An agent that offered guaranteed rent to a landlord went into administration owing him over £12,000.
Kingsman Property, in Ilford, Essex, offered the scheme which was meant to ensure that the landlord received the rent every month.
After eight months the payment stopped, and by the time the landlord complained to the Property Ombudsman, the firm had gone into administration.
The £12,000 rent money had been paid by the tenant but not passed on.
Kingsman had also said it would obtain an HMO licence.
In the case, the Ombudsman found that Kingsman Property had failed to ensure the property was HMO compliant; had failed to register some deposits; and had failed to pay rent money.
TPO made a total award of £14,921, including the unpaid rent and deposit, plus a £1,500 award for the distress caused.
Kingsman Property failed to pay the award and has now been expelled from TPO.
It is one of three firms whose expulsion has just been announced.
In a second case, Chambers Estates, of Strood, Kent, owed the landlord three months of rent which had been paid by the tenant but not passed on.
The firm failed to pay an award of £2,776 and has also been expelled.
Chambers Estates was yesterday said by TPO to have listed properties at OnTheMarket, but that these are outdated.
In the third case, north London agent Assetgrove Prime owed a landlord rent that had not been passed on.
It had also failed to compensate him for a new cooker which was missing at the end of the tenancy.
The landlord had raised the issue with Assetgrove Prime but been told that the tenancy was nothing to do with them. It directed him towards an employee who worked for another agency.
TPO said that despite the agent’s protests that an employee of another agency was sharing its office, the fact that Assetgrove Prime had allowed this to happen meant that the liability for issues arising as a result of the tenancy lay with Assetgrove Prime.
TPO made an award of £1,820 for the owed rent plus £300 compensation.
Assetgrove Prime failed to pay this and has been expelled by TPO.
As a result of the expulsions, none of the three can legally trade.
Regrettably I think we can see more of this happening. Far too many lettings agents cut their throats with fees that do not cover their overheads and the waft of regulations for all agents means you have to be street wise with your time management or you will take your eye off the ball and with no fee’s, worst thing to happen (unless you were one of those that milked it for all its worth with ridiculous over/double charging) will end up in debt. There is very little room to run a successful lettings agents on just fee’s alone unless you are very small or a very good portfolio.
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Of course ‘ THEY ‘ won’t be able to Trade, – they’ll just start another company and use a family members name.
Its like a useless merry-go-round. Totally ineffective.
Every which way, its LANDLORDS that loose !
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Two of them are already in Liquidation – with new, shiny phoenixes no doubt ready to rise from the ashes.
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These firms’ files on Companies House read like car-crash reports.
Little wonder there is a distrust of Estate Agents telling people it’s safe to swim when the waters we inhabit are infested with the sharks we read about.
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