OT. Letting Agents

[The Medway Handyman]

I gave yet another letting agent the Spanish archer today. When I first started out (nearly 2 years ago) I mailed all the local letting agents & got a fair amount of work.

Soon found out it was a PITA. Collect keys, return keys, everything had to be done yesterday, kept waiting for payment, every invoice queried - one even asked me to help them defraud a landlord.

I now only work for 2 of them who are pretty good.

The one I 86'd today is a rather suspicious story.

Did a job for them on 10 November - toilet cistern wouldn't flush.

Changed the siphon & found the bottom entry ball valve had been cross threaded, so I changed that as well. Checked for leaks, put away tools, checked again - all OK.

Get a message on 3 December (I'm in France on a booze cruise, phone switched off) saying that it was overflowing & had damaged the ceiling below. Couldn't return the call till the 4th & was told they had to get someone else in to sort it, cost £35 and I would have to pay it!

Odd thing is, I'd left my fleece at the job & returned to pick it up 2 or 3 days later - tenant didn't mention any leak or overflow.

I insisted on seeing a job sheet from whoever went in. It claimed the ball valve was incorrectly set causing an overflow.

Since the siphon I fitted had a built in overflow & the cistern had a separate one I find this distinctly iffy.

Some work you just don't need.

[John]

Totally agree with your thinking but I am intrigued with 86'd ??? What does this mean or am I being thick?

John

[Bob Eager]

Dump, chuck, whatever. Apparently used in casinos.

"Spanish Archer" was the one I didn't get at first, although the meaning was clear from context. Of course, it's "El Bow".

[The Medway Handyman]

Sorry John, its a term I picked up from the restaurant trade. 86'd is a term that means the item is deleted.

[The Medway Handyman]

Sorry Bob, east Londoner!

[Bob Eager]

"deep six" is what I might have said...

[tinnews]

That's been our experience (as landlords) over the years. If you

*possibly* can then let direct to the tenant and develop a good relationship with the tenant. Our best lets over the years have been direct to people who in many cases are still good friends. Our worst lets have been through agents.

It appears that the experience is identical from the other side, tenants hate agents too!

[Tony Bryer]

Old saying: make friends of your tenants, not tenants of your friends. Our family business had lots of nice people over the years as tenants. The few lettings that went badly wrong were generally ones where there was a personal element at the outset. If you start off with an arms length business relationship only then it can stay that way if you or the tenant is happier that way.

[tinnews]

I'd go with that, one of our more 'difficult' tenants was actually a family member. We didn't fall out over it but it wasn't a happy tenancy either. As you say tenants may just want to be tenants and if they're not connected in some other way that can work fine, other tenants become good friends and that's lovely.

[Ed Sirett]

If like me the agent does the maintenance then generally things go quite well. If I had to find someone to do the maintenance then everything would double in cost and/or the quality of the work would suffer and the tenants and landlord would all suffer too.

Usually the managing agents are Estate Agents with all that that implies regarding the likely competence and understanding of maintenance.

[John Stumbles]

I do a fair amount of work for landlords. Some use letting agents, some operate directly, but in almost all cases I get them to give me a set of keys and tell the tenants that I'll be coming in to do some work. In some cases I know the tenants quite well and they have my card and can call me about any problems, though I ask them to tell the landlord or agent as well to OK the work with them.

Most agents are OK, though none is the sharpest knife in the drawer. Some are dire: Romans here in Reading once gave me all 3 sets of keys to a flat (which were all on the same ring). I asked them who'd have paid if I'd lost them and they said they would have done. Yeah. For months after I was emails notifying me of their office meeting because someone had put my address on an internal distribution list.