It seems to me that letting agents (LA) can become easy scapegoat. The general rules are…

1. Bad tenants are always the fault of LA no matter what the circumstances. If the T loses his job halfway through the AST that is also the fault of the LA. A property should be left immaculate, if not that is also the LAs fault. It’s also the LAs fault if he does not want to sue (on the LL behalf) the T for a stain on a 15yr old carpet.
2. If there are any faults with the property that are not repaired, its the LA’s fault, even when the LA wrote to the LL about them.
3. If anything goes wrong with the property and it is repaired, it the LA’s fault, and the LL feels “ripped off” even if the LA called in a favor to get a superb job at a bargain price.
4. LAs are somehow daemonic for wanting to get paid for the work that they do
5. LLs are always entitled to stop paying the LA even when the contract LL agreed says that the LA is rightfully entitled to being paid.
6. If the LA does not have an intimate and total knowledge of the law, human psychology, macroeconomics and structural engineering they are in some way mentally deficient
7. The LAs fee is always too high, even when the LA has achieve a rent which more that compensates for their fee.
8. When a LL pays for a “find only” service they are actually entitled to a full management service thrown in for free.

Just to make this thread a little tidier I have put in some advance responses

1. “You are a letting agent?” – wrong! I am not.
2. “You know nothing about property management” – Also wrong! this used to be my full-time job
3. “You are a tenant with a grudge against LLs” – Wrong again! I am not a tenant.

At the moment I am a neutral observer on here, I am just speaking the truth as I see it. LAs do get a bad press, and it is mostly unjustified bad press.

Thank you! It’s very hard to be the middleman before, during, and after a tenancy. Landlords are naturally wary of BMW Mini-driving, gelled-hair agents, and tenants are very wary of landlords, and therefore their agents.

It’s the hardest job I’ve ever come across, because you’re constantly having to defend yourself to all sides, while working for very small fees due to increasing competition. It’s an incredibly complex job and you rarely get thanked for it (although my company, Homesure Property does on Google sometimes…). However, you can’t rely on the estate agency side to bring in the income to cover your overheads – especially when Rightmove.co.uk costs nearly £1,000 per month.

Although I could continue to rant at length – post over!