Letting Agents and Nuisance Neighbours - Advice Muchly Appreciated

[1Animal1]

Hi, I am Tara's other half.....firstly i'd like to thank everyone for their help so far, this forum has been extremely helpful in that we would never have known how to contact the environmental health 101 number and in respect of the more complicated legal info

 

I just wanted to explain in a little more detail where we're at - essentially we are down the route of the environmental health having exhausted the avenue of the letting agent...in summary the letting agent say that they have issued warning notices (2 of) to the tennant and claim that they are now powerless to act - i know the landlord very well, situation is that he bought the property then started to live with his GF, and so now letting due to negative equity, otherwise he wouldnt have ventured into this realm. Anyway, the Landlord says that the agent have offered him their own legal services to take this further which they say his now his responsibility, he was quoted near £1000 (which he cannot afford)adding up the costs of going down the various avenues (section notices etc) and that is apparently his only route. Having spoken to the letting agent again (William H Browns) they say that they wanted environmental health to send them a report to bolster the case - we asked EH about this on the last visit to our address for which they thought this action was 'odd', but were going to send on regardless if it meant helping our cause.

 

I guess what we need to know now is where the letting agents responsibilities lie, do they merely offer a contract which they cannot impliment along with maintainence duties or can they actually do more than they are telling us? my thoughts are to follow some of the advice above along with EH's advice which is to bombard the agents, but i want this to have a purpose, if they cannot do anything without the landlord going to court for an eviction then i would ideally like to know this too.....best case scenario is that i do not make an enemy of the landlord.

 

For reference i have suggested to the LL and agent that they do a visit asap due to more recent occurances of violence - we do not know if this has been carried out yet.

 

Furthermore the let was for a single mother with child, we can count on one hand the nights the child has been there since they first let the property - reported to benefits fraud.

[sophiec1979]

i would recommend possibly trying to get an appointment with a solicitor...they may be able to offer some advice free of charge.

 

also try the landlordzone website...whether theyll be anything of use i dont know as im sure every agency has there own 'policy', but there must be some industry norms/standards/requirements.

 

i would also consider getting in touch with these people for a little advice: http://www.sadla.org.uk/

 

at least they will be totally independant of eveything that has already gone on.

 

 

x

[1Animal1]

thanks Sophie...i will have a read

 

luckily we both work for quite large organisations with our own free access to legal help. Tara has spoken to her contact recently - i'll let her post what they said

 

i just think it's daft (and i have told them) that a letting agent have a contract yet require legal involvement to impliment it - i also read somewhere that most contracts should have a break clause where the LL can give the tennent a minimum of two months notice should he/she wish to sell the property. The agent told me that this was only a short term year long contract which meant no such clause - sounds fishy to me

[boyfriday]

thanks Sophie...i will have a read

 

luckily we both work for quite large organisations with our own free access to legal help. Tara has spoken to her contact recently - i'll let her post what they said

 

i just think it's daft (and i have told them) that a letting agent have a contract yet require legal involvement to impliment it - i also read somewhere that most contracts should have a break clause where the LL can give the tennent a minimum of two months notice should he/she wish to sell the property. The agent told me that this was only a short term year long contract which meant no such clause - sounds fishy to me

 

To be honest I don't know why you're troubling yourselves by speculating on the terms of the neighbour's lease agreement or relationship with the landlord. It would appear your representations to the neighbour, landlord and agent have not been acted upon so it's futile pursuing that course further yourselves.

 

If you have records of the noise problem and the council have become involved then if it's as bad as you claim it becomes a Statutory Nuisance, which is a criminal offence, rather than a civil one and will be acted upon by the courts and council.

 

Here's a link to the relevant page on the SC website that explains the position regarding noise pollution from neighbours

 

http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/environment/environmental-health/pollution/noise-pollution/domestic#howtotakeinformalaction

[1Animal1]

The only reason we are pursuing this avenue is as a back up....yes the EH are on the case, albeit the last two scenarios have seen the neighbours quieten down upon seeing the car arrive - otherwise an abatement notice would have been served (will be upon the next occurance).

 

What i would like to know is, is the agent stalling as they are quite obviously profitering off this rental. If this is the case then i can approach them and/or the landlord and push for more action from their end.

 

All we are bothered about now is getting this sorted asap, we ideally don't want to go another 10 months of their contract. The landlord has already told me that he wont renew it, so i have that reassurance. What we want now is for them to be out of the property - we have been leniant enough which has made us all the more determined.

[boyfriday]

The only reason we are pursuing this avenue is as a back up....yes the EH are on the case, albeit the last two scenarios have seen the neighbours quieten down upon seeing the car arrive - otherwise an abatement notice would have been served (will be upon the next occurance).

 

What i would like to know is, is the agent stalling as they are quite obviously profitering off this rental. If this is the case then i can approach them and/or the landlord and push for more action from their end.

 

All we are bothered about now is getting this sorted asap, we ideally don't want to go another 10 months of their contract. The landlord has already told me that he wont renew it, so i have that reassurance. What we want now is for them to be out of the property - we have been leniant enough which has made us all the more determined.

 

I think it's safe to say the agent/landlord are stalling, since they've offered no solution to your problem, aren't having to live with it and it wouldn't be in their (financial interests) to pursue the neighbour with any purpose-assuming they're paying the rent and not causing damage to the property.

 

Personally I wouldn't rely on the landlord's assurances, he may be well intentioned but his primary concern is avoiding voids, so the temptation will be to try and placate both sides ...and rent paying!

 

Ps: you say you want them out of the property? Do you mean that or do you mean you want the noise to stop? The former might be difficult to achieve.

[1Animal1]

My thinking (albeit possibly nieve) is that the LL has been advised by the letting agent and therefore thinks his only solution is to part with upto a £1000 for legal costs.

 

If i were to approach him with what can really do (assuming there is another option from his part) then i have no doubt he would act on that.

 

I have mentioned wanting them out, obviously this is due to the frustration of what has occured so far. There is no way that this woman will stop given the sheer amount of warnings so far. Our ideal is to have them out as the only solution to our problem, if that isn't possible and they do infact stop being noisy, we would accept that too - but we are in the position where I would bet a limb against this happening.

[mrsv]

Do you know if the landlord has got a buy to let mortgage or has he let the property without the knowledge of the lender? If he does not have a buy to let mortgage, the lender could pull the plug on his mortgage, so it may be worth mentioning that to him?

[Darth Vader]

All we are bothered about now is getting this sorted asap, we ideally don't want to go another 10 months of their contract. The landlord has already told me that he wont renew it, so i have that reassurance. What we want now is for them to be out of the property - we have been leniant enough which has made us all the more determined.

 

Are you sure it's a 12 month contract? I thought letting agencies usually gave a 6 months contract initially?

[liza D]

A chap who owns and rents out a house on the road I live on ended up in a nightmare situation by using a letting agent.

 

It really doesn't matter how long the tenancy agreement is for, if they don't want to go they won't until forced to.

 

It took him two and a half years of non-rent and a wrecked property due to the agents neglect when a troublesome tenant moved in on a six month contract.

He had to go to court to have the guy evicted in the end, which took time and money.

 

He now does all the letting and checking himself.