Rent to rent - HMO, council tax and poor service

Key topic:

Award:

• £16,326 outstanding rent and all future payments

• Provide both the gas safety certificate and inventory

• Compensate the landlord for the outstanding council tax

• £350 compensation for general poor service includingtransferring rent late

Resolved by:

Final decision

What happened?

The complainant (landlord) said:

• this was a guaranteed rent agreement, so the agent has been collecting the rent and transferring it to her each month

• for the last nine months, she has received no rent, which she is entitled to as the owner landlord. The current amount outstanding is over £16,000

• she did not break the terms of the management agreement, and the management was never terminated

• she did not believe her property was an HMO and it is the tenant who should be paying the council tax

• the agent has not provided the gas safety certificate, or the inventory report as requested

To resolve the complaint, she would like the agent to:

pay all the outstanding rent plus interest
provide the gas safety certificate and the inventory report

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The agent responded, saying that:

• the landlord breached the management agreement on several occasions, so they terminated the contract seven months ago

• as the agreement had ended, there was noon-going responsibility to continue providing management services

• the landlord was provided with a breakdown of the outstanding rent and payments made at the time

• as the landlord has no contractual agreement with the tenants, she is not entitled to the rent

• the landlord is responsible for paying council tax as the property is an HMO. As this was not paid, they have been financially affected

• they provided the best possible service and even offered the landlord a new contract as well as a financial remedy but received no reply to any emails

What evidence was provided?

Management agreement, tenancy agreement, email communication, rent tables, bank statements

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