Rental Management Agent not fullfilling duties

[Lyndan]

Hi All,

I rented out my apartment in June 07 and the agreement with the rental management agent was that they would change all the names on the utilities accounts to the renters. At the end of 07 we noticed that we were still being billed for NTL and so we contacted them and after 2 months of us chasing them we finally were reimbursed for the money.

We have now moved back into our property and found that the same thing happened with Bord Gais and in order for us to take back our account we have to pay an outstanidn gbill from June 07 – Nov 07, bord gais has confirmed that the name on the account was not changed until Nov 07. I went back to our agent and asked that they look into this, they advised they changed the names but will not provide me with proof that they contacted Bord Gais in June as originally agreed. I asked them to pay the bill out of the management fee I had paid them based on the fact that they did not carry out what was agreed, they refused and gave me the name of their solicitor should I wish to take it further. I replied – “I won’t contact your solicitor as you well know this will only end up costing me more money. I will however never use nor recommend ******* in the future and will ensure my contacts are aware of the failings made.”

They have replied to me to tell me that if one person approaches them with ‘my story’ I will hear from their solicitor….

I know the chances of me getting the money back now are slim and I don’t really care but what really annoys me now is that this guy thinks I am not allowed to talk about my experience…could he actually send me a solicitors letter for telling someone?!

Advice on how to response appreciated!

Cheers

 

[Bronte]

Well if someone treated me this way I would go out of my way to hire a solicitor to send them a letter. As long as I had proof of my original instructions to the management agent of course.

By the way an initial solicitors letter doesn't cost that much. The fact they reimbursed the NTL bill is some proof of their incompetence in relation to proof of the Gas bill.

 

[mdebets]

The problem is that you have to have proof if you start bad-mouthing them.
Do you have your original instructions and their response now (changed in June, but not going to give you proof) in writing or was any witness present.
If that is the case, they can't do anything if you bad-mouth them. Otherwise it might be hard to convince a judge if the agent is deceiding to sue you for slander.

 

[DeeFox]

A minor point - but I occassionally let apartments on behalf of someone else and I know that Bord Gais, esb, etc. will only talk to either the landlord or the tenant - they will not discuss or confirm who's name is on the account to a third party. Thus, the agent can't change some of the utilities for you. That said, if this was the issue then that should have been clearly explained by the agent - it seems their behaviour is quite unprofessional and aggressive.