Want to rent in SE1

Hi all, I had the same problem with Black-Katz, the E-london office. They were truly useless and I'm now trying to get my admin fee back after our contract was made void by the landlord!
Please stay clear of Black-Katz if you are planning to move or rent a flat in London! Even senior management is not replying!

Anyone else had issues like these? Is there a body to which one can complain to? Thanks. Great blog!!!
Jon

I believe that they do have an industry organization you can complain to. Possibly OFT would regulate them as well. Not 100% sure on that.

But in all honesty I would echo what Jackie Rokotnitz said earlier in the thread: "Decent estate agent is an oxymoron." That was exactly my experience when I moved here last year....

I bought my house through Acorn on Bermondsey St. and they were very friendly and helpful. I believe they have a lettings department.

Chris.

Affiliation to the industry organisation "ARLA" is voluntary.

http://www.arla.co.uk/default.asp

Not a long list for SE1, it must be said.

Regards,

Loafer

I've had trouble with agents that are registered with ARLA , I made complaints but not much happened as far as i can tell!

We had a terrible time with Ludlow Thompson, but generally people just have to choose the flat they like and are stuck with the letting agent it comes with!

Black Katz tried to make some friends of mine pay for a viewing. Needless to say they told Black Katz where to stick it!

We used Kinley Faulkard Heyward (spelling probably wrong) at Surrey Quays, not too bad, but not great either, after a year, we changed to a lease/contract through the owner of the house (which she got from WHSmith!).

Almost certainly your landlord is breaking the terms of her agreement with Kinleigh. Landlords pay the agent an agreed % of the rent for finding a tenant, through the whole period the tenant is in the property.

As a landlord one trick is to negotiate agents fees for the second and third years should the tenant stay in the property. Most will agree to a reduced % for second and further years.

I obviously hate paying agents fees and much prefer to find tenants directly. But I recognise that when using agents I am benefitting from the shop window, staffing, websites and other marketing. For the most part they pay for themselves as I can ask for a higher rent, and they make sure I get it. I have had issues, particularly with the dreaded Foxtons, but at the end of the day they find tenants and this is a service I have to pay for.

So I sound grumpy, but I don't think it is particularly clever to save money by failing to honour an agreement with an agent.

> So I sound grumpy, but I don't think it is
> particularly clever to save money by failing to
> honour an agreement with an agent.

Sarah, you don't sound grumpy, you just sound like a landlord.

Tenants know what they are doing if they agree to cut out the agent, and they are doing it willingly (generally because in their eyes they are getting very little service from the agent and paying a lot of fees for the privilege).

I don't think many people will sympathise if there's a fall in estate agent profits.

Its the landlord's choice to cut out the agent. They have the agreement and are rnot honouring an agreement that they made. The reason they used an agent in the first place was because they either could not or could not be bothered to find a tenant by themselves. After many years as a landlord I know all about agents. But still use themwhen I have to. If a landlord chooses to use an agent's service to find tenants and they find those tenants you pay them the agreed price. Not paying because it is cheaper not to, is not clever, it is fraud.

The same applies to tenants in that if you work hard, look at a lot of small ads etc you will probably pay less as the landlord can afford to charge less. But again people use agents because they are there and you can see properties on their web-site or shop window.

Your choice.