Letting Agents

[sickofmorons]

Has anyone ever had a decent letting agent (not Landlord) as I am of the view that they are all teh devils children and serve no other purpose than to lie and steal from tennants- playing them off against the landlord and reaping the benefits (I refer particularily to The Letting Shop/ Sandersons in Maidstone and Canterbury). Your thoughts/ experiences please.

[Kathyan]

We had a letting agent when our house was let for 4 years. They were really good and we had no problems with them or the tenants. We also had insurance to cover unpaid rent or the tenants doing a moonlight but everything was OK. I would definitely use them again. Maybe it's because they are a local Estate/letting agents?

[sickofmorons]

thanks Kathyan- just as a matter of interest do you know how did the tennants felt about them?

[Kathyan]

As far as I know there were no complaints. The agents we had were good and didn't intrude too much. Repairs were carried out in good time (the agents had permission to carry out repairs costing less than �70 anything over this had to be with our consent) Having said all this I do know of people who have had horrendous dealings with letting agents, I suppose we were just lucky!

[gammaray]

The thing you need to remember about letting agents is that they only have the landlords interests at heart. They work soley on behalf of the landlord. Everything will be fine while you are paying your rent and not causing trouble. But as soon as there is a problem that the landlord and/or letting agents are responsible for you'll find that they each claim it's the others responsibility to sort the problem.

[WoWo]

I rent and have never had any problems with the letting agents.

[themas]

As with all things, there are good and bad. But, sickofmorons, aren't you sailing a bit close to the wind of libel?

[sickofmorons]

Quite possibly- but they'd have a job proving it's false in court considering it's true. BTW I really don't believe it's like anything else where there are good and bad- I have never heard a good story of letting agents, especially after people move out, when it comes to the stage where the letting agents start making things up that need to be payed for so they can keep your nice fat deposit check. They are basically sales people, with even less of a concionce- if that's possible!? Sometimes I like to use the term legalised thieves.