[Bryan H]

Hi folks,

A CC colleague of mine has been asked to sign a contract with a Letting Agent before they will give him work.

It has 37 clauses, one of which states that they can dispence with his services immediately, but he must give them 28 days written notice if he wishes to cease !!
also although they personally will be booking him for the work, they will take no responsibility for non-payment by the Landlord or Tenant.  Is this legal ?

We have both done loads of work for agents over the years, but have never come across this before 

Has anyone else ?   Is this normal ?

Bryan

[Barry Pearce]

bryan
 If your college has enough other work, tell him to give a short reply to the letting agents, and the second word is "off".
Barry

[Big_Fish]

I second that

We went to quote and clean a property this morning for an estate agent who we've not worked for before. They 'phoned us because they'd seen an advert somewhere.
Anyway, we looked at the manky carpet and suggested they throw it away but they were insistant that they wanted a clean! Full of cigarette burns, urine stains, beverage spills, protein deposits, scorch marks from an iron, rubber, paint, nail varnish and heavy traffic lane wear and soiling. We wrote out a list of limitations, priced the work £234 + VAT and walked back across the street to the agent. She read the quote and limitations. She signed to say that she agreed with the limitations and then began to haggle for less than £200.
Seeing that I was prepared to walk away for anything less  than the quoted price, she agreed quickly

Play them at their own game.

Nicky

[ian richards]

Bryan

I do lots of work for Estate agents, and have a very good relationship with all of them. I can not see any reason for there to be a contract, its completely ludicrous!!! There is a possibilty that they want rid of you
I would ask them outright if they have, or ever have had a problem with your sevices and if they say not, then ask them for a reason for this contract, if they still demand the signiture then do as the above have advised.......Bin them off

[Ken Wainwright]

Bryan

Can't comment on the legality of the issue.

For any job, whether written or verbal order is taken, your contract is with the person/company who placed the order. The letting agent, it would appear, wants a contract whereby they will make a contract/agreement with a CC, but if they don't get paid, nobody else will either. And there's nobody else for the poor old CC to chase.

As said earlier, a phrase to do with sex and travel springs to mind

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

[Kevin_Gare]

Hi Lads

Just walk away. They always come running back in the end.
Then you put your price up.


Regards Kevin

[Cloverleaf]

I do work for several letting agents......good work, pay early and a good worthwhile working relationship.

I have come accross one agent who required a commission of 7% that I would have to pay them for the work
excuse me but this is my business and you pay me for agood service.

Leave anything like this alone, these companys have a reputation for disgrunteled customers, bad service etc.

Find the people that will appreciate your service.

John

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I do 2 letting agents and they both take 5% of my bill I just quote them HAPPY, well I add 10% to equate for the 5% they take off but it is guaranteed payment within 30 days and no job under £100 because for 30 days it's just not worth it.

Shaun

[Scott Martin]

SUSS, VERY SUSS INDEED.

THAY WILL PROBABLY THROUGH AROUND 10/15 JOBS AT YOU INT HE FIRST MONTH AND THEN NOTHING AND YOU WILL BE CHASING YOUR ARSE FOR PAYMENT.

ONCE THEY HAVE GOT THAT MONTH FROM YOU THEY WILL MOVE ONTO SOMEONE ELSE AND DO THEY SAME!

IF YOU REALLY WANT THE WORK THEN CREDIT CHECK THEM, ITS COSTS 15.OO TO SEE THEIR BUSINESS PATTERNS AND THEN EVEN IF GOOD MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE COUNTER PRODUCTIVE AND GET THEM TO SIGN YOUR AGREEMENT HIGHLIGHTING THE COMMERCIAL DEBTS ACT.

PM me if you want the legally binding wording for letters and invoices etc.

Good Luck and remember, your terms not theirs.

Best

[Martin S]

A silly question maybe, but with letting agents, do you go in at your normal prices?  Or do you have to discount it to get the work?

Martin

[ian richards]

Hi Martin

I go in at my normal prices and then work out a price based on what money they have to play with. As i said earlier i have a very good relationship with my agents and if they have a situation that they have no funds in the kitty, ie the funds for that property have had to be used elswhere say on a major clean or  something, i go in and do it for free to help them out. Then when the agents have work come in that has plenty of money in the pot i usually charge premium prices. It works well for the both of us  

Ian

[martin19842]

hi there,

we do a lot of px cleans, they pay well, and can be for a house clean or a complete clean and a carpet clean,  we have even got jobs where they are looking to a stain removal on the hall carpet.

we quote our price, do the work and get paid.  I'm not into haggling for this work, as you will always get a call asking you to do the work.

if we in the cleaning industry start that downward spiral of devaluing the work that we do, by discounting, then what is the point really of doing it, if you dont make a profit dont do it.  Dont sign anything that you are not happy to sign, it is your business, you decide the direction that you want to take your business.

you could turn it on its head and ask the letting agent to sign your standard terms and conditions, and thatevery job you get from them abides totally by them.   see what happens then. !!! will they sign ?? i dont expect they would.

regards

martin

[Bryan H]

Thanks for the opinions guys, they tend to mirror my own thoughts on the subject !

I will pass your advice on to my colleague.

   

Bryan

[Gareth House]

Bryan,

Having Managed a Letting Agency myself, we never had contracts with our contractors and lots of other agents that i knew and had worked for never had this arrangement either so it sounds very odd.

On the case of non payment i dont know whether this is leagl or not, but on most cases of payment we would pay our carpet cleaners from the landlords monthly rent or in the majority of cases we would pay the contractor out of the tenancy deposit if they have been messy.
So in this case you the agent shouldn't have any claim to making you sign a contract in regards to taking responsibility for non payment because they shouldn't issue the work if they haven't got any money.

The only case where the agent won't have any money is if the dont rent collect or manage the property for the landlord.

Hope this helps

Gareth

[The Great One]

Hi

It all basically comes down to , if you mate needs the work or not?

If he is just strating or work is slack then he will sign it as pride doesn't pay the bills. If he has loads of work then he won't ned to sign and this whole thread is moot...

In the early days I did sign a contract with a national letting agent (probably a franchise?) it was the way they worked with all contractors and I needed the work. About 3-4 months later they dropped me like a blind roofer, with letting agents it is a very competitive market and they get about 3-5 packs from potential contractors a day!

So if you mess up then you can be out, or if someone does it cheaper then you are out, sucks but hey, thats life sometimes.

Regards

Martin