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A tenant eviction agency has revealed that it has had to turn its hand to debt collection on behalf of landlords who have fallen fowl of rogue lettings agents.

Landlord Action says more letting agents are not doing their job and taking advantage of busy landlords and indebted tenants to make a profit.

Paul Shamplina, director of Landlord Action says: “Not only are we evicting bad tenants for landlords but, in the last 6 to 12 months, we have seen a huge increase in instructions from landlords asking us to carry out debt recovery proceedings against lettings agents who have not passed on the rent but withheld for their own use, even though the tenant has been paying regularly and on time.”

Shamplina says that there are several problems associated with trying to reclaim the money in these cases: “The landlords that come to us may not be the only ones that these agents have withheld money from and the company may also have other debts so, it’s a race against time to try and collect the money before either someone else gets there first, or the company just shuts down."

He also says that the police often aren’t interested, stating that it’s a civil matter and, before they will take criminal action, they will ask for numerous victims witness statements to show that the agent has carried out serial theft. Landlord Action says even Trading Standards are slow to react – no one seems to be on the landlord's side.

The Association of Residential Letting Agents says it has been hearing of non members stealing rent, there have been no ARLA members caught. Shamplina says any landlord should check their letting agent is a full member of the trade body so as landlords can have recourse if something does go wrong.

He says: "We believe landlords should make checks into the letting agent, obtain a client reference and also see if they belong to ARLA or NAEA. The new legislation for agents to be registered can only be a good thing for the industry, which will stop decent lettings agencies getting a bad name due to the rogue agencies that tarnish the industry."

SOURCE: Landlord Action, 02/06/09

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