What is reasonable to expect from a LAgent?

[Spud1]

Got another question for you knowledgable peeps

I basically want to see if I am really expecting too much from my letting agent/landlord (as my housemate is telling me), or if I am justified in feeling ever so slightly hard done by.

We're paying 495 a month at the moment for a terraced house, which is around average for the area, and are renting from an established letting agent who have offices all over the west midlands, with their HQ actually in Stafford itself (where we live).

We have had some issues over the past few months - notably a door falling off its hinges, a fence panel blowing down, some "bad kitchen smells" leaking into next doors bathroom, and also some cracks in our bathroom wall.
It took them 2 and a half weeks from reporting the issue to fix the missing fence panel, 3 weeks to fix the door and they fixed the issue with the smells at the same time as the doors. I was chasing them during this time to see where they were up to, and they couldn't give me any indication as to when they would be fixed.

Is that reasonable? Personally I think thats way too long - I would have expected them to fix the problems within a week, especially the issue with the door being off its hinges, as I consider that to be a fairly major maintenance issue...

My housemate tells me I am just expecting too much for the amount that we're paying, and that I should be happy that they fixed the problem at all, but it seems a rather long time to me..especially considering this is a reputable letting agent. I'm not going to complain to them about it etc etc, but just curious as to other people's experiences This is my first time renting so have nothing else to base it on other than student lets, which are a different kettle of fish.

So, what dya think?

[kalniel]

I think they were very reasonable! None of those things were urgent to your ability to stay in the house, and several of them you could have fixed yourself.

[jimbouk]

Took 3 months to get them to cut the rear grass in my last place. On their system it said that gardeners had turned up over the summer before we moved in so they maintained for a while that it was our responsibility, but when I got them to look in detail the notes said 'Looked at gravel front garden, nothing to do'. That kind of explained the 3 foot high grass out the back...

2-3 weeks is ok especially if it's non-urgent. Having to chase them/call them back because they never call you back in annoying but if it gets done then it's one of these things. If you've got some free time when these issues happen then go to an office and sit there until they've booked someone to do the maintenance job that needs doing - make loud comments about service/competency especially if they're trying to sign up new people, usually speeds things up...

[Spud1]

Maybe I am expecting too much for a UK letting agent then..its just a little frustrating as things like the doors falling off are fairly major issues in my opinion (especially when its due to their rubbish repairs in the past - who on earth uses 1.5" screws to hold on a door!!!), and I tend to think of renting a house as like purchasing any other service..but I guess the reality is a little different.

Shame there is no real concept of a true SLA with renting, other than "a reasonable period of time" which is far too subjective to be of any use.

[Whiternoise]

It may be reasonable, but end of the day you can be pushy i think.

Example: One of my housemates lived in the house last year. Part of the contract is maintaining the garden - i.e. cutting the grass every now and again. He cut it during the last week of the tenancy, a month later the estate agents billed him £20 for a gardener saying it wasn't done - evidently grass isn't suppose to grow. He was also billed for not cleaning a cooker hood - there isn't a cooker hood. Small beans, but money we shouldn't be paying.

At the moment our washing machine takes 6-8 hours to do a wash when the manual says 2. This isn't urgent, but it's extremely frustrating and means we either have to chuck in a load before uni and collect it in the evening or do it when we get back andhope it finishes before midnight - we all do proper subjects and don't get back till 6 every day. So, i'm going to email the agents and ask them what they intend to do about it.

End of the day, they're out to make money from you and won't hesitate to bill you for anything that goes wrong. By all means be curteous about it, but you are within your rights to call them up every now and again to nudge them along. Don't forget to document, document, document. All it takes is going out with a compact and snapping some pictures, it's a sad truth but you need to keep evidence of this kind of stuff to avoid being stung for it.

[Spud1]

End of the day, they're out to make money from you and won't hesitate to bill you for anything that goes wrong. By all means be curteous about it, but you are within your rights to call them up every now and again to nudge them along. Don't forget to document, document, document. All it takes is going out with a compact and snapping some pictures, it's a sad truth but you need to keep evidence of this kind of stuff to avoid being stung for it.

Definitely right at this point..any small issue has been documented/photographed for the day I move out..and we took photos the day we moved in too so as to prove the state of the hosue then compared to now

I look forward to the day when i wont have to bother with this stuff and will own my own place - no one to call to fix things for free then of course but at least it will be *very* clear who's responsibility it is and how quickly things can get fixed hehe