Refund on agency fee?

htabs

Hello all,

Was hoping you can advise me on whether it is possible to get an agency fee/holding deposit back.

I saw a house advertised as £850 pcm furnished and went into the estate agents and said I would like to take it at the advertised price. I paid a £200 fee to take the property off the market until the contracts were signed on the move in date which I asked to be Monday 24th of September.

All referencing has been done and approved, however it turns out that the previous tenant has taken all the furniture and the property is now unfurnished and I am meant to move in next week. I have said I will still take the property at £850 but only if the landlord refurnishes, but if she doesn't want to refurnish it then I have asked that she drop the rental price to £750 pcm so I can afford to furnish it myself.

If the landlord comes back and says she wants to rent it at £850 pcm unfurnished, then I would have to decline as I can't afford to pay that each month and furnish the whole place myself. However, if this does happen can I get a refund for the £200 I paid, as I paid that was on the basis the property would be furnished?

Just to clarify... no contracts have been signed. This was a fee that was paid to the agency to secure the property and I assume carry out the referencing which they have done. However, had the property been advertised upfront as unfurnished at £850 pcm I would not have even considered it, and so would not have paid the fee.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

HT

Fire_Fox

Welcome! Was the place advertised furnished at that price, do you have any of the paperwork? Be careful how you word everything, deal with this in writing. State that you paid a holding deposit and referencing fee on the property at £850 furnished and are still very interested in that. If they wish to change the arrangement and renegotiate the rent you are also very interested, if the property is no longer available as agreed you require a full refund ASAP so you can look for somewhere else. DO NOT say you are withdrawing or decline, if you do that you may find your deposit is non refundable. Your position is that you are still willing to hold to your end of the bargain, it is them withdrawing/ no longer able to provide the property as advertised. It is worth running an advanced search, this has come up many times.

htabs

Hello fire fox,

Thanks for your advise!

Yes, the place was advertised at £850 furnished, and that was the agreement when I asked for it to be taken off the market and paid the fee.

I am still very interested in the property either as advertised (£850 furnished) or renegotiated to £750 unfurnished, but not at £850 unfurnished at this is not what it was advertised at and therefore not what I have agreed.

They did not give me a receipt or written confirmation of the agreement, however I do have emails and bank statements which show the payment has been made so could easily prove what was agreed and paid for.

I have done an advanced search but most of the results seem to be about people failing referencing checks or withdrawing... I still desperately want to go ahead and have passed all the checks but simply cannot do so if they now say I will have to furnish it myself.

jjlandlord

Fire_Fox wrote: »

If they wish to change the arrangement and renegotiate the rent you are also very interested, if the property is no longer available as agreed you require a full refund ASAP so you can look for somewhere else. DO NOT say you are withdrawing or decline, if you do that you may find your deposit is non refundable. Your position is that you are still willing to hold to your end of the bargain, it is them withdrawing/ no longer able to provide the property as advertised. It is worth running an advanced search, this has come up many times.

It's a rather strange piece of advice.
If they wish to now change the conditions and OP does not agree with them he should make that clear and demand his money back.

Fire_Fox

jjlandlord wrote: »

It's a rather strange piece of advice.
If they wish to now change the conditions and OP does not agree with them he should make that clear and demand his money back.

Not that strange, the OP has indicated she still wants the place and nine times out of ten nothing is in writing. If landlord and letting agent claim the OP pulled out it will be PITA to prove in court.

jjlandlord

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Not that strange, the OP has indicated she still wants the place and nine times out of ten nothing is in writing. If landlord and letting agent claim the OP pulled out it will be PITA to prove in court.

If they change the conditions he can withdraw/decline, whatever you call it (or not) and get his money back.