Franchise legalities

[funinthesun63]

My Letting Agent is a large franchise. The franchise has recently been sold to another.

I have a complaint regarding the first franchise owner should the second franchise owner investigate this and refund any money which is owed.

[slick132]

Hi FITS and welcome to CAG

 

If the same estate agent continues to trade, regardless of who owns it, you may have a claim which the new owner can investigate.

 

Can you give us a bit more info, so we can offer the best input.

 

[funinthesun63]

The first franchise owner organised the fitting of a new flat roof due to reports of a leak in the bedroom (and the fact that the old roof was past its sell by date.) I paid the LA half in cash and the remainder was deducted from monthly rental payments.

 

It was reported at the last property inspection (the one carried out by FO2) that water was still leaking into the bedroom. (I don't know how long this had been happening because it had never been reported before and looking at the pictures it looked like it had been going on for a while).

 

I asked FO2 to get in touch with the contractor and to see what could be done. FO2 told me that he didn't have any information regarding who carried out the work there was no contractor invoice on file. The payment for the work had been made to a company which belonged to FO1 and this was not the actual contractor.

 

It would appear that the LA had a separate company for maintenance. The LA would issue his own invoices for maintenance work with a view to making extra profit.

 

 

I asked F02 to get another contractor to look at the roof and they reported that the problem was with the drainage and to put this right it would cost a further 850.00. I checked the original quotation and the drainage was supposed to be sorted out as part of the roof refit.

 

I will now have to pay a further 850.00 to solve the problem. My argument is if proper records were kept then I would be able to challenge the contractor directly and not have to pay a further 850.00

[slick132]

Hi FITS,

 

I'll move this to the forum dealing with Lettings and Freehold matters. You should get the input you need from folk who post there frequently.

 

From your last response, I assume you are the LL of a property, let and managed for you by the Lettings Agents.

 

Do you know the name of the previous Franchise owner and/or the maintenance company that carried out the roof repair works.

 

[funinthesun63]

I know the name of the previous franchise owner. I don't know the name of the contractor as I never received an invoice from them directly I received an invoice from a separate company who had nothing to do with workans was owned by the letting Agent.