Can I Switch Letting Agents?

Has your letting agent let you down? It does happen – not often, thankfully, but there are times when you’d be better switching letting agents and changing to someone that can help you secure a tenancy faster.   

Changing Letting Agents’ Mid Tenancy

Rather understandably many rental property owners do not change their letting agent when their existing tenancy is yet to expire simply because they want to avoid the inevitable headache.  This can easily lead to landlords ticking with the same overpriced agency for years, leaving them to make the switch many tenancies and thousands of pounds too late. It is also not unheard of for owners to believe they are unable to change letting agents’ mid tenancy because they have entered into a tenancy agreement, however, the tenancy binds the landlord and tenant, not the letting agent.  

Typically, landlords will want to change their letting agent mid tenancy because they are underwhelmed with the service they have received, there has been an excessive void period between tenants occupying the property, the owner becoming dissatisfied with a lack of communication, or simply finding a better offer elsewhere.  

How Do I Change Letting Agents?

As a landlord, you will naturally want to hire the letting agent that is best suited to the task at hand and showcases your rental opportunity in the best light to promising tenants. To the Suprise of many rental property owners, changing the letting agent you use can be surprisingly simple. 

Check Your Contract

As can be expected, if a landlord wants to change letting agents, then they cannot simply swap as a contract will have been signed. Typically, this will see the owner of the rental property enter into an initial fixed period, with the option to later leave the agreement. 

This is commonly done through a termination clause which details the amount of notice the landlord must provide their letting agent before they terminate the agreement and employ the services of a new letting agent. Naturally, the specifics surround the minimum amount of notice before the contract is terminated and any fees that must be paid will vary between agents, so this is worth assessing before entering into any agreements.  

Collect You Tenant’s Details

As with any changes in the tenancy, it is always good practice for the landlord to keep the tenant informed as to what is going on. To this end the owner of the property should ensure that the transition between letting agents is as seamless as possible, ensuring to collect all relevant details about each tenant including their identification, contact, and bank details.  

This also means that the landlords should collect any documents relevant to the tenancy including the gas and electrical safety certificates, the energy performance certificate, the property inventory, details surrounding the deposit protection scheme, and of course the tenancy agreement.   

Appoint a New Letting Agent

Ensuring that you have chosen the new letting agent well in advance is the key to a smooth transition. As mentioned, landlords should take care to assess each service they are presented with and scrutinise the terms for each agent to save any potential headaches further down the road. Typically, the new letting agent will contact your previous agents to finalise the details of the switch and to check the correct documents and details that have been provided by the landlord.  

Can I Use Two Letting Agents?

It is perfectly understandable that every landlord regardless of the size of their portfolio will want to give each of their rental properties the best exposure possible, maximising their chance at securing a tenancy. It is not far-fetched to assume that the more letting agents showcasing a rental, the more interest it will receive. Well, this may have been the case with high street letting agents, but with tenants now taking the search for their next home online, appearing in multiple shopfront windows is simply a redundant approach.  

Why Would a Landlord Change Letting Agents?

Perhaps the most pressing reason as to why many owners choose to switch their letting agent is because of the fees. It is no secret that when advertising your property through a letting agents’ landlord will face charges at every turn paying for each tenant they wish to put through referencing, exorbitant advertising costs, management fees, and more. These sky high costs can be made all the more painful when there are no results to show after weeks of paying up for a poor service.  

As mentioned, many landlords choose to change their letting agent simply due to underwhelming results.  Although this rather vague term can encompass many short comings of a letting agent, from unprofessional conduct to lacklustre communication and updates on the interest your rental is receiving, it is essential to evaluate your letting agent’s performance and evaluate your position to get the best results.  

When advertising your rental opportunity with PropertyLoop landlords can finally go through the entire renting process for free. Owners can have their property presented to millions of verified renters, complete referencing, curate a tenancy agreement, register the deposit and collect rent all at no cost at all. ProperyLoop are everything a letting agent isn’t. We are building a trust-based community, bringing renters and owners closer together than ever before to make renting easier for everyone.  

Instead of waiting days for offers, negotiations, repair requests and general queries to be passed between parties by a commission-hungry hungry letting agent, PropertyLoop cuts out any unnecessary third parties and middle men, putting owners in direct contact with their tenants.  

Benefits of Changing Your Letting Agent

Having to find new tenants at the end of every lease period would be expensive, a worry and just too much hassle every six months or one year. It’s something that, if you are a part-time landlord (ie you already hold down a ‘day job’), that you can well do without because you simply don’t have the time to go looking for new tenants twice a year.  

You won’t lose your tenants – even if that letting agent found them for you (and which you probably paid them handsomely for). That’s because the Tenancy Agreement you signed with your tenants is between yourself and them; it has nothing to do with the letting agent contractually. So, if they threaten to take the tenants with them if you cancel, know that they have no legal leg to stand on.  

Finding a New Letting Agent as a Landlord  

One of the best ways to get signed up with the top letting agent in your area is simply to ask around. Going online and comparing reviews for agents may be time consuming, particularly when juggling property management, but the search could save you from paying for an ultimately underwhelming service  

Why continue paying thousands each year in commission to let your property? With 97% of landlords recommending our services, and with over 50,000 tenants joining our rental community in the last year alone PropertyLoop is welcoming a new era of renting.

The PropertyLoop platform establishes the trust, transparency and personal service that has been lost from the renting sector. We are anything but another faceless corporation looking to profit from your investment, but a community founded on expertise and ambition.

We offer landlords complete clarity on available specialists through a landlord controlled rating and review system, giving users complete confidence of your PropertyPro’s proven results in finding owner’s ideal tenants faster.

With PropertyLoop landlords will have everything they need to let out their rental from start to finish, with no hidden fees, financial barriers or catches; only a revolutionary new way to let.