Hi - first time poster, inexperienced landlord, so pls be gentle and all that - many thanks
A previous tenant was 5 months in arrears and created approx £2000 worth of damage. It's been a real struggle over the last year to get the property back rented and to also get some of the outstanding money back. I have an agent on a fully managed basis who takes 10% plus VAT when rent is paid. One of the issues was that the tenant wasn't set up on a standing order but called into the agent's office every month to pay cash. This then made it easy to be late with payments or to miss them completely.
I had to go down the section 8 and section 21 routes before finally getting the property back in order to change the locks and repair the damage. After a few failed attempts at resolution I had no choice but to start the small claims court process with the the guarantor. At the start they offered a mediation service and after a call I've accepted an offer, which means I get back some if not all of what was owed.
The money I received back covers my damages and also some of the outstanding rent arrears. So my question is; do I contractually have to contact the agent and advise them that money has been received via mediation and some of it covers the outstanding rent arrears and therefore is liable to the agent fees of 10% + VAT?
I did start to draft an email to the agent but they have been so consistently useless that it made me think - why am I paying them when they did nothing and I wouldn't have gotten anything back if I'd left it to them. In fact all they did was advise me to instruct my solicitor to resolve it.
Sorry this has been so long - thanks for reading.
A previous tenant was 5 months in arrears and created approx £2000 worth of damage. It's been a real struggle over the last year to get the property back rented and to also get some of the outstanding money back. I have an agent on a fully managed basis who takes 10% plus VAT when rent is paid. One of the issues was that the tenant wasn't set up on a standing order but called into the agent's office every month to pay cash. This then made it easy to be late with payments or to miss them completely.
I had to go down the section 8 and section 21 routes before finally getting the property back in order to change the locks and repair the damage. After a few failed attempts at resolution I had no choice but to start the small claims court process with the the guarantor. At the start they offered a mediation service and after a call I've accepted an offer, which means I get back some if not all of what was owed.
The money I received back covers my damages and also some of the outstanding rent arrears. So my question is; do I contractually have to contact the agent and advise them that money has been received via mediation and some of it covers the outstanding rent arrears and therefore is liable to the agent fees of 10% + VAT?
I did start to draft an email to the agent but they have been so consistently useless that it made me think - why am I paying them when they did nothing and I wouldn't have gotten anything back if I'd left it to them. In fact all they did was advise me to instruct my solicitor to resolve it.
Sorry this has been so long - thanks for reading.
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