As we all know private Landlords are continuing to be squeezed out of the market through Government policies, no longer allowing the interest on any mortgage to be offset against rental income, as well as making it increasingly hard to remove a tenant that stops paying his rent. In part due to the months it takes to get the case to a court (many courts have huge back logs) and due to breathing space (a 2 month moratorium where no one can touch them), which adds to the misery, plus the bailiff’s are also backed up with cases. So, when a tenant defaults, on the advice of your lawyer, you beg them to leave and wipe their debt. The tenants are happy to do this, so no court orders against them, free to repeat the process on another unsuspecting landlord, added to this are some cutthroat estate agencies that are so focused on commission, that the nicety of referencing means they tend to drop unsuitable tenants on unsuspecting landlords.
We had been using Marsh & Parsons for some years and found them to be reasonably good, but in recent years, to be badly lacking, since they centralized their accounting and renewals. It also became apparent with a tenant that they put in one of our rental properties in 2021 that their referencing left a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, we trusted the agents M&P, and took them at their word. Something the property ombudsman picked up on. A warning to all landlords, look at the references carefully and proof of the tenants identity, even when what is considered to be a reputable agency verbally tells you they are good and pass their checks. Different agencies have very different checks. An article comparing this alone would be very interesting. My sister is a property agent in Essex , a member of ARLA and has helped me through the process of exposing Marsh & Parsons and indeed other agents about referencing.
We took our complaint about M&P to the Property Ombudsman - they found in our favour on several areas and gave us an award of £400. I am told this is considered a very high award from the Property Ombudsman by real estate agents - if we had declined the offer, we could take them to the Smalls Claims Court to settle the £9K we were out of pocket. We would have liked to take it further but not being based in the UK made that difficult.
M&P declined our request to increase the award to match the fees they had charged us and in return we would sign a non-disclosure agreement.
We have just had the result from the Property Ombudsman October 2022 Case 79562
The Property Ombudsman found evidence that;
- Marsh & Parsons regard the signature of the Tenancy Agreement as acceptance of references.
- Marsh & Parsons encouraged the Complainants to sign the Tenancy Agreement before references had come back.
- No evidence that informed the Complainants that the Tenant was self-employed at the outset of the tenancy.
- No evidence that Marsh & Parsons informed the Complainants of the additional checks they were undertaking alongside the reference report as a result of the Tenant’s self-employed status.
- Marsh & Parsons’ second complaint response was not provided within 15 working days.
Marsh & Parsons have not, therefore, met the Code requirements (1d, 2a, 2b,11g and 19f) and I, therefore, support the complaint to this limited extent.
Very happy to share the report here or with the NRLA
