renting admin fee, ripped off

daz1971

Hello

Not sure if you can help me but i want some advice really or point me in right direction.

I recently applied to rent a house privately through an estate agency. This agency uses a company called 1st Complete to do the referencing for them and i had to pay £125.00.
I was asked what i earned as to rent this house i needed to earn at least £22,500 which i do. However this referencing company has declined me because they say i dont earn enough because my salary is a commission based salary. Nowhere on this estate agencies website does it say that if your on a commission based salary the rules are different and nowhere on the 1st Complete application form does it say this and no-body at the estate agency mentioned this even though the form stated i was on a commission based salary. I have now lost £125 for nothing.
I have sent them my p60 to show my earning from April 2007 to April 2008 and this is more than £22,500 and i have also sent bank statements showing my last 12 wages so they can see i earn more than £22,500 and the commission i earn is regular and not up and down.
I feel cheated out of the £125 and misled and wonder where i stand legally? surely if they are different rules if your on a commission based salary this should be made clear or mentioned.
can you help me at all because basically i have lost money for nothing.
Thank you.

tbs624

In view of the fact that you say that none of the specifics were flagged up to you, even though you declared a commission element to your salary on the form, I think you have a strong case for arguing for the return of your fee in full as the staff should have known that this would affect the result of the check. IMO they were charging you that admin fee under false pretences, either deliberately or mistakenly because of a lack of training or knowledge on their part (neither of which is acceptable)

I would write a formal letter to the EA either asking them for a full refund because their staff should have picked up on your application info before proceeding.

If they try to argue that they have incurred expense on your behalf remind them that you gave them the full information and that they should have checked the form properly and discussed that with you, prior to going any further.

Also bear in mind that most LAs do not even begin making phone calls to employers or previous LLs etc until after they have the results of the check which is usually conducted online so in itself involves little effort.

Most credit reports cost around 50 quid for the most comprehensive version, so an admin charge of £125 is excessive IMO (although it seems to be standard practice, and LAs do seem to operate a bit of a cartel on this issue) so you could alternatively agree to pay only the true cost of the check as a compromise - keep that option as a very last resort. (If you do this, you should ask them for a copy of the "credit report" - you are legally entitled to have one.)

Are these EAs signed up to ARLA or NAEA or any other group with a code of practice?

It may also be worth your while talking to the local trading standards office, and in future I'd try to find a good local LL who self-manages his/her own properties - try the local LL association or vivastreet, letalife etc.They would probably still want to do a credit check but will usually only pass on the actual costs of that to the tenant, rather than trying to slam you for extra fees on top.

Gingernutmeg

We had a similar problem recently. We applied for a house with an agancy that uses MARAS - our earnings are fine but OH is self-employed, and we made this absolutely clear to the agency, who said it wasn't a problem. Credit check came back and OH had 'failed' it and MARAS had told the agency to ask for six months rent upfront. We asked why and were told it was because OH was self-employed, the woman at the agency let slip that MARAS will usually 'fail' a self-employed person as a matter of principle. We felt that if they knew that before then we should have been told, so that we would have known that the only option to take that particular house was to pay all that money in advance (not a massive problem but I'd rather it was in my account than the agency's ...) Seems to me that it's a bit of a scam, taking money off people who you know are going to 'fail' your checks. Nice way for the agency to earn a bit of money though, holding on to all that cash for six months ... The scumbags also failed to tell us that the money was 'non-refundable' too ...

tbs624

Again - tenants with these sort of experiences should write to /email their MP http://www.writetothem.com/ and the Housing Minister, Caroline Flint http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/commons/member/search/l/caroline%20flint.html ( & send a copy to Shelter's campaigns office).

These are the very issues that the current review of the private lettings industry should be addressing but unless people highlight this type of practice it will continue unchanged.