Suspicions of malpractice by our previous letting agent....

[SYS2R]

Hi Guys

Wondering whether anyone could offer some advice regarding some strong suspicions regarding a letting agents business practice. I have grave concerns they instigated a sharp increase of rent and change of terms which resulted us having to move and a lot a stress.

I was wonder what the legal angle for redress would be given landlords are not governed by anyone, yet agents are by the TPOS.

If anyone is up for providing some guidance I can provide you an overview of whats happened and what my concerns are.

Thanks in advance

SYS2R

[enquirer]

Re: Suspicions of malpractice by our previous letting agent....

What, if anything, you can do about it depends on the circumstances. Post an overview.

[SYS2R]

Re: Suspicions of malpractice by our previous letting agent....

Hi enquirer thanks for replying

The basics are:

• previous property let by agent 1
• let migrated from agent one to agent 2
• just prior to changing agents tried to add my girlfriend to tenancy, previous agent stated that everyone needed to move out of the let and then move back in and start new let after a number of weeks to let them to a check out/in. We finally got the landlord via agent 1 to add my GF to the contract without doing this. Shortly after arranging this the let changed to agent 2. They then stated that the landlord required us to sign a 6 month let when previously we had been told the let would remain on a rolling contract. We signed a contract as the issues had been going on for some time.
• Just after signing the contract agent 2 'notices' our contract states we are liable for water and issues request to pay this monthly. There are two issues here: 1) i had lived in the property for 3 years at this point and always been told the water had been included in the rent, 2) the agent was trying to change terms mid term. After a friend letter to them quoting some contract law they backed down.
• Just before the end of the 6 month period was up we received communication from them that they were looking to increase rent from £700 a month to £775 plus £40 per month for water stating this was at the landlords request. The previous increase in rent was only £25 from £675 to £700.
• We challenged agent 2 offering to pay water if meter fitted to property and offered £25 increase in rent as per last increase. This was declined.
• Section 21 served
• We ended up moving out being of December this year as we were not prepared to pay an extra £115 pcm

I have concerns regarding their business practice due to the following points:

• Agents are paid a percentage of the let, so it is in there financial interest to obtain as much money as possible
• All these problems occurred following the change from agent 1 to agent 2
• I discovered via open source intelligence the company at the time was £109k in debt and looked to be financially struggling. I discovered the owner was selling a few properties and it was confirmed he two was under financial stress, this led to the company being sold late last year to another agent.
• Subject access requests to provide personal data were refused. Agent 2 would not release any information held on any database or copies of communication between them and the landlord discussing the let, this makes me very suspicious that they have instigated the increase, rather than the other way round. The subject access requests were also not provided within the 40 day period.
• The attempt to change contract terms mid let is unprofessional.
• Speaking with other tenants of the block of flats we discovered that a number of tenants do not pay the same amount in rent. Therefore agent 2 are not treating everyone fairly.

There are a number of smaller issues, but these are the salient points.

The DPA issue has been reported to the ICO and I am currently awaiting their response. I am also in the process of putting together a case to take to the TPOS, and was wondering if there is anything else I can do?

All suggestions and assistance would be gratefully welcomed.

Cheers

SYS2R