Tonight's episode sees the return of eviction expert Paul Shamplina from Landlord Action who helps one landlord serve notice on a dodgy guaranteed rent agent and collect more than £24,000 in rent arrears.
Landlord, Gulam Sumar, handed over two six-bedroom HMO properties to RHP Services, a guaranteed rent provider in Walthamstow, London four years ago. Monthly rent was guaranteed for a three-year contract but after only two months it stopped paying and arrears quickly built up.
Mr Sumar says: “A two-year break clause was written in the contract so after months of problems with the agent and thousands of pounds of missing rent I tried to serve notice, but even that was extremely difficult as they wouldn’t answer my calls or emails. They wouldn’t even give me access to inspect the properties, something that should have been done every three months. I could see both properties were very run down, but I could never get in.”
With Paul’s help, Mr Sumar tries to confront the letting agent at their offices to serve notice, for the arrears and damage to the properties.
Paul Shamplina comments: “Landlord Action has received numerous complaints against RHP Services, now operating as RHP Lettings, from landlords in similar situations to Mr Sumar and all prove how guaranteed rent (or rent-to-rent) can go disastrously wrong. In this particular case, we wanted to finally confront the agent at their office to apply pressure, and this can be seen on tomorrow’s show. Thankfully, with a tenacious landlord and our expertise we managed to collect the full amount of rent back, totalling some £24,000.
"Guaranteed rent can work when using the right company, but so often we see these rogue agents abusing the system and the consequences can have a severe impact on the lives of these landlords.”
Paul wants to educate landlords on the possible problems with guaranteed rent. Therefore, mydeposits, part of Hamilton Fraser along with Landlord Action, has launched a detailed guide on this sector of the industry.
