18th Jan 2026 (21 days ago)
A never ending nightmare with Little Estates Agents.
I am a year into a nightmare with this agency that is not ending any time soon. Going into the 5th month the tenant the agency found not paying rent because “they haven’t been paid”, tenant not leaving my home because “they haven’t been paid” so basically, they won’t leave because they would have to pay rent at the next rental, so why leave if they can continue to live rent free in my home.
The nightmare started in the process of finding a tenant, a tenant moved in 4th of March had CCJs and had agreed to pay 6 months upfront plus guarantor, they would have to be re-referenced for a new contract from the end of the 6 months. A home inspection was done June 18th, tenant had removed all the carpets in all 4 bedrooms upstairs, lounge and dining room. Had put paneling in most of the rooms and also painted the cream banister black. Tenant fully violated the contract terms, when I pointed this out to the agency, they responded that “the tenant had made the house nicer and had promised not to do it again”.
Then as per agreement at the start, the agency had to re-reference the tenant so I could get rental insurance, tenant continued to fail referencing as they had picked up more CCJs during that 6 month period. At this point I informed the agency to serve the tenant 2 months notice for Section 21 from the end of their tenancy. Over 19 plus emails, Nicola flat out refused to serve the Section 21, giving all sorts of reason including that the rental rights act was about go into law and I would not be able to use Section 21, that rental rights law is going into effect May 2026, this was in August 2025. Additionally, the tenant after the 6 months ended, stopped paying rent, said they didn’t have money to pay, that was October 2025. Eventually having gone nowhere with Nicola I escalated to Jonathan to get the section 21 served, this was eventually done in October 2025. A section 8 was also served after the 2 months rent missed, that i also had to beg Little Estates Agents to do. Tenant still hasn’t paid a penny of rent because “they haven’t been paid”, tenant also not leaving my home because “they haven’t been paid” so basically, they won’t leave because they would have to pay rent at the next rental, so why leave if they can live rent free in my home. I finally got Solicitors to start the section 21 process, had to beg Jonathan to ask Nicola to provide the required information to my solicitor.
After Little Estates Agents had obviously also not been paid because the tenants were not paying, they then served me with a bill covering the period upto January 2026 for which the tenant had not paid rent. I barely heard from Nicola from November, until January when she sent a series of emails including the request for agency fees. The Tenant she said had not been responding, except when tenant finally contacted her to say there was an issue with the boiler it must have taken her 0.5seconds to email me about it. Same thing when the tenant contacted her that the oven was not working, she was diligent in contacting me to find out when I would install the new double oven that cost me £1200. Zero contact from agency on the days tenant missed paying rent. If only Little Estates Agents put as much energy into supporting the tenant as they do into supporting me who is paying them to support the tenant.
The court process to get possession of my home is ongoing and it will probably be another 3-4 months before I can get bailiffs to evict these horrible people, at that point tenant will be owing over £13000 in rent arears which they clearly have no intention of paying. I am sure every month until then Little Estate Agents will be demanding their payment for god knows doing what.
I can’t wait for the day these horrible tenants leave my home, and I never have to deal with Little Estate Agents. That day will come eventually; I just have to take one day at a time. To whichever landlord will have the unfortunate pleasure of having these tenants in their home I have nothing but sympathy.... Read more