Letting Agent - rent not transferred.

C

csirl

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Query on behalf of relative - same one who's mentioned on thread last month.

This relative is a reluctant landlord - rented out house due to having to move for work reasons.

She used one of the well know letting agencies to let the property. Lease commenced c. 4 weeks ago. Tennant paid rent and deposit in advance - both tennant and agency agree on this.

Agency was to collect rent and, after deducting fee, lodge it in the landlords bank account. Even though agency was paid 4 weeks ago, the Landlord has still not been paid. When she rings up to inquire why, she gets the usual runaround type answers i.e. "its being processed - should be in your bank account soon"........."paperwork being done......" etc. etc.
In addition to not lodging the rent, the agency has also not yet forwarded the final lease for signing by the landlord or the details required for the landlord to register with the PRTB. Landlord is very worried re: lack of lease paperwork and is now facing having to collect the necessary information directly from the tennant and pay the late registration fee for PRTB.

Is it usual for such things to take so long to process? Landlord is worried that the letting agency may be in difficulties and is wondering should she dismiss them before the next months rent is paid to them by the tennant - which is within the next few days.
 
Get rid of the agency they are rubbish.

Set up an account for the tenant to pay the money in themselves. Make this part of the lease conditions for the tenant. Then the LL can check this online, and inform the agency when it doesn't come in. The only money the agency should handle is their fee. The LL should hold the deposit and rent themselves. Otherwise there's limitless potential for the agency to monkey around with both.

The agency can mess about because they are getting paid. If they had to wait on the LL to pay them they'd be a lot more professional.
 
csirl said:
. Landlord is very worried re: lack of lease paperwork and is now facing having to collect the necessary information directly from the tennant and pay the late registration fee for PRTB.

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If they were supposed to do this work (are you sure about that part, the PRTB) and it is not done on time I'd be physically in their office demanding the fee back and the deposit in cash there and then and not leave the office until getting satisfaction.

You mention they are a well known letting agency. Obviously you can't name them, but that is a pity.
 
Bronte said:
You mention they are a well known letting agency. Obviously you can't name them, but that is a pity.
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The office number of this company stopped working yesterday - you now get the 'number not in service' tone when you try to ring.

I advised relative to make alternative arrangements to get the paperwork done and to get the tenant to set up a direct debit into her account. My guess is that this company is in difficulties and she may never see her deposit and rent.
 
Here's an update on what happened:

Relative went to office and demanded the outstanding paperwork and money. Got the deposit, but go no refund in fees.

Paperwork was in poor condition. Both draft lease and draft PRTB forms were riddled with mistakes including getting the landlords name wrong and the house details wrong. Relative registered online for PRTB herself. Draft lease was identical word for word from the one you can download from the Irish landlords site, so she downloaded a fresh copy and filled in the correct details herself and is arranging to get the tennant to sign etc. over the next couple of days.
 
Well done on the 'half' result. Seems the physical showing up at the office trick worked. With that shoddy work I'd have demanded the fees too (other than advertising outlay).

You mentioned they are well known agents, wouldn't you hate to be a client of theirs.

Out of curiosity, how much do they charge?
 
Bronte said:
Out of curiosity, how much do they charge?
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Charged 1 months rent as the fee.

To me the mistakes in the paperwork look like they were using something on MS Word and just typing the new customers details over those of the previous customer. It looks like they were sloppy about it e.g in one part they have the street address correct, but the county wrong. Elsewhere they've go someone elses name as the Landlord (I suspect a previous customers name).

The worst thing about it is that this lease, with the incorrect details, had been signed by the tenant, so they cant claim it was a working draft. As said earlier, has to be re-done.
 
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