the rest.