Letting agent lied to us about council tax before we signed lease

Wyndham

You also made a mistake by not checking. I suspect that the agency has something on their website about not being able to guarantee information, which is why it's buyer (or renter) beware!

If this matter was important to you, you should have checked, and I just don't buy the 'we didn't have enough information' line. You must have done or you signed for the house without seeing it - which again would be silly and I'm sure you didn't (did you?)

G_M

Perhaps the agent was misinformed by the landlord?

Realistically there is a limit to how much people can (or should be able) to claim compensation. Trouble is these days everyone wants to claim something for evry single mishap/cost etc in their lives. I blame all those stupid "Did you trip over at work?" ads on TV!

When you viewed the property you could have asked the current tenants (if they were still there..?) to see their utility bills. You could have called the council for the CT banding. You could have checked if there was a water meter...

Bit of personal responsibility.

jjlandlord

G_M wrote: »

Trouble is these days everyone wants to claim something for evry single mishap/cost etc in their lives.

If said cost was caused by another party's mistake or wrongdoing they certainly should claim.
Responsibility goes both ways

Wyndham

jjlandlord wrote: »

If said cost was caused by another party's mistake or wrongdoing they certainly should claim.
Responsibility goes both ways

But claim what? The difference in the bands? I suspect the agent won't pay. £10 for their trouble? Probably harder to get than it's worth. So what value would you put on it? This is a question for the OP as well, what exactly are you hoping for here?

G_M

jjlandlord wrote: »

If said cost was caused by another party's mistake or wrongdoing they certainly should claim.
Responsibility goes both ways

Granted. But I said "....everyone wants to claim something for evry single mishap/cost etc in their lives. "

I don't dispute some errors warrant a claim.

It's a question of balance between people taking personal responsibility for themselves where appropriate, and expecting to rely on (or claim from) others where appropriate.

Now.... what's the legal definition of 'appropriate'....?

dancingfairy

You could consult a solicitor/lawyer with the aim of suing them but as far as I can see this will be a costly exercise and your chances of winning don't appear to be too high. O.K so you can prove what they said but like others have said there probably is something about information is for information only and not guaranteed to be accurate, or we pass on the information we are given and arenot liable if it's wrong, or some other sort of get out clause.
Best of Luck
df

jjlandlord

[QUOTE=G_M;52249175But_I_said_"....everyone_wants_to_claim_something_for_evry single mishap/cost etc in their lives. [/QUOTE]

We talking about a specific case here

G_M wrote: »

It's a question of balance between people taking personal responsibility for themselves where appropriate, and expecting to rely on (or claim from) others where appropriate.

Indeed, as said in my previous post #9 the key is whether a reasonable person would check the tax band themselves or rely on the agent's reply and whether OP would have decided not to rent had he known the actual band.

Wyndham wrote: »

But claim what? The difference in the bands? I suspect the agent won't pay

OP said that this is costing him £530 over 12 months. So if the fixed term tenancy he has is for 12 months, and if there's ground for compensation (see above) then he should start by claiming £530, indeed...

J_i_m

I really don't think there is much you can do but put this down to experience. The letting agent may genuinely had the wrong information, my letting agent had one or two inaccurate infos when I rented, but giving inaccurate info is not the same as lying.

Honestly.. It's good practice to do your own homework, as stated it is easy to find the council tax band of a property online, and even if a specific house isn't on the database you can still make a educated guess with a fair degree of certainty by looking at info for neighbouring houses.

mchale

OP, tend to disagree you have a email off LA advising CT was band C, why should you ignore that and check yourself? I would be inclined to seek legal advice as personally I think you have a strong case for compensation amounting to the difference in the CT banding's.

BlueAngelCV

I'm amazed by some of the comments on here. Yes you have to take responsibility for yourself but you should also be entitled to rely upon information given to you by "professionals"

I'm not in favour of the compensation culture but I would certainly be pressing for something here.