Estate agent owes £10,000 rent claim

A LANDLORD was outraged when a local letting agent stopped paying her rental money she was owed — leaving her more than £10,000 out of pocket.

Joanne Moran hired Cousins & Co to handle management of her house in Firwood Park, Chadderton in January 2012.

After several months of payments, Mrs Moran stopped receiving rental money amounting to around £750 a month.

When she discovered in December 2013 that payments had stopped, she was owed more than £10,000.

Mrs Moran, who runs a manufacturing company with her husband Paul, said: “The initial payments continued with no problems for 10 months. We didn’t feel the need to monitor this as we had believed Cousins and Co to be a well-known and respectable estate agent.”

The couple only realised the money was missing when they checked the account to pay a tax bill.

The mother-of-four said: “We immediately contacted Cousins and were told it was an accounting error.”

After that Mrs Moran rang many times to speak to someone in charge, but always failed - even after getting the mobile number of company representative Andrew Chadwick and being told by him the problem would be sorted out. Seven months later, the couple are still waiting for their money.

Mrs Moran, of Water Mill Clough, Royton, terminated the contract with Cousins & Co and spoke to her tenant to confirm that the money had been paid on time each month.

The Chronicle made repeated attempts to contact Cousins & Co and Andrew Chadwick but could not get a response.

In July the Chronicle reported a similar incident involving the company, which had left a landlord £1,000 out of pocket