Urgent advice needed - rental contract fallen through

Runswithscissors

Hello all.

Urgent advice needed. Me and 4 friends were due to move into a rented property on Saturday before starting university on Monday. No contracts have been signed but we've have so far paid the EA our deposits, first months rent and an admin fee (for credit checks of £150 each).

The EA phoned me this morning to tell me that the LL has pulled out and won't be moving out of the property. So we've nowhere to move to. The EA has sent us some other properties to look at, but quite frankly they are nowehere near suitable. We're trying to keep things civilised but obviously we need to start looking through other agents as well. I advised the EA of this and they've said they would refund the rent and deposits - but they won't refund the admin fee as that is non-refundable.

Other agents will not accept the credit check done by the first agency so we will have to pay another set of fees, which some of us can't afford.

While it's not the agent's fault, they are still acting on behalf of the LL, and therefore shouldn't they be obliged to refund us all monies paid?

Any advice would be most welcome.

picklepick

Are you in England or Wales?

G_M

If rent has been paid and a receipt provided, it could fairly easily be argued that a contract was formed. Not a written one, but verbal.

The terms are whatever was orally agreed by the tenants and the landlord, via his agent. eg start date, length of tenancy etc

You could therefore sue the lanldord for breach of contract, and claim all your losses eg
* rent paid
* deposit paid
* admin/credit check fees paid
* hotel bills during the period between when the tenancy should have started and when you find alternative accomodation
* any other incidental expenses as a result (phone bills, car/van hire moving your belongings around etc)
* legal costs

Of course it's a bit ofa hastle (see small claims court here) but mentioning this might incentivise the LL to refund everything you've paid so far.......

You do have receipts for everything I hope....?

Runswithscissors

Thanks for responses.

We're in England. All monies were paid to the EA, it was all done by bank transfer and email so I've got everything in writing and everything is traceable.

The admin fee was paid to the EA. They're telling us we would have to pursue the landlord as it's their fault, but ofcourse we are not in direct contact with them.

The question is do we pursue the EA or the LL for the admin fee, since the fee was paid to the EA for a service they haven't delivered?

FireWyrm

Runswithscissors wrote: »

The question is do we pursue the EA or the LL for the admin fee, since the fee was paid to the EA for a service they haven't delivered?

Unfortunately, the LA will say that they did indeed deliver the service since the money was for 'admin' and 'credit checks' which were presumably carried out. The LL however, disolved the contract leaving you out of pocket. The clear avenue of pursuit is the LL but how much luck you'll have is anyone's guess. I would say, chalk it up to experience and move on. It will cost you at least £80 to initiate proceedings against him for a payout of what, £120? Not worth it.

You could however write a pointed letter to him and appeal to his honesty since he *was* the one who pulled out AFTER the contract was formed. You might like to mention that you are entitled to sue him for ALL costs incurred and I'm sure you could think of many more costs such as travel fees, time from your regular job, letters etc that you reasonably had to pay for in order to form the contract.

picklepick

FireWyrm wrote: »

I would say, chalk it up to experience and move on. It will cost you at least £80 to initiate proceedings against him for a payout of what, £120? Not worth it.

Would it not be possible for the OP to inititate proceedings jointly with the other 4 applicants? So the pursued amount is £750.
(Genuine question, I don't know if it's possible)

FireWyrm

picklepick wrote: »

Would it not be possible for the OP to inititate proceedings jointly with the other 4 applicants? So the pursued amount is £750.
(Genuine question, I don't know if it's possible)

I dont see why not. It's just multiple plaintiffs...they were all wronged in the same way and all incurred costs due to the actions of the LL. In that case, it IS worth it...go for it. It only costs you each £20 in that case, not £80....you spend more than that in MaccyDs.

Try to negotiate with him first though, but have the 'big guns' waiting for if he decides to be a dishonest tit.

Mrs_Imp

FireWyrm wrote: »

I would say, chalk it up to experience and move on. It will cost you at least £80 to initiate proceedings against him for a payout of what, £120? Not worth it.

The small claims court is able to withold fees at their discretion to people on low incomes. When I went through the process as a student, they witheld my fees.

If you believe you have a strong case, then pop in to the court for advice. I got some good advice from them, including how to start the process, and how to fill in the forms. They told me that I had to make a reasonable attempt to obtain the money before filling in the forms, ie writing to ask for it back. (I am not providing legal advice, it's just information that I was given at the time)

There's no harm in trying, especially if you're poor students.

Good luck

UnitedSum

I would definitely do as G_M advises and put pressure on the landlord. Unfortunately chalking it all up to experience won't help you because there's no way of actually preventing this from happening again the future.

Put pressure on the landlord, and I think there's a good chance the agent can be convinced to return the money paid for the admin fees. Landlord may need to pay agent, but that's not your concern.

FireWyrm

UnitedSum wrote: »

Put pressure on the landlord, and I think there's a good chance the agent can be convinced to return the money paid for the admin fees. Landlord may need to pay agent, but that's not your concern.

I can pretty much guarantee that wont happen. The agent WILL NOT pay the students and that is that. Its a waste of time to continue pursuit of them for this since they DID supply the service for which they received re-numeration. In short, the students were credit checked and approved for letting, paperwork was drawn up and everyone was ready to go. The LA did everything right and no money was taken under false pretenses. The LL however, pulled out of the contract costing the students all fees paid to date. It is the LL they should be taking to court.

OP, it is an absolute waste of time to try and get money from the LA, they WILL NOT pay you. Take the LL to court, all four of you, together, lodge your complaint and split the fee between you. Argue your case, the LL will probably be ordered to pay, but dont hold your breath. There is nothing really you can do to compell payment even if judgement is made in your favor. You can however, attempt to frighten the LL with proposed court action in order to recover your fees and perhaps he might pay up ahead of time. Again, dont hold your breath.

UnitedSum

FireWyrm wrote: »

I can pretty much guarantee that wont happen. The agent WILL NOT pay the students and that is that. Its a waste of time to continue pursuit of them for this since they DID supply the service for which they received re-numeration. In short, the students were credit checked and approved for letting, paperwork was drawn up and everyone was ready to go. The LA did everything right and no money was taken under false pretenses. The LL however, pulled out of the contract costing the students all fees paid to date. It is the LL they should be taking to court.

The message I meant to convey was that putting pressure on the landlord will get them the money back that they paid for the agent fees. Whether or not they received the money from the agent or the landlord is to the OP irrelevant, which is what I meant when I said the landlord may need to pay the agent.