residentiallettings
Letting update
The letting business can throw up an endless
variety of troublesome issues. Here’s some
expert answers to some real life problems.
PROPERTYdrum has Deposits taken by the previous letting agent –
partnered with Letting Update who’s responsible?
Journal and The Letting Q I have just taken over the management of a
Centre to offer our readers property from another letting agent who has gone
a unique opportunity to bust. The landlord wants to set up a new tenancy
subscribe to this specialist agreement, which will be no particular problem,
journal at a very special price. but the deposit that the tenant originally paid has
Further details of this offer ‘disappeared’ with the previous letting agent.
appear on our SUBSCRIBE As I cannot ask the tenant to provide another
page and you can take advantage of this by logging onto our deposit, what do I do?
website www.propertydrum.com/subscribe. The Letting Centre A The legal liability for the deposit rests with the landlord,
also offers a comprehensive range of specialist products for since the tenants money is held on the basis of a contract
letting agents including possession packs, forms, agreements, between the landlord and the tenant. The new tenancy should
fact sheets, which you can download individually and the reflect the deposit paid originally by the tenant and the
Letting Handbook (pictured). prescribed information should be given.
To appreciate the level of information presented to subscribers My Deposits says that in these cases where the letting agent
in Letting Update, we have reproduced some of the Questions goes bust and has no deposit money, their insurance does not
and Answers from an earlier issue, January 2009. protect the landlord, only the tenant, so the landlord has no
claim there. Essentially the letting agent is joining the landlord
Demise of lanDlorD to the deposit scheme with the ultimate responsibility resting
Q I have been managing a property on behalf of an with the landlord.
elderly client who has sadly now died. His son has
now inherited the property, and there are seven the gas meters have been vanDaliseD anD the
months remaining on the current tenancy agreement. lanDlorD has been askeD to foot the bill
Do I need to issue a new tenancy agreement in the Q A landlord has been charged £640 by British Gas
name of the new landlord? for reconnection, repairs and fitting a new gas meter
A In law, although the new landlord inherits the title to the after the tenant had vandalised the old meter.
property, he also becomes a successor in title to the existing Apparently, the meter had been ‘fiddled’ with,
tenancy. This means that the original tenancy will remain in presumably by the tenant, and he had absconded by
existence until the end of its term, and during this period the the time the utility bill came through to the landlord.
new landlord is simply ‘stepping into the shoes of the old Can they do this?
landlord’. He is entitled to receive the same benefits under the A Checking your question with National Grid, their response
tenancy (ie the rent) and is bound by the same obligations was as follows:
(eg he is required to maintain and repair the structure and “Thank you for your correspondence to National Grid.
exterior as required). He may not change the terms of the fixed I am sorry for the delay in providing you with a response to your
term tenancy without the full agreement of the tenant. enquiry. I have liaised with our legal team and can advise you of
A brief inspection of the wording of the tenancy agreement the following:
will often reveal that ‘the Landlord’ is defined to include any “If we receive correspondence stating that a meter has been
‘successors in title’ so that it is clear to the tenant that the terms vandalised we would attend the property for safety reasons.
of the tenancy relate equally to the new landlord as they applied If we found the meter to be leaking we may exchange it under
to the original landlord and, therefore, it is not necessary to issue the contract that we have with gas suppliers (the Post Emergency
new tenancy documentation. Meterwork for Suppliers (PEMS) contract (domestic meter)
What is important, however, it to inform the existing tenant or the meter point may be made safe by closing the valve.
of his or her new landlord, in writing, and to do this within two “If the meter was exchanged the cost of the meter would be
months of the change of title. This is a legal requirement under passed onto the gas supplier.
section 3 of the Housing Act 1985, and non-compliance can, “It would then be for the gas supplier to take up with the
theoretically, attract a fine of up to £2500 at current rates. end consumer/owner of the property.”
54 OCTOBER 2009 PrOPertYdrum
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68