incorrectly advertised damage deposit

leah35

Hi hope some one may be able to help.

My partner and myself have been looking for house to rent. We found one via a letting agent which we decided we wanted. The damage deposit was advertised on their website and in the office itself as £550. We paid the application fee's totalling £75 and the application was processed successfully. However when we were sent the draft contract to sign, we noticed that the monthly rent had been increased by £25 and the damage deposit was now £650. I queried this and the agents stated that the monthly rental increase was a typo, but the damage deposit was actually £625 not the £550 as advertised or the £650 stated on the draft contract. we have emailed them explaining that we are unhappy with this. My question is (after the extensive scene setting!) Can they actually do this? is it not false advertisin? is it illegal?

Many thanks in advance

Fire_Fox

Have you signed the tenancy agreement? If so it's probably binding. If not you should be able to withdraw from the tenancy and receive a refund of the £75 paid to date as what you agreed to does not exist.

adg1

It could quite easily be a typo as they say.

It could also be them trying to cover a mistake on their typo and increase the rent to satisfy their landlord.

Talk to the EA. If you put in the application at a certain price, and this price was accepted without them coming back to you looking for an increase then they should try to honour this unless their landlord doesn't accept the lower offer. In this case you will get the £75 back as the EA have pulled the deal, not you.

If it simply is a case of the damage deposit being mistyped (to a lower figure) then the landlord is probably unlikely to accept the tenancy with a lowered security deposit.

I wouldn't class it personally as false advertising, more a genuine error, though. It the price was altered after liosting it online then they may have simply missed changing the bit they wrote stating the deposit amounts.

theartfullodger

The agent is clearly either very sloppy & unreliable in their admin or a liar, both not attractive characteristics.

So, if you carry on with them, check up on everything they do: (Sometimes with people I don't trust/have found to be unreliable I email summaries of everything discussed after any meeting/'phone call...: they soon get the message, sometimes deciding they don't want to do business with me...)

Cheers!

Lodger