“I used Haybrook Lettings to find a tenants for my ......”
1 Star Review
Jun 29,2011
By:
'mmonk'
Jun 29,2011
Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode:
Lettings (as a Landlord)
Postcode:
3
people found
this helpful
I used Haybrook Lettings to find a tenants for my property in Sheffield in October 2009. The tenants were in my property until January this year and on the 16th Jan I paid Haybrook to carry out a check out on my behalf. A couple of days after the check out, I had not yet received the report, I asked a friend to visit the property to put on the heating. She immediately noticed that there was water ingress to one of the kitchen walls, which had stained the whole wall and caused the paint to bubble and flake, On further inspection she found other remedial work which required immediate attention, including further water ingress to the lounge area. My tenants were contracted to notify me immediately any such problems had occurred, in order that I could carry out the necessary repairs, and it was quite clear that the problems had been ongoing for some time. My contractor concluded the same on visiting the property a few days prior to my receiving the check out report. The tenants had not notified me and were therefore in breach of contract. However, believing that all these problems would have been noted by Haybrook during the check out, I waited for the report before contacting the tenants. After two weeks I had to chase Haybrook for this,however, on receiving the report, there was no mention of any of the remedial work, the person who had carried out the check out, without the tenants being present I might add, had missed all of these problems. Consequently, when I contacted one of the tenants by phone, even though he verbally admitted to knowing of the problems,he refused to put this in writing. I subsequently raised a claim with the Deposit Protection Service,as the problems had worsened to the point where it cost me £320 to put them right, after weeks of preparing my evidence,they found in favour of the tenants. There findings were that there was no evidence to the fact that the problems existed prior to the check out and during the tenancy. Obviously there would have been had Haybrook done their job properly. I have since proceeded to claim the amount from Haybrook, since had their representative carried out her job properly, I would have had the evidence. In fact, the tenants bought the house next to mine, all she needed to do was ask them to the property and query as to why they had not reported the problems. Instead, they blatantly denied any knowledge they existed. Had they informed me sooner, I would have dealt with them before they worsened, and my costs would have been lower. This was the basis of my claim of £320.00. I sought legal advice and was told that my claim really should be against Haybrook for a negligent check out, however, I was advised to go down the DPS route first. Haybrook have re-imbursed the check out fee, even though it took them 2 months to do so after agreeing to the re-imbursement, but now tell me that they cannot be held responsible for the cost of repairs to my property, even though they admit to a negligent check out and know that I would have had the evidence I required had it not been negligent. Landlords beware, this company, in particular this branch, are extremely unprofessional. A few months earlier, I had asked the same person who carried out the check out to write to the tenants increasing the rent from the anniversary of the commencement of tenancy. Under the terms of the contract this can only be done once a year. This person forgot to do it and subsequently left me out of pocket.
3
people found
this helpful
Was this helpful?
Yes