No not the Australian soap....

Situation is this....

I live in a block of 4 flats with a communal garden/parking. 3 of the flats are owner occupied and the 4th is rented out through a letting agent. The most recent tenants of the rented flat have moved out and left a pile of rubbish in the garden. I'm gonna contact the letting agent on Monday to try and get them to remove the pile of rubbish. Where do I stand? Are the letting agents responsible for this or will they fob me off saying it's the tenants who are responsible? Would the tenants who moved out had to pay some sort of deposit which could be withheld until they clean up the mess?

The pile of rubbish aint huge and removing it wouldn't be a big problem if I had to deal with it but it's the principal. I don't want future tenants and the letting agent thinking they can treat the place like a bin.

Any advice appreciated.....

 

Move it to outside the vacant flats front door

 

When I used to let flats, we/the landlord kept a deposit, if this type of thing happened, we used to give a quote (for removal)to the tenants and just let them know it would be withheld from their deposit. It was soon removed

 

that has seriously crossed my mind.

 

I'd say it was down to the letting agency, its their responsability to keep the flat maintained etc !

Either them or the actual owner !

 

No its not, unless they have full management.

 

Either way I'd make a fuss and if you get no where. Move the rubbish to outside the Flat to put off anyone thinking of moving in !!

 

right i'm gonna phone the letting agent first thing tomorrow morning. At first i'm gonna pose as a potential tenant looking to let the property and ask them about the 'beautiful gardens' as mentioned on their website advert.

Then i will show my hand as the pissed off neighbour.

If they deny responsibility then it's getting piled up against the front door.

 

record the phone call then post it up

 

The LL either agent by power under managed let or landlord themself would have a deposit held from the tenant and prior to release should inspect both the flat and the associated land etc, any mess and damage o be rectified or cleared will be taken out of said deposit.

 

depends what land it's on - ie if it's on land included in the title of the tenanted flat, then you may not have the right to use it. if however, it is on land which is included in your title as amenity land, you should find on reading your lease that the landlord has an obligation to maintain the premises but that the cost of this can be recharged via the service charge - unless you can demonstrate that the rubbish is clearly down to the vacant flat and that the cost should therefore be added to their service charge alone (in which case it doesn't matter if the owner retained any of the tenant's deposit or not as they will be sharper the next time!)

 

Either way call the letting agents pronto. They will then inform the vendor.

Usually there is an inventory checkout report which is compared to the check in report, then any deductions from the deposit are a result of the comparison.

In this case though rubbish in the communal gardens won't be registered unless it is specifcally pointed out to the agency - how would an inventory cleck know the rubbish in a public area is a direct result of the tenant - unless informed?

Simirlarly you might have had the landlord already come over to recce the place to check all is well, only to find some oink has messed up the gardens - hardly maximising its rental appeal. However the landlord might also think it was one of the other flats resposible for this unless informed otherwise!

Call them asap before the deposit is released.

 

Dump it in front of the letting agency!

Les

 

Worth sending a fax so you have proof of notification? may be overkill, just a thought...

 

you guys making too much fuss, no need to pose as potentials and what have you, just pick up the phone to the agent. 99.9% of the time the agent will get it sorted it out! (unless they had a lot of aggro from both tenants and landlord)

 

What does that bit mean I don't understand it?

 

I think he's referring to post #8

 

post 8 as the poster said he will pose as a potential tenant. If you look at a business point of view...if the neighbour is a homeowner and he phones complaining about tenants the business has put in, it is in the business interest to make sure they keep the neighbour happy as oneday the neighbour could well want to let out their property.

 

update

I phoned the letting agent first thing monday morning. He said that the tenants didn't officially move out until today (Monday) and he was coming round later to do the 'checkout report' with them. He didn't put up any arguement and agreed the place should be left in the same condition as it was found. On arriving home at 5ish everything looked the same.

Spoke to a neighbour who did say somebody was round at the flat at about 4pm.

I'm gonna give them until 5pm today and if still no change the agent is getting phoned again.

 

Sounds like the guy has moved out, hopefully he'll lose deposit. Then just depends on how quickly the agency can pay someone to clear it, but don't expect it in seconds.

OTOH, if they want to re-let, perhaps they won't want that ugly sight there.

 

You need to speak to the lanlord. It is his responsibility as the owner of the property to keep the property in a decent condition.

 

update time for anybody following this......

It is now nearly 2 weeks since the tenants moved out and the pile of rubbish......... is still there

There has been some progress though. Firstly the letting agency are a waste of time. They are just fobbing us off with empty promises.

The owners have been round a few times and some of the other neighbours have challenged them about the situation. The pile of rubbish has been tidied up and now moved to the kerbside to be uplifted.

Apparently the tenants have left the property in a right mess. It will need a proper clean out and probably redecorated and recarpeted. Hopefully with the owners getting their fingers burnt this way they will make sure the next tenants are more trustworthy.