Bloody estate agents

[kingandy]

You may recall that a month ago we were burgled. The estate agents, Sanderson James, sent a man around to fix the lock.

They have now telephoned us to let us know that they would like us to pay them for the lock and then claim the money back off the insurers. (they said to Ant that it was an "unauthorised" repair, but this was patently not the case. When I rang them back they just said "nah you're liable".)

I can sort of understand their reasoning but it does strike me as very underhanded, not to mention petty and mean. Certainly the way they're handling it rather makes the blood boil.

If we had more than a month left on the lease, and it didn't run out on Easter weekend, we'd be thinking about moving...

EDITED TO ADD: Apparently this is a standard clause in the tenancy agreement, it's why they make sure their tenants are insured (by selling them an insurance policy). Again, I can see that it makes sense to get an insurance company to pay for something if possible, but surely the landlord should have building insurance...?

Comments

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

Yeeeaaahhhhh. There's no way you should be paying for that.
Move house. Seriously.

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

House fixtures and fabric should be the responsibility of the landlord/agency. I've just had a man come over and done a bunch of work on various bits and pieces, their paying not me. What agency did you use?

[kingandy]

Sanderson James. They've been generally painless, though they do seem to lack the ability to chase things up - their relationship with workmen is very fire and forget. I'm sure they have a lot of clients, so it's easy to forget that one of their tenants doesn't have a key to their mailbox for example, but they're supposed to have procedures in place for that sort of thing.

[diegoliger.livejournal.com]

To be honest. I want to be somewhere where I feel safe and the letting agency is capable - the shower has not been replaced inthe six months we have been here; we have not had keys for the post box ever, we had to pay neighbours to get keys cut for the gate etc.

I cannot be arsed playing Sanderson James game any more.

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

Talk to ed and neil about it, but i think rivershill, their agents, have been ok. And their website shows available places.
(also, at time of typing, ed in bed ill, best not to disturb - he sounded terribly ill!)

[diegoliger.livejournal.com]

Cheers. Ive had a look - some nice places but pricey!!