The ESTAS Awards are set to celebrate their 21st anniversary next month when on Friday October 18 this year’s ceremony takes place.
The post ESTAS Awards return for milestone year – be in it to win it! appeared first on Letting Agent Today.
Specialist rental charity Sulets is running a free webinar to examine the Renters’ Rights Bill and its impact on student accommodation. It will feature high-profile property legal; experrt David Smith (a partner at JMW Solicitors) and Irving Hill, (chief executive of Sulets) will feature in this free webinar to discuss the Bill and what it will mean […]
The post Renters Rights Bill Webinar – book a place for next week appeared first on Letting Agent Today.
Quicklet has acquired the rental portfolio of Northern Ireland’s biggest sole trader agency business, Robert Wilson Estate Agency Group, for an undisclosed sum – and it says more acquisitions will follow shortly.
The post Agency pledges two more lettings acquisitions before end of year appeared first on Letting Agent Today.
PropTech big-names Reapit and Homesearch have signed a strategic partnership to make Homesearch the official property data partner for Reapit’s CRM platform.
The post PropTech giants offer data and lead-generation exclusives to agents appeared first on Letting Agent Today.
The gap between rents in the North and South of England has closed to its smallest level since at least 2013.
The post Rent Gaps between north and south smallest for over a decade appeared first on Letting Agent Today.
Annual rental growth in Prime London areas increased in August to 2.6%, with average rents across prime London 31.6% above their 2017-2019 (pre-pandemic) average. The figures come from data consultancy LonRes which says tental growth across its three ‘sub-markets’ of different parts of Prime London has followed similar trends over the past few years, with […]
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A client accounting platform says customer agents will now receive interest on funds held within its banking partner.
The post Industry-first interest payments for agents from client account funds appeared first on Letting Agent Today.
This is a question to the blog clinic from Mandy (not her real name), who is a landlord in England.
My tenants have not returned one set of keys and claim they lost it. Can I withhold the cost of changing the locks from their deposit?
The first thing to do is look at your Tenancy Agreement and see what it says about deductions from the deposit. There should be a special section on deposit issues.
It is essential if you take a deposit that this is referenced in your tenancy agreement which should set out the type of things that you are entitled to claim for.
This is because the deposit is the tenants’ money. So, for you to be entitled to make deductions, they need to authorise this. Which is normally done by signing a tenancy agreement, which includes suitable clauses.
I suspect you will be OK as professionally drafted tenancy agreements will generally include suitable clauses. For example, the clauses in my tenancy agreements are based on draft clauses provided by TDS.
However, if you are using a badly drafted agreement which has no such clause, then you will not be able to make any deductions. One of the main reasons why deposit adjudicators reject claims is that there is either no tenancy agreement at all or that the tenancy agreement does not contain a suitable clause.
You should also check to see what your tenancy agreement says about keys. Most well drafted agreements will require tenants to return all keys at the end of the tenancy.
So, if your deposit clause provides for you to make deductions for damages following on from the tenant’s breach of the terms of your tenancy agreement and if the tenancy agreement provides for tenants to return all keys, then this will justify you making a claim.
When making your claim, you should refer to the clauses in the tenancy agreement and also point out that their failure to return keys potentially breaches the security of the property which could put your insurance at risk.
I should also mention that charging for lost keys is specifically mentioned in the Tenant Fees legislation in England which provides that landlords can recover the actual cost of replacement. So if you are bringing a claim you should make sure you have a receipt to evidence the amount you paid. The charge made should be a reasonable one.
The post Can this landlord claim from the deposit if not all keys are returned? appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.
The Women in Estate Agency group is launching a leadership training programme sponsored by Rightmove.
The post More Women In Leadership Roles – training launched by agency group appeared first on Letting Agent Today.
Rightmove has launched a unique new tool to help people explore the added value that existing, or planned renovation works might have on a property.
The post Rightmove creates ‘added value’ tool covering renovation potential appeared first on Letting Agent Today.
