Cheating Agent - of the holiday letting variety

[deebeegee]

I've been letting out my London flat for holiday lets since October using a managing agent to do all the advertising, dealing with enquiries, welcoming guests, cleaning, maintenance etc. In December they accidentally sent an invoice for maintenance work on another flat my way. We had a last minute cancellation over new years eve for which they had apparently not taken a deposit - seriously! Last month I went round to check up on the flat on an evening when there was no booking in the calendar. Turns out someone was staying there and had obviously been there a while. Lo and behold I've just had the statement for January and the total nights paid for tally up with what was in the calendar. ie They seem to have neglected to pay me for an entire stay.

Now I'm not a violent man so I'm trying to work out how best to deal with the situation. It is not beyond the realms of belief that they are truly incompetent but it seems more likely they are having me on, and presumably their other landlords too. I've already requested full details of each booking (I need this anyway to show the flat qualifies as a furnished holiday let) so I will know for sure what they think is going on. I have to respect that they have keys to my flat and we have guests in at the moment who I don't want to disturb by changing the locks. There are also more booked in who have presumably already paid the agent.

So how best to deal with the situation? I'm not really inclined to go down the trading standards/police route as I don't really want the hassle. My instinct is to give them enough rope to hang themselves, so they will have to at least admit they are incompetent, pay up and end our engagement. Any better ideas?

[scooterscot]

This is theft.

[clearedforlanding]

Small claims court.
Eject guests, their contract & issue is with agency, not you.
Find a new agent.

*Consult a lawyer to confirm above.

I have had a squatter in one of my beach apartments for 14 months. It is still dragging through Spanish courts and can take up to 2 years to evict in Spain. Be thankful the law is on your side in the UK.

[FatLazyContractor]

Name and shame on Dailymail.

That way, you will get a free assessment of how much your property is worth

[vetran]

possibly not the agent but one of their staff letting their mates borrow it?

Does sort of scream you need an Burglar Alarm upgrade so entries & exits are logged. Then you will know when people are there. Get one with dongles so you know who is using the flat.i.e. an Estate agent one, your one & tenant one.

[SimonMac]

Its bang out of order, and think its more fraud than theft but that's a technicality, Its gonna come down to proof, you will say there were customers in the property, they will say they have no record.

It will go either one of two ways, they will admit to being caught out but assure you it was a one off and no other money is due, or they will deny it and you will have to prove otherwise, if its not gone through the books odds are other people will end up after them too with much bigger teeth.

[deebeegee]

This is theft.

I think it's fraud. Either way it is going to be hard to prove

[cojak]

What does your contract say regarding reasons for early termination?

[deebeegee]

possibly not the agent but one of their staff letting their mates borrow it?

Does sort of scream you need an Burglar Alarm upgrade so entries & exits are logged. Then you will know when people are there. Get one with dongles so you know who is using the flat.i.e. an Estate agent one, your one & tenant one.

Could be that. I think the cleanest way out is going to be to allow the agent to pretend like it was going on without their knowledge but agree to pay up and end the arrangement

I like the idea of the smart entry systems. We may take on the running of the flat ourselves and that way we could welcome guests remotely if we were not able to be there physically. The added bonus being that we can revoke access to the flat remotely also

[scooterscot]

I think it's fraud. Either way it is going to be hard to prove

Something taken from you without permission.

Yeah closer to a fraud. I'd be super flying TNT.