Management Agony
The Ombudsman for Estate Agents has published a new quarterly report on his website, and this time there is more than one lettings dispute revealed. I’ll copy the more interesting one here:
The Complainant was the Landlord who alleged that the Agent, who was under instruction as a management agent, had been grossly negligent and had mis-conducted themselves. The complainant was seeking the return of the Management fees which were in excess of £800 by way of compensation. The Complainant was living overseas and had instructed the Agent on a full management agreement.
The dispute had 5 issues:
* Part of the ceiling had fallen down in the bedroom and had
not been fixed for eight months.
* The gas certificate required, was due to be renewed on 27
January but still had not been done by 5 July
* The agent refused to release the tenants deposit even though
the tenant and landlord agreed it could be released
* The only inspection took place after the Complainant
had visited
* The Complainant was never provided with a copy of the
tenancy agreement and inventory
I concluded that the Agent did not deliver a service which was fully in accordance with the OEA Code of Practice for Residential Letting Agents’ or in accordance with what is considered best practice and I upheld the complaint. I took the view from reading the evidence, that the Agent having realised their failings sought to claim that their actions were in accordance with the Complainant’s instructions or conversely that they had no instructions to act. At no point could I see that the Agent sought to confirm existing instructions or seek further instructions from the Complainant. I awarded £500 as the Complainant had received some benefit from the Agent’s service albeit that there had been failings on their part.
The last part was very nicely put, indeed. Who was the agent, and did they learn their lesson with a £500 penalty???
Pennies!!!
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