Letting agent, recourse for damage to property?

conorhal

A friend of mine was working abroad for the past two years and used a letting agent to rent his home, when he returned he found the house literally trashed. There were bags of rubbish including dirty nappies all over the place, the TV and other small appliances had been broken, the patio doors damaged and broken and a double bed smashed to tinder.


It has taken him weeks to put the place in the kind of order that will allow his family to move back in because the place was in a generally filthy condition and he has a new baby.

Is there any chance he can demand that the letting agent compensate him for the damage done? Allowing what happened to his property is unbelievable. I doubt he can recoup the costs (running into the thousands) from the tenants that skipped out owing a months rent.

Xiney

Did he take pictures of the damage?

Did he have pictures of the condition he handed the house over to the letting agents?

He will probably have to get actual legal advice.

convert

As Xiney said, contacting a solicitor would be the best idea.

Do you know if your friend's tenants have received their deposit yet? If not, I'd advise him to instruct the EA not to return the deposit and, one new appliances have been purchased, give them the receipts for replacing the broken items with which to furnish the tenants, who will probably appeal their deposit not being returned.

athtrasna

The key here is whether the landlord paid for letting only or letting and management.

If letting only, no chance. They found tenants and sorted the admin, bills, contracts etc.

If management, that should have included inspections and problemshooting. There may be a case for some sort of negligence but as the others have said, you would need legal advice on this.

BostonB

Would the cost of suing anyone tenant/agent exceed the cost of the repairs, and the stress?

Jo King

The agent did not do the damage. Unless negligence can be shown by the agent there is no chance of recovery. A claim has to be made to the PRTB for the cost of the damage against the tenants. If the agent was negligent in sourcing tenants, did not check references etc there might be a chance of succeeding in a negligence action.

Xiney

Jo King wrote: »

The agent did not do the damage. Unless negligence can be shown by the agent there is no chance of recovery. A claim has to be made to the PRTB for the cost of the damage against the tenants. If the agent was negligent in sourcing tenants, did not check references etc there might be a chance of succeeding in a negligence action.

If, as has already been mentioned, the agents were responsible for managing the tenancy as well as letting, they may be liable for mismanagement (not doing inspections etc)

BostonB

I'd be interested in hearing has anyone ever been successful getting damages from an agent.

conorhal

Thanks for the info folks.

The poor guy was really upset, I'll have to ask him what kind of contract he signed with the letting agent to check if it was letting only or letting and management. That seems crucial.
The tenants didn't get their deposit back, but then I don't imagine that the expected to as they left owing a months rent and the deposit didn't even start to cover the dammage.

I advised my mate to make a complaint to the PTRB about the tenants and told him to review the contract that he signed with the letting agent. Also to verify that they are actually registered agents (apparently there are quite a few rouge agencies out there that are not) , and to request the references that the tenants supplied to the letting agency, ring them, and see if they actually bothered to check them, because I can't believe that people who would trash a place so badly don't have form for that kind of thing.
I guess that the moral of the story is to never trust agents, many of them don't care who they put in and what they do to the place as long as they get their cut, your better off having a friend or relative manage the property for you.