Letting Agent Reference Checks Help

Jay--Pee

Hi,
Bit of a long story but please bare with me...

My current tenancy where I have lived for 2 years was due up at the end of January and the landlord was looking to sell the property.
I found a perfect place through a letting agent and paid for the reference for my partner and myself. These were all completed fine. Then a few weeks before we were due to move into the new property a water pipe burst and flooded the house. Three months, two promised move in dates and a lot of broken promises later we are still waiting to move into the property as the damage was a lot more substantial than before. Our current landlord has been excellent and kept us on a rolling contract, but is getting impatient with the constant promised move dates we are being given and then them being delayed again.
We have therefore started looking for somewhere else but this means paying new referenc fees.

Due to the problem being out of our hands is there firstly any way of finding out if the references were actually carried out or if they just pocketed the money like I know a lot of letting agents do? And secondly is there anyway of getting the money back from the letting agents or the landlord directly for the paid references as it can be claimed back as expenses on their insurance?

I'm just struggling to understand how we are now £300 out of pocket through no fault of our own but are not entitled to any of the money back?

Thanks for reading.