Bad Rental Experience

andy20

Hi,

Was just looking for feedback on the most bizarre renting experience.

I signed a tenancy agreement last week intending to move in this weekend. After visiting the house once, I came back the next day to find someone else's stuff in the house! Incredibly it turns out the property had been offered through 2 different letting agents at the same time.

The other tenant, who has now moved their stuff in, refuses to move out and the landlord apparently doesn't care. Although I signed the contract first, it doesn't appear that there is much I can do so I have been refunded all fees and am now left feeling a bit bitter!

Anyone have any advice on whether I should follow this up? i.e. have either the landlord or letting agent broke any rules or regulations?

Cheers

horrorhag

WOW that is S**T! i would write a little letter to my local newspaper.....

RainMaker_2

andy20 wrote: »

Anyone have any advice on whether I should follow this up? i.e. have either the landlord or letting agent broke any rules or regulations?

Cheers

You said you've signed the agreement, but did the Landlord ? If not, you have no redress.

Sounds like the LL was trying to ride 2 horses at the same time, fell off, and took you with him !

franklee

In addition to RainMaker's question, were you given a set of keys? What date did you agree the tenancy start?

If you were given keys and the tenancy started (a tenancy does not necessarily need a signed agreement) then you can sue for illegal eviction which should have considerable damages. This would be the case even without the landlord's signature. You say you visited the house once, if that was with keys given to you and on or after the agreed start date then I think the tenancy started!

If the tenancy hadn't started but the landlord signed then you should get something for breach of the contract, you need to seek further advice what.

So yes follow this up.

RainMaker_2

franklee wrote: »

If you were given keys and the tenancy started (a tenancy does not necessarily need a signed agreement) then you can sue for illegal eviction which should have considerable damages. This would be the case even without the landlord's signature.

It would be nigh on impossible proving a verbal agreement.

franklee

RainMaker wrote: »

It would be nigh on impossible proving a verbal agreement.

It wasn't just a verbal agreement if the OP was given the keys and went round on the agreed start day. It reads a bit like the OP did that and then the next day went round again to find the other tenant had sneaked in. I suspect the agent would have records of a key handover or at least know that was done, if it was, the OP hasn't said yet.

OP we need more details, who signed what, were you given keys, agreed start date, dates you went round, date you found other tenant, was your deposit in scheme?

poppysarah

And another point about the number of sets of keys floating around ... if two lots of agents had keys to allow viewings and then keys to give people ... an awful lot of people potentially have the key to your front door.

Notlob

What is the agreement date?
What is the commencement date?
Did you pay the first month's rent?
Did you pay the Deposit?

NotLob

andy20

Thanks for the replies!

There was no verbal agreement, I have everything in writing and a signed contract.

To answer the following:

Notlob wrote: »

What is the agreement date?
What is the commencement date?

Both the commencement and agreement date was Jan 23rd. I first visited the flat with the set of keys provided to me on that very day. According to my letting agent, the contract that the other tenant signed happened the following day although I have no proof of this.

Did you pay the first month's rent?

Yes and...

Did you pay the Deposit?

yes - both with cleared funds.

I have accepted that I'm not going to get the flat back without going through the courts, and, to be truthful I don't wish to live there anymore after what has happened.

However, I want to make sure this doesn't happen again. Hence, if any regulations have been broken that I can report then I will do so.

Cheers

andy20

franklee wrote: »

OP we need more details, who signed what, were you given keys, agreed start date, dates you went round, date you found other tenant, was your deposit in scheme?

Here is the timeline.

T = The day I signed the agreement and got the keys

T-7 Paid the deposit with cleared funds
T Signed the contract, paid 1st months rent with cleared funds, picked up the keys, visited the flat with a few possessions
T+1 Visited the flat with the remainder of my possessions. Found other tenants belongings which weren't there the previous day.
T+3 Contacted my agent to find out there was another agent involved whose tenant had apparently signed the agreement on T+1.

Yes my deposit was in scheme.

Hope this helps.

moongarden

Sounds awful. Did you incur any expenses because of this? Phone calls, time off work, time spent having to urgently view/search for another place, travel costs for other viewings, etc.

If you incurred any costs directly as a result of this landlords actions it would be relatively straight forward to have these refunded too.