Thread: Disregarding of Tenancy Agreement by Landlord & Agent 'Your Move'

I have been renting properties for many years having rented through a significant number of agencies, I am a landlord myself renting out my own house, 2 months ago I signed a tenancy agreement with estate/letting agent ‘Your Move’ and it has been my worst experience of all the agencies I have ever dealt with, it is not so much the case that they are in breach of the tenancy agreement but they are totally disregarding it except when it suits themselves.

Of course the tenancy agreement is between the landlord and the tenant, Your Move ‘hide’ behind “we are merely the agent’ but Your Move dictate the tenancy agreement, indeed it was their local manager that signed the tenancy agreement upon behalf of the landlord and indeed it is Your Move that take the rent payment each month.

And, as a landlord myself, the landlord is dependant upon the agent, his/her agent, keeping him/her informed but Your Move have made their procedures, their policies, so complicated not even Your Move’s staff know of the condition of the property, of any problems with the property, unless these may be reported to them by the tenant.

Compounding this their inventory reporting is sub-contracted out to third party(s), a standard inventory, this inventory, is of 52 A4 pages, it is nonsense, it even itemises, as a fixture and fitting, unopened (previous tenants) mail on the entrance hall floor. When a tenant departs a property Your Move itemise a departure inspection report, when the next tenant is moving in they complete an inventory report but, it is apparent, that nobody at Your Move studies these, or compares these, which is hardly surprising as each may be of 52 pages which would occupy staff time trying to make head or tail of what may be amiss.

Now, at the time that Your Move signed, upon behalf of the landlord, my tenancy agreement they already knew that the landlord was in default, in breach, of it because they had bought a number of problems with the property to my attention, by telephone, the day previously, a number of other problems were reported in the inventory, an inventory report that had been taken on the morning of the signing of the tenancy agreement but I didn’t receive a copy of until some 2 weeks later, and immediately upon subsequently entering the property I made Your Move aware of further problems and over the following days made Your Move aware of more problems as these problems became discovered.

Your Move, before signing the tenancy agreement, had made me aware of:

• Cracked tiles on 2 bathroom floors.
• Burns to 2 bedroom carpets
• Fridge/Freezer not defrosted
• Some ceiling damage in entrance hall

My response to Your Move regarding these, bearing in mind that I was facing homelessness within a day or two, was that these problems would not prevent me moving in to the property upon Your Move’s assurance that these problems would be put right in the imminent future.

Upon entering the property, later the same day by email, I alerted Your Move of the following, additional, problems:

• Shower dripping (this is metered water and I subsequently measured the drip at 1.9 litres per hour).
• Missing curtain tracks in 2 bedrooms (removed by previous tenants).
• Carpets dirty and stained in all 4 bedrooms.
• Stairs and landing carpet so dirty I considered it dirtied beyond cleaning.
• Skirting board adrift in dining room.
• Handrail detached from garden decking.
• Garden gate post adrift from its fixings.
• Literally every wall in every room in need of redecoration.
• Paint missing from kitchen windowsill (the MDF sill was never undercoated before gloss being applied).
• Grime on kitchen floor.
• Kitchen Venetian blind caked in filth.

And, over the following days, I alerted Your Move of such problems:

• No TV reception from aerial point despite an aerial being present in the loft.
• Kitchen sink plug in pieces.
• Hole in dining room wall where previous tenants had routed a satellite TV cable through.
• Bathroom floor(s) leaking like a sieve, the reported damage to the entrance hall ceiling is water damage from the leaking bathroom floor immediately above.
• Kitchen cupboards covered in (years of) grease and grime).
• Downstairs toilet infested with previous tenants pubic hairs.
• To generalize, the previous tenants had made no attempt to clean whatsoever, not even a duster or vacuum cleaner. Every surface in the property is dusty, or otherwise dirty, there is grease, grime, the carpets were disgusting, it was just so bad that it was, reasonably, beyond inhabitation.

Some 6 days after moving in, having been reduced to sleeping downstairs on a sofa due to the filth of the upstairs carpets, Your Move appointed professional carpet cleaners, the bedroom carpets became acceptable however, I was proven right, the stairs and landing carpet were dirtied, ruined, beyond being cleaned and, after 8 weeks in the property, arrangements are being made to replace this carpet.

Due to the leaking, not merely the previously reported ‘cracked tiles’, bathroom floors and I had no facility to take a bath or shower, for fear of causing damage for which I would have been responsible, for a 6 week period until these floors were replaced and during this period my only washing facility had been the kitchen sink.

8 weeks on the shower continued to drip at 1.9 litres of, metered, water per hour, Your Move have been aware the shower needs a new ‘service pack’ for some 6 or 7 weeks but alas they decline to repair, other repairs have been put right in the past week but only after I emailed the office of Your Move’s MD warning of impending county court action against them, whilst other repairs, no TV reception for the past 8 weeks is just an example, remain outstanding.

In communications with their maintenance department they must read the Landlord & Tenants Act of 1985 over their morning cornflakes because it is there favourite quote to cite that act stating that many of these problems are not legally required to be put right by the landlord, many of these communications are recorded in writing by email.

However clause 4.3 of Your Move’s tenancy agreement clearly states that the landlord is to ensure that upon the commencement date of the tenancy agreement he/she shall ensure that all installations, systems and appliances are clean and in proper working order.

This clause has been blatantly ignored, disregarded, by both the landlord (who is located hundreds of miles away) and Your Move who vainly attempt to administer everything from their Hampshire HQ rather than their local office(s).

So fed up have I become that, more recently, I have informed them that I interpret that the tenancy agreement has not yet commenced, it can’t have commenced because the landlord needs to adhere to clause 4.3 before it may commence, and once clause 4.3 had been adhered to then I will consider the tenancy agreement to have commenced and I will happily pay the rent payable under that agreement. For the period until clause 4.3 has been adhered to then we need to mutually agree upon how much rent I may pay taking in to consideration my hardships of being reduced to sleeping on the sofa and washing in the kitchen sink.

Your Move decline to acknowledge nor respond to me regarding this whilst their debt recovery department continue to ‘harrass’ me for payment of ‘disputed’ rent payment(s).

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks

I think your on dodgy ground arguing that the tenancy hasn't started. The clause in the agreement has clearly been broken but that doesn't prevent the tenancy from being created. You've moved in and have paid rent so the tenancy exists. You may also be on dodgy grounds withholding rent, although I concede that you probably know more about it than I do.

Your best bet is to sue the landlord but I think you're doing that anyway. Good luck and keep us informed

bedlington,

That was what I posted back then. Thereafter I took a solicitor's advice and am making online money claims for reductions in the rent for up to the first 39 days of the tenancy.

If/when I may be in direct contact with the LL then I'll tell them that further claims are to be forthcoming, 3 months in to the tenancy the downstair loo remains a 'no go' area whilst awaiting cleaning of pubic hairs, still no TV aerial reception, and then there's, so far, 3 months of metered water @ 1.9 litres per hour (dripping from the shower) etc. and do they wish to sort these out in or out of court?

Might somebody knowledgably answer this one please:

I Have today received the LL's defence to my county court claim, previously, via the agent, they had offered a monetary settlement which I neither accepted nor refused but declined to enter in to communication regarding it with any other party than the LL or their legal representative, and now the LL is defending my claim in total.

The LL's defence is very weak to say the least, it is economic with the truth and, in places, factually incorrect that I can prove and in writing and one point they are focusing on, not that is bears any relevance to my claim, is that I had placed 'emulsion' paint rollers, brush and tray in the bath to drip dry, deposits of paint that I have long since removed with a damp cloth.

However they have, in writing, clarified that they have photographic evidence of this provided by photo(s) taken by a contractor who had been here, as informed to me, merely to replace the cracked tiled bathroom floor and whilst that contractor had informed me of taking photo(s) of the finished floor there is no way that the area of the paint deposits etc. around the bath taps would have appeared in such photo(s) unless the contracted had specifically targeted the camera on that area and such a photo would not have included any of the bathroom floor that he was supposed to be photographing.

I suspected, a few days thereafter, that something was going on because in conversation with the agent's local office they mentioned something regarding paint rollers etc.

It is in the tenancy agreement that, upon provision of at least 24 hours notice, I shall permit the LL or agent to enter the premises for:

1. Examining the condition of the premises, or:

2. Maintaining or repairing, and it goes on to mention that I shall permit entry to all persons authorised by the LL or the agent.

The LL or the agent had provided me with at least 24 hours notice of workmen calling for the purpose of replacing the bathroom floor and I had permited, agreed to, workmen calling to replace the bathroom floor.

At no time had the LL or agent asked or notified me that an examiniation of the condition of the premises, other than the bathroom floor, would be carried out at that time thus my question is:

Whilst a judge may accept such photographic evidence, not that it bears any relevance to my claim, are the LL or agent in breach of the tenancy agreement, indeed 'dirty tricks', by accepting such photographs as documented examination of the property, i.e. they are accepting that an examination of the property took place, having not provided me with at least 24 hours notice whereas I would have been provided with the time to clean the paint deposits off with a damp cloth?