Will i be taken to court?

rodneyuplonker

Hi i've recently signed a contract to rent a flat for 6 months but due to the letting agency messing me around with the price for the rent and the bond i have decided i don't want rent it and i have told them this. They said i have to pay £110 for the re-advertising fees, which i have paid and they also said i am liable the rent until they find someone else to rent it.
The letting agency contacted me today saying they need me to pay the rent till the end of august because i was due to move in and they have not yet found someone else to rent it. Its going to cost me £650 this month but if i pay it i won't have a penny left for another month until i get paid again. How likely do you think it is that i will be taken to court if i do not pay?
They dont know my address where i live now and they only have a mobile number for me so can they take me to court if they dont know where i am can they??

Planner

rodneyuplonker wrote: »

Hi i've recently signed a contract to rent a flat for 6 months but due to the letting agency messing me around with the price for the rent and the bond i have decided i don't want rent it and i have told them this. These two statements seem at odds. How have you signed a tenancy agreement with no agreed rent?

They said i have to pay £110 for the re-advertising fees, which i have paid and they also said i am liable the rent until they find someone else to rent it.

The letting agency contacted me today saying they need me to pay the rent till the end of august because i was due to move in and they have not yet found someone else to rent it. Its going to cost me £650 this month but if i pay it i won't have a penny left for another month until i get paid again. How likely do you think it is that i will be taken to court if i do not pay?

They dont know my address where i live now and they only have a mobile number for me so can they take me to court if they dont know where i am can they?? You on the electroal register? Planning on being on the electroal register in next 6 years?

Answer to your liability will depend on clarification of this changing rent point.

princeofpounds

It also matters whether any consideration was handed over as part of the 'contract'. Unless it was a deed (and it's unlikely to be so) if there was no consideration handed over (rent money, keys or other transaction of value) then the contractual tenancy may not have actually been formed yet. A slightly legalistic point but quite possibly applicable.

Also, as a consumer you cannot sign contracts for unknown liabilities, so they can't make a valid contract with you with the rent just 'to be determined'.

neverdespairgirl

Consideration doesn't have to be immediate. It can be future.

chucknorris

I'm suprised that the letting agancy doesn't have any more details on the OP than a mobile number. They do not sound very professional, presumably the landlord that they are representing believes they are fully vetting his potential tenants.

BLT_2

rodneyuplonker wrote: »

Hi i've recently signed a contract to rent a flat for 6 months but due to the letting agency messing me around with the price for the rent and the bond i have decided i don't want rent it and i have told them this. They said i have to pay £110 for the re-advertising fees, which i have paid and they also said i am liable the rent until they find someone else to rent it.
The letting agency contacted me today saying they need me to pay the rent till the end of august because i was due to move in and they have not yet found someone else to rent it. Its going to cost me £650 this month but if i pay it i won't have a penny left for another month until i get paid again. How likely do you think it is that i will be taken to court if i do not pay?
They dont know my address where i live now and they only have a mobile number for me so can they take me to court if they dont know where i am can they??

This is slightly unbelievable, before any letting agency will sign an agreement they carry out credit checks,for which you are billed, in order to carry out these credit checks they take your personal details including your name and address.

Furthermore you are stating that you signed a contract, wherein it would have stated the monthly rental cost and the bond, and then state that the agency are messing you about with regards to these, if you signed the contract the terms and conditions are in there and you agreed to them.

My sympathies, I have to admit, are with the owners of the property who are now not receiving funds they would have expected.

chucknorris

BLT wrote: »

This is slightly unbelievable, before any letting agency will sign an agreement they carry out credit checks,for which you are billed, in order to carry out these credit checks they take your personal details including your name and address.

Furthermore you are stating that you signed a contract, wherein it would have stated the monthly rental cost and the bond, and then state that the agency are messing you about with regards to these, if you signed the contract the terms and conditions are in there and you agreed to them.

My sympathies, I have to admit, are with the owners of the property who are now not receiving funds they would have expected.

Exactly, can you imagine being the LL and been told, it's rented and the contract is signed, then soon after being told he doesn't want it now but we only have a mobile number for him! It is unbelievable that a LA would put a LL in this position.

tbs624

rodneyuplonker wrote: »

Hi i've recently signed a contract to rent a flat for 6 months but due to the letting agency messing me around with the price for the rent and the bond i have decided i don't want rent it and i have told them this.

Please clarify what you mean by "messing you around", and why you think this might entitle you to wriggle out of your contractual obligations?

rodneyuplonker wrote: »

They said i have to pay £110 for the re-advertising fees, which i have paid and they also said i am liable the rent until they find someone else to rent it.

If the contract is valid then this is correct.

The letting agency contacted me today saying they need me to pay the rent till the end of august because i was due to move in and they have not yet found someone else to rent it. Its going to cost me £650 this month but if i pay it i won't have a penny left for another month until i get paid again. How likely do you think it is that i will be taken to court if i do not pay?

Ask if you can pay it in two instalments. If you simply don't pay, and the contract is a valid one, they are very likely to pursue it to court and you'll get hit for costs too.

They dont know my address where i live now and they only have a mobile number for me so can they take me to court if they dont know where i am can they??

They have your name, presumably your employer's details etc? Experienced LAs/LLs will use a tenant tracing firm to track down non-payers. If you try to rent from another local LL/LA you may also find your reputation has gone ahead of you.

adg1

This all seems a little backwards to me.

Why would you sign a tenancy agreement without it displaying the monthly rent, deposit amount?

How would the LA generate a tenancy agreement without a monthly rent figure?

How would the LA lodge your deposit with one of the protection schemes if it keeps changing?

You need to give a bit more clarification as to what order things have happened in.

As you put it in the OP, yes you are liable for rent as you have signed a tenancy agreement to rent the property for a period of time and a TA is legally binding.

If, however, you have signed your copy, and the landlord has subsequently changed the rental amount your contract is wrong and won't match the terms of the rental.

Also, I would not believe the LA has only a mobile number and name for you - how have you been referenced? Employment reference, bank references, previous landlords etc etc.

rodneyuplonker

The original rent was advertised at £465 so i paid the deposit of £200 to take the flat off the market but i was later told this was a mistake and it was suppossed to be £495 which i agreed was ok. But when i went to sign the contract the bond had gone up because it was based on the rent price. Also because i was not moving in on the 1st of the month i had to pay a extra weeks rent because the letting company only took monthly rent payments on the 1st. (No one told me this, if they did i would have moved in on the 1st) and to top it off there was also £200 fees from the letting company.
I went to sign the contract on my break at work and rushing so i wasnt late back and being a bit of a soft touch i signed it with all the charges and increased payments in front of me.
I thought it would at least have a cooling off period but it didnt.
I originally thought i would have to pay 495 rent and 580 bond and i would be moved in.
But with eveything else on top it worked out at just short of £1500.
To a lot of you an extra £400 wont seem that much but its a lot of money to me and its money i can't just pluck out of thin air.
I didnt pick this flat because it was in a nice area or because was my dream home. I picked it because before it was what i could afford.
I have already lost £200 deposit and £110 re-letting fee and i'm not prepared to lose anymore.
All they checked for references was my wage and last few addresses. I havent lived at the address they hold for me for at least 2 months.

2 days after signing the contract i told them i couldn't afford it and paid the re-listing fee. It is advertised on 1 website but when you click through to the letting agency site it is not there because of some "technical hitch" that won't allow them to put it back on. Also they failed to put it in the local paper 3 weeks in a row. So i have no idea what the re-letting fee has been spent on.

Wee_Willy_Harris

Have you moved in? If not, when were you DUE to move in (ie what date does the agrement start from)?