Letting Agents - what is expected?

Hi, our tenants are breaking their one year lease after four months and we are having a lot of difficulties dealing with our letting agent. We had a few problems with the agent from the outset. The first people they recommended didn't have decent references (no previous landlord reference, no employer's reference, just a statement from an accountant saying 'company director' - turned out the company had been liquidated). The next people they recommended are now leaving because they can't afford the rent after just four months. Other problems we had included the agent's delay in passing on our deposit from the tenant, setting up the standing order on the wrong date, not changing over the utilities into the tenants' names (we ended up having to pay for their gas bill and only discovered this two months after they moved in) and saying that was the tenant's responsibility, not theirs even though the tenant was the one who brought it to our attention. Each time when we raised it with the agent, she had a defensive and at times aggressive attitude with us.

We rang the agent and explained our concerns and she agreed to a reduced fee for the relet after we paid a sizeable fee a few months ago. We felt it was still too high so declined it and thought that was that. The agent then emailed us the next day and revoked her offer, saying that they were not going to admit liability for the tenants' leaving and then she said they would be charging us an even higher rate than we paid back in Feb for the initial letting.

We never blamed the agent for the tenants not being able to afford their rent any more and understand circumstances can change, but we did think the service was very poor overall and that they recommended poor quality tenants, didn't manage the utilities transfer that we shouldn't have to pay a full relet fee after just 4 months, yet alone be charged an even higher rate. Has anyone else had similar experiences with letting agents? This is a first for us, anyone else who we have dealt with has found us good tenants, has transferred the utilities and basically done what we hired them to do. But maybe times have changed and this is the way they behave now! Any information on what is the norm would be appreciated. Maybe we were just foolish for trusting one of the smaller, one stop agencies over the larger, more experienced ones. Thanks a million.

Have to say after a few years dealing with a few different letting agents I've yet to use one I could recommend whole heartily to someone else. Even the best one we had, made some very basic errors.

I am sure every landlord will tell you of negative experiences. I usually put my own ad on Daft, although I do have one good agent now too. I now prefer to take care of things myself, and mostly this has been a positive experience. Agents really know how to rip you off, and they dont care who they put into your house, once their fee is paid.