Urgent Advice

r0b089

Hi Guys,

Hope your all well.

I have had a bit of an incident today with Haart estate agents and wondered if anyone could help.

Myself and a colleague at work found a house we wanted to rent together with Haart estate agents. Initially we were both asked if we had any CCJs I was aware of one which has now been settled so gave them full details - due to our age (both being 22) and my CCJ they needed to confirm with the landlord that he was happy to proceed. We got a call back to say fine no problems.

The next step was to pay a holding fee - this was broken down to £132 references and £200 for a deposit which is taken off the overall deposite if the application is successful.

Unfortunatly after we submitted the application it turns out my friend has a huge CCJ outstanding she had no idea about - we contacted the estate agents and offered to pay a years worth of rent upfront (we really like the place) we were told they would clal the Landlord and find out his thoughts. More bad news we recieved a phone call to say the landlord isn't happy to proceed with the application. So as a result we are back to square one.

I have been told I am entitled to no money back - which I'm very angry about. I understand that £132 for references will of course have been lost but I have been charged £200 towards a deposit for a house I no longer have a deposit for..and will no longer be moving into!

Is this right? Can someone help me? -

Cheers, Rob

BitterAndTwisted

It all depends on what paperwork or the receipt you were given for the money you handed over said.

Sometimes agents like to charge a nice, fat "security deposit" which will hold the property for you and they won't continue to market it pending credit-checks and references.. This is often not returnable if you choose to pull out but in this instance the landlord has rejected you.

I'd be minded to take a seat in their office at their busiest time, like Saturday morning, and ask them for the return of your money in your loudest voice.

Hump

Your agent is a member of ARLA, complaints to ARLA are addressed with reference to the Property Ombudsman Code of Practice see http://www.arla.co.uk/codes-of-practice/ - you'll need the 2nd code 'TPO lettings code' see para 6j

Print it off (because the local agent won't have read it) - highlight para 6j and visit their offices on Saturday morning and insist they agree to refund the £200 - make them aware that you will pursue a complaint via ARLA - they will say that the person they need to speak to isn't available until Monday - remember it's highly unlikely that they will be able to justify the £132 in it's entirety, let alone the additional £200

tbs624

r0b089 wrote: »

Unfortunatly after we submitted the application it turns out my friend has a huge CCJ outstanding she had no idea about -

????? And you want to share a joint and several liability contract with someone who pays so little attention to their personal finances? A CCJ does not just pop up unannounced.

Once you have chased the return of the deposit money from the LA, perhaps the two of you should take a look at MSE Martin's guidance on the main part of this site on how to protect/improve your credit "rating". Get copies of your Experian, Callcredit and Equifax records and talk to one another.

Getting yourself financially linked to someone who suddenly finds they have a huge unsettled CCJ is not the best start to your independent adult life.

rentergirl

I agree that this person is not the ideal flatmate, but that doesn't absolve LA's of heinous overcharging. Good call on ARLA too - more people should do this.

tbs624

rentergirl wrote: »

I agree that this person is not the ideal flatmate, but that doesn't absolve LA's of heinous overcharging. .

If rentergirl has iinterpreted my post as saying that it does, then she is mistaken. Nothing new there then.;)

Hump has already said what needed to be done re the fees and that post has already been thanked by me.

The fact remains that even if they were charged no fees at all by any other LL/LA the 2 potential Ts need to know the potential pitfalls of J&S liability contracts and not having sufficient prior knowledge of their ownindividual financial history and that of the other potential T.

Mrs_Imp

tbs624 wrote: »

????? And you want to share a joint and several liability contract with someone who pays so little attention to their personal finances? A CCJ does not just pop up unannounced.

Although unlikely, it is possible to end up in trouble without knowing it. I nearly got a CCJ because the Council kept sending letters to the wrong address for a bill I didn't owe. First I knew of it was a court summons through my door. Had they sent that to the wrong address too, I'd have had a CCJ and known nothing about it.

DVardysShadow

tbs624 wrote: »

????? And you want to share a joint and several liability contract with someone who pays so little attention to their personal finances? A CCJ does not just pop up unannounced.

I will disagree with you there tbs. If you go on the DFW dorum or the Mortgages and Endowments forum, it seems to happen quite frequently in tenant land. The usual scenario is that the tenant thinks they have closed an account before they move and see no need to provide the creditor with a forwarding address. But then some more charges get added to the account and all the paperwork gets sent to the old address, so the person gets no chance to defend.

In the last week on the Consumer Rights forum we have seen a landlord with a flat receiving a CCJ for charges with a change of management company - the Landlord had given his correspondence address to the old company - and he has correspondence to that address in his possession. But it seems that the management company sent all correspondence and court papers to the managed flat rather than the correspondence address It even appears that he wrote to the new Management company asking where his bills were during the correspondence phase of the court case - and was ignored until after the company had got a judgement in their favour. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3946053 refers