Can we ask for estate agent fees back?

Doozergirl

ianianian wrote: »

They turned up, gave us the keys and then said that we shouldn't contact them again and to ask all of our unresolved questions to the landlord.

Quality.

If I didn't have a conscience, I'd set up as a totally shoddy agent tomorrow. Money for old rope. Unfortunately it's the landlords that employ these people so you end up with no choice at all if you like a place, but they should look at what the agents are charging the tenants too.

ianianian_2

Emailed asking for justification - no response. How professional!

MoneyMiser

Not sure if it helps or not, but I asked if they could either give me a discount on the fees (£200) or speak with the landlord to reduce the rent.

They got the rent reduced which saved me £300 a year. Good way to balance it out, although I do intend to make them work for their £200 over the coming weeks

MM

ianianian_2

Thanks for the replies. For those that are interested…..

I emailed the agency asking for a breakdown of what we had paid for - taking into account the issues I mentioned above. They replied a few days later with a bizarre excuse about the weather interfering with their service and then started ranting at me throwing in all sorts of random accusations instead of addressing my concerns. I was labelled unprofessional as I asked for a read receipt after three working days without a reply, was told my standards were too high for asking what the council tax band was and was told that they didn’t need to justify their fees, tell me what I’d paid for or provide me with a receipt.

I replied stating that the weather was not my concern, mentioned I did not appreciate the tone of the email and again asked for a receipt of what I’d paid for and was simply told that I was ridiculing them and that would be the end of our correspondence? [I can’t believe his excuse was the weather – I should have made a bigger deal of that. If I ordered internet shopping and it didn’t arrive because of the rain I would expect a refund – obviously this guy wouldn’t!]

How bizarre! I was polite and factual despite getting a load of abuse, but this guy clearly hasn’t heard of customer service! I’m desperate to reply but I suppose I should take the higher ground as I’m clearly not going to get anywhere!

Doozergirl

Are they members of one of the Ombudsman services? Perhaps they would be interested to see the reply.