I took over an existing tenancy from another agent this week. The owner felt there were some maintenance issues which the agent had been slow to attend to - could I go and take a look, then report back?
The agent in question was privately owned but had recently sold out to one of the larger corporate agencies - had been changing staff ever since, and is fairly well known locally to be experiencing a few problems.
I'm not saying we never get something wrong - like any business, sometimes we do. But on the odd occasion we do drop a clanger, when it's clearly our error we generally try to put it right and indemnify anyone who has suffered a genuine loss.
Having said that, I don't think we've ever ended up in a situation like this - tenant living in the apartment - bath waste leaking for 4 months - has reported it constantly - no action taken by managing agent - as such what was actually quite a simple problem to fix has become a far bigger issue requiring de-humidifiers, replacement flooring, replastering of walls, etc.
The landlady enquired about an insurance claim - no point as the damage hasn't occurred as the result of a specific 'incident' - it's happened because it's been allowed to get worse - the insurer wouldn't pay out. Her case, if anyone, is against her managing agent who've been told, but failed to deal. She sees it as too much issue to chase it now, so will be paying several hundred pounds to have this sorted from her own pocket. The comment about peanuts and monkeys actually comes from her.
