[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by DemolitionRed

Yep, nightmare tenants do exist but the majority of tenants are pretty good.

Having worked for two fairly well known sales and letting agents I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that there are more unscrupulous letting agents than there are tenants. They blatantly break the law in both lettings and sales in an attempt to run cash rich businesses. I once wrote an article titled, 20 ways your letting agent will screw you. That included screwing the landlords as well as the tenants.

Landlords turn to agents because they don't want the hassle of rogue tenants and tenants turn to agents because they don't want to know their nosy landlord, but I would advise any potential tenant or landlord to go it alone so long as they can become experts in how a tenancy works.

Yes, when we moved to consett a few years back, the letting agent robbed us of 200 quid. I know its not much in the big scheme of things but still, that would be a hell of a lot of money to some people (it wasnt to us at the time...now it would be a bit bigger a problem)

The agent also did his landlord out of a steady rent by refusing to fix the boiler that was knackered from the day we moved in! The landlord didn't have much contact with pattinsons as far as I know, and I only met him once and didnt have his number (nor would the agent give me it...) and pretty much left the agent assigned to that house to get on with repairs and stuff. For reasons unknown (because I bet the landlord was paying for repairs, not the agent ) the agent refused for 7 months to get the boiler sorted, suggesting we fit a new one ourselves(!), then putting us off saying he was arranging appointments and such whilst not doing so and eventually we just moved out. Only for the landlord to suddenly show an interest in the property again and literally come to our new address kicking off that we left without giving notice(were meant to have a 12 month lease, but I think its reasonable enough to break that contract when its coming up to winter and your boiler still wasn't fixed). But when he found out WHY we left...my god I have never seen someone look so angry before, I bet the letting agent got a right mouthful that day