Housing agency promised to waive fees to rehouse, now changed mind!

happyandbored

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRgggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

I have a complaint with a housing agency:

My wife and I moved into a house beginning of May. We paid substantial reference fees, £175 each. We were concerned on moving in how long the house was going to be available for, as we really wanted to stay somewhere long term, and were reassured that the landlord had given no indication he was about to sell. Possibly unnecessarily, but having had friends being charged contract renewal fees after six months with other agencies, I even added a line to the contract ensuring the contract would progress to a rolling contract after six months. Yes, it was a standard six month contract, but the impression I got when I was paying the fees was that we would be able to stay there a reasonable amount of time after.

So surprise, surprise, after just three months we get informed the land-lord is selling up. Two weeks of near-daily viewings followed, some with little or no notice, but not wanting to cause a scene, we put up with it.

Anyway, nearing the end of our tenancy, we found a flat which looked interesting through the same agency. We were unhappy to find ourselves having to move after such a short time and after having spent so much moving into the house. At the end of the day £350 fees is fair enough if you're planning on staying somewhere a good couple of years, but six months is taking the p*** a bit. So we went to have a word with the lettings manager, who was very friendly and promised that all referral fees would be waived if we moved into the flat. This seemed fair - it's the landlord's right to sell of course, but this seemed a fair way to deal with the raw deal we got with the reference fees and we left happy.

At the time, we could not get a viewing on the flat as the tenants were away. A week later we were contacted by one of the lettings staff to arrange a viewing. At this point he told us that someone higher up had told them that they would still have to run reference checks - even though it's with the same agency and neither mine or my wife's circumstances have changed! As a 'gesture' of good will he offered that they would only reference me however, supposedly 'saving' us £175... ha ha ha. Given that even the single fee is pretty excessive anyway, the poor deal we've got from our current tenancy, and that we had previously been promised that all fees would be waived, I'm not particularly happy.

I know legally we probably haven't got a leg to stand on regarding the fees and the short amount of time we were able to rent the house initially - that's not so much what is bothering me, but rather their lettings manager agreeing to waive the fees and then someone phoning me to say they changed their mind.

Any ideas what I can do, if anything, about this?

(Thank you for taking the time to read my whining.)

Colincbayley

Your only real choice is to vote with your feet and go elsewhere.

You could try speaking again to the lettings manager, but do you really want to rent from them again!!

£175 is very high for ref fees.

happyandbored

Yeah, but then some other poor mug gets ripped off and we end up living in a last minute !!!!!!-hole!! I don't get why there aren't any sort of laws protecting consumers from this sort of thing.

Total bunch of C!nt Job Holes.

franklee

If you don't toughen up a bit then the agent/landlord will go on taking advantage. Make them an offer of what you will pay for referencing, say 50 quid for just you. If they don't go for it then just tell them you will stay put till you find somewhere else with another agent, they can't make you move till they've jumped through a few hoops which takes a fair bit of time.

I'm surprised you allowed viewings at 3 months in. Normally the contract says viewings in the last month (I'd start counting the last month of the S21 notice period, not the last month of the fixed term if there was no S21, but of course you do not have to leave when the S21 asks if you are prepared to string it out a bit). Even then you do not have to allow viewings that are too many or not convenient and one a day for two weeks is far too many! If you flat out refuse viewings there is little they can do as you have the right to quiet enjoyment.

Next time get any promises made in writing, an agent's word is worth nothing.

DVardysShadow

happyandbored wrote: »

Yeah, but then some other poor mug gets ripped off and we end up living in a last minute !!!!!!-hole!!

Do your duty and stay with this outfit, if it prevents someone else being ripped off

I don't get why there aren't any sort of laws protecting consumers from this sort of thing.

You seem to have let yourself be a bit of a doormat, particularly when it came to the viewings. I don't see that another law would help much.

Total bunch of C!nt Job Holes.

Quite.

princeofpounds

Totally agree that this is shady practice.

There were things you could have done but I don't blame you for not knowing about it as no-one teaches you how to rent.

Firstly, you do not have to allow viewings at all. The only right of access, even if you have pre-agreed to viewings, is for emergencies like a gas or water leak. That is the law of 'quiet enjoyment'. You should have told LL that to sell after 6 months was disappointing and you weren't prepared to have it inconvenience you to such an extent. You can always ask for a rental discount for viewings...

You also didn't have to leave on the day notice expired. You only ever have to leave as the result of a court order, so you could have stayed there for months beyond the end of the tenancy. That probably wasn't a necessary step but you could have refused to leave unless the LL or LA pay your fees for the next place (which you sort out while still in place).

You should have asked for the fees-free promise in writing, along with a guarantee that you wouldn't be caught out if they didn't have somewhere that suited you. You can still ask for them to stump it up now and be ethical, or threaten to go to the local paper. But that's about it.

happyandbored

franklee wrote: »

I'm surprised you allowed viewings at 3 months in. Normally the contract says viewings in the last month

I got my timings a bit wrong in retelling the story - we were informed the landlord was selling just over three months in, viewings started four months in. Thankfully, they've stopped now as they found a buyer.

To be honest, I'm not too concerned about the details, just the fact that they offered a reasonable resolution to the problem and then for no apparent reason changed their mind. It's basically wasted a week's flat-hunting and resulted in me taking two days off work for viewings (long complication to the story best left out) thinking I was going to be charged x, then later told no actually it's 2x when we finally viewed the place.

I find the doormat comments are a little unkind (although I'm not offended) - like everyone I need somewhere to live and on occasions where I have asked for things in writing, I have generally been refused. It's not really like there is any option, when most of the agencies in an area operate this way and there are so few private landlords (at least, the few I've found have either been scammers or the flat/house has been gone by the time I called).

It is pathetic that agencies are able to act in this way without any legal repercussions.

(Sorry, I do appreciate the comments and really I'm just whining now, because I'm p***ed off! )

happyandbored

princeofpounds wrote: »

Totally agree that this is shady practice.

There were things you could have done but I don't blame you for not knowing about it as no-one teaches you how to rent.

Firstly, you do not have to allow viewings at all. The only right of access, even if you have pre-agreed to viewings, is for emergencies like a gas or water leak. That is the law of 'quiet enjoyment'. You should have told LL that to sell after 6 months was disappointing and you weren't prepared to have it inconvenience you to such an extent. You can always ask for a rental discount for viewings...

Too late now, but we were worried, probably wrongly, about it affecting our reference.

You also didn't have to leave on the day notice expired. You only ever have to leave as the result of a court order, so you could have stayed there for months beyond the end of the tenancy. That probably wasn't a necessary step but you could have refused to leave unless the LL or LA pay your fees for the next place (which you sort out while still in place).

We're actually still in the place at the moment (my mistake saying 'nearing the end of our tenancy' as I was trying to keep the post short and to the point), although we have given notice - our house mate has found a flat elsewhere as a result of the hassle, which means we can't afford to stay on. I wonder if we can 'change our mind' about notice?! What is the legal situation here though with regards to rent - surely we'd have to pay it eventually anyway, so it would just be delaying a month or so? Probably not practical for us, but a good idea though...

You should have asked for the fees-free promise in writing, along with a guarantee that you wouldn't be caught out if they didn't have somewhere that suited you. You can still ask for them to stump it up now and be ethical, or threaten to go to the local paper. But that's about it.

Points taken - going back to talk to them today. I think I will be raising a bit of a stink about this for sure.

Thanks everyone for the advice and the chance to let off steam!

happyandbored

So latest development - we had a meeting with the letting manager and some other random pleb. Had perhaps the most insincere apology I've ever heard and half-hour of bulls*** excuses. The manager of the place totally blanked me when I went in and even refused to shake my hand when I approached him.

Somehow got through the meeting without going mental. Tried everything suggested, but they wouldn't budge. Naturally, as soon as I dared to question how they could live with themselves treating us this way, we got asked to leave. Ethics are clearly an uncomfortable subject for them. Suffice to say, I've decided I am going to do whatever I can, within the law, to get back at these utter scum.

To elaborate further on the viewing issue, we viewed the property under the impression that our fees were going to be waived. I had to take time off work and wasted a week where my wife and I could have been looking for other places. By going back on their word and increasing the fees, they basically priced us out - I simply could not afford to let with them and would never have even bothered viewing if they had been upfront from the beginning.

So what I'm wondering is this: we were misled over the price and I took time off work as a result. I have lost money due to their mistake and dishonesty. How would this likely pan out if I were to take it to the small claims court? (I would of course write a letter first to try and make them see sense) Even if it doesn't stand a chance, if I were to file a claim would it actually make it to court? Having fun wasting their time would at least be some payback.

I have a recording of the meeting where the lettings manager admits that she made a mistake, so I have some sort of evidence although not sure if it's admissible!

* * *

Other than that, a bit happier now as by some miracle we've found a private landlord offering a flat nearby for the same price with no fees. At least we're going somewhere else!

franklee

Not sure you would have any claim.

You could name and shame, who is the agent?

If they are a member or ARLA, or anything else then I'd at least write a complain letter to them. If a chain I'd write a complaint to head office. Not that you'd get anything back for your troubles but someone may get a telling off.

new_home_owner_3

Sorry to hear about your situation it suprises me how many people are happy paying these massive fees to letting agents, when they can just rent privately and pay no fees.

The worse thing with these letting agents all they seem to be doing a lot of them is charging tenants massive administration fees, massive reference fees and they are not bothered, to be honest they would probably be happy if every landlord done the same as what yours done, as they would be getting big fees every 6 months.

Likewise with landlords they charge them a 10% fee each month but as soon as the !!!!!! hits the fan, most of them tend to bury their heads in the sand and leave the landlord to sort it.

If i was you i wouldnt rent of a agency and i would go private, at least you wont be getting ripped off with massive fees, before the day you move in.