fed up with ludlow thompson estate agents

[daisyn]

hi.i joined today hoping to get some advice.i rented a house through ludlow thompson two years ago.they stressed that they were going to be managing the property and i was delighted as i did not want the hassle of having to deal with a landlord.however,i have ended up dealing with a nightmare landlord and a useless property manager who seldom returns calls(i have been waiting 4 days now,having left her a voicemail,a message with a colleague and an email asking her to contact me!).basically,i want to know if i can legally picket their wimbledon branch?just me and a placard,i will be there a few hours at a time on random days.i have tried their complaints department,only received a reply from the agent i complained about!their complaints department has no physical address and no name to whom complaints should be addressed..this does not seem right.does anyone have any ideas about who i could complain to in this case?i would prefer to try another complaint than picket them,which i a fairly drastic step.

[bluebottle]

Re: fed up with ludlow thompson estate agents

Hello Daisyn and welcome to Legal Beagles.

Could you please give better details of the problems you are experiencing with your landlord and their managing agents?

[daisyn]

Re: fed up with ludlow thompson estate agents

it's a long story,unfortunately.
we signed a 3 year contract which the landlord insisted on.no problem,we loved the area and could live with the problems we could see(we were repeatedly promised new windows throughout,many did not open and some did not close properly).within 4 weeks the garage door fell out of the wood it was fixed to(the door was too small for the space and wood spacers had been used.this was dec2010 and it soon began to snow.property was damaged and stolen,including the landlord's beds which i had stored there.it took several months to repair the garage,agency said they were helpless as the landlord wanted to do the repairs himself.during the process i discovered that the landlord is non-resident.i was horrified as i was never warned and i know there can be associated problems with overseas landlords.
in november 2011 we noticed a large patch of damp in one of the bedrooms and reported it to both agency and landlord.we then had bad leaks from the bathroom upstairs into the same bedroom(at one stage i was told the landlord could not access any money from the company and we should not use the over-bath shower..with three working adults this was simply not feasible!)the shower leaks took three months to be repaired.
the damp,meanwhile,got so bad that we had mushrooms growing out of the walls!the agency did an inspection but months later when i asked my property manager in exasperation what she thought of the report she had never bothered to look at it,in spite of me calling and emailing her repeatedly.
she does not return calls,rarely actually picks up the phone,colleagues' messages are similarly ignored.emails also ignored.
in may 2012 i saw a solicitor to get us out of the lease which still had more than a year to run.we cited breach of contract by the landlord as he had failed to do repairs,causing me physical and mental distress.
he did agree to surrender the lease and i informed the agency,unfortunately by phone,that we were moving out on 31 august.she said she would confirm that with the landlord and did not want me to mail her a copy of the agreement to surrender the lease.
my solicitor definitely posted the agency and the landlord a notice to quit on the date specified.
i have to confess here that i with held the final month's rent as i was sure the landlord or agency would make retrieving my deposit(£2800)difficult.rent was £2050 so i knew the landlord would not be short after making claims on the deposit.
the agency became aware of this about a week before i moved out.they had no idea i was moving out!the woman i had been liaising with had not made any record on my file regarding the solicitor's letter or my verbal notification.she was on leave at this time.
despite several phone calls informing them of the date i was leaving,when it came to the day,no check out inspection had been arranged and there was still nothing on my file about us leaving.
i then had to go abroad and when i returned immediately checked on the deposit..i have had no notification that any effort has been made by landlord or agency to make claims on the deposit,which actually just proves i was right to suspect there would be delays.i contacted her on monday morning this week,she has now had 4 full working days to respond,plus i sent an email and forwarded her an email i sent to the landlord on tuesday morning,and also on tuesday afternoon left a message with a colleague for her to call me.the nightmare continues...