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Letting Agent Fee
BlueBottle
Posts: 3 Newbie
Hi I was wondering if anyone could help us out.
We're students who have recently signed a contract and put a deposit down on a house. We found the house on a letting agency website, rang them up and had a viewing with the landlord. Here the landlord gave us his phone number which we rang when we decided to rent it. After we had put a deposit down and signed the contract (directly with the landlord) we were informed that there was an 'introductory' fee of £500 from the letting agency.
This was not mentioned anywhere in the contract although the letting agents lied and said they informed me on the phone when we arranged the viewing. It seems completely disproportional for a couple of phone calls. Would I be right in thinking that we've unintentionally bypassed them and now he's charging us for the services he would have provided?
The landlord is trying to keep on good terms with both sides and suggested that the agent agrees a reduced fee with us, which he hasn't. Is there anything the agency can actually do if we refuse to pay? They haven't got access to our deposit as far as I know and legal fees wouldn't be worth it surely.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
We're students who have recently signed a contract and put a deposit down on a house. We found the house on a letting agency website, rang them up and had a viewing with the landlord. Here the landlord gave us his phone number which we rang when we decided to rent it. After we had put a deposit down and signed the contract (directly with the landlord) we were informed that there was an 'introductory' fee of £500 from the letting agency.
This was not mentioned anywhere in the contract although the letting agents lied and said they informed me on the phone when we arranged the viewing. It seems completely disproportional for a couple of phone calls. Would I be right in thinking that we've unintentionally bypassed them and now he's charging us for the services he would have provided?
The landlord is trying to keep on good terms with both sides and suggested that the agent agrees a reduced fee with us, which he hasn't. Is there anything the agency can actually do if we refuse to pay? They haven't got access to our deposit as far as I know and legal fees wouldn't be worth it surely.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
0
Comments
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I would say unlikely as you normally wouldn't get the landlords contact details untill you sign teh contract. And agency feed would normaly be holding/admin fees BEFORE you sign the contract. If you have a signed contract with the landlord then I don't see how they can make you pay them anything now!BlueBottle wrote: »Would I be right in thinking that we've unintentionally bypassed them and now he's charging us for the services he would have provided?
O and normally the agent would take the viewing and have your references checked. If this was all handeled by the LL then the only thing the agent did was place the advert. And that would be up to the LL to pay for (though possibly not 500 pounds)0 -
Refuse to pay the agent. Let them take you to court. Oh, you'll probably find they wont coz they dont have a leg to stand on.0
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Thanks for the help. I'll just let them know what we think then 0
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BlueBottle wrote: »Thanks for the help. I'll just let them know what we think then
Good luck with that as it'll be a bit of a fight I'd imagine.0
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