What are the landlord's rights in the following situation:
The rental property was fully managed by a letting agency who were completely useless and were only interested in collecting their fees. The tenants neglected the property and had been in breach of the tenancy contract right from the start i.e keeping pets, smoking, not keeping the house tidy, unkept garden, not reporting water leakage problems etc while the contract stated otherwise . They were instructed to carry out some remedial work in the property prior to the lease expiring but the tenants ran off without paying the final month's rent and not leaving any forwarding address.
The landlord feels disappointed with the letting agency for the mis-management of his property and with the tenants for their behaviour.
Does the answer here not lie in the detail of the letting agreement that the landlord had with the letting agency? If it was fully managed by a letting agency but the tenants treated the property badly, surely the letting agency has to be responsible for not dealing with it by withholding deposits etc or at least notifying the landlord?