When it comes to claiming on tenant deposits, Tenant Voice recently claimed 40% of tenancies are incorrect, which often will lead to not only the tenants being awarded in their favour but also resulting in landlords being out of pocket.

I have worked within the industry for over 30 years and owned Move On for 15 years. When you have been around for this long, there are rules we learn in books and training days, etc. and there are many things you learn through experience. I have got to where we have today due to the rigorous systems put in place. Those systems have been adapted over the years from experience.

It always fascinates me that no matter how diligent our systems and checklists are, when we recruit a new person, something else will slip through. It does not concern me too much because we just simply add it to our checklist. All our tenancies are triple-audited by three separate pairs of eyes, prior to paperwork going out to be signed. I have often had staff ask me: “Do we have to do so many checks?” and my answer is…

 Yes, always.

We are not perfect as humans, we are an extremely busy office and it is very easy to be distracted by a phone call or someone walking into the office, so triple-checking has to be done. To get a date wrong, a term wrong or have paperwork missing can result in the landlord not being able to claim through a rent guarantee warranty or in an eviction process as well as thousands of pounds of fines to the landlord and us as an agency.

Deposits not protected or incorrectly prescribed information will find the landlord out of pocket of up to 3 times the deposit plus the deposit back.

Renting out properties without the correct license will have the landlord not only fined/banned but also a rent repayment order of up to 12 months of rent.

There are many agents out there, please don’t go for the cheapest, go for the one that gives you confidence that they absolutely know the law! In the end, the cheapest never ends up being the cheapest when it goes wrong!

Keep safe,

Sharon

 

Remember a good letting agent is worth every penny when you know you can sleep peacefully at night.