Paying rent up front by cheque estate agent issues.

tussy17

Hi there,

this is my first post on this great forum and it is just to get some advice on an issue. To cut a long story short I am renting with another and I am unemployed and the other is part time so to bypass the checks we had the capital to pay 6 months up front in order to secure the property. Everything proceeded smoothly up to the point of the handing over of the large cheque since then it has not gone so smooth. We were soon told it would take up to 10 days to clear a cheque!!! and if we wanted to move in ASAP to do a bank transfer (this was not an option for which I won't go into!) we left the agent with the cheque in good faith and we were told about 3 weeks ago that it would be very soon after the bank holiday and now another week has slipped by and nothing appears to be happening with no communication unless we contact them. They seem to trot out the same lines each time yes we are waiting on the clearance (according to the bank it cleared nearly 2 weeks ago) and no you can't speak to the accountant or md because they are not in yet (10:30am!!). Where do we stand on this and are we just being led up the wrong path?They are well known estate agents and they don't appear to have a bad rep on the various sites. Cheers

HappyMJ

Personal cheques take quite a while to actually clear. You can draw on the funds within a day or two but actual final clearance takes quite a while. You should have gone to the bank and got a bank cheque or cashiers cheque or whatever your bank wants to call it which is cleared funds as it's drawn on the banks money and not yours.

G_M

Cheques take 10 working days to clear I believe.
Are you sure the cheque has cleared?

Do you have a tenancy agreement and is it signed by both you and the landlord/agent?
* if yes, what is the start date on it? This is binding whatever the status of the cheque/rent payment. It is a contract.
* if not, why on earth have you paid rent! Rent is not payable till there is a contract

Frankly, given the agent's lack of response/help I would go to the bank and stop the cheque (if it is not too late). Then either
* pay by bank transfer (you mention some issue with this but it's hard to guess what unless you don't have the funds.....)
* pay by bank draft
* pay by cash
* find another property via a more responsive/trustworthy agent

Finaly - do you have a receipt for the cheque? What does it say?

martindow

Cheques clear fully in six working days now

http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/cheque_and_credit_clearing/cheque_clearing_timescales_%282-4-6%29/

With the long holiday weekend 10 days sounds about right. Of course it depends how soon they went to the bank to pay it in.

Lovelyjoolz

martindow wrote: »

Cheques clear fully in six working days now

Perhaps in personal banking, but in business banking it is a minimum of 10 days and, in some circumstances, the money can still be reclaimed up to 6 weeks after the day the cheque is paid in. For such a large amount, I'm not surprised that the EA wants to make 100% sure that the OP can't reclaim the money before handing over the keys. Especially when the OP's circumstances are so uncertain.

OP - If the cheque was presented at the EA's bank on 21st March, today would be day 10. On what date did the money show as leaving your account? You need to count 10 working days from that date.

Fire_Fox

Should have paid by banker's draft not personal cheque, that is cleared funds a personal cheque is not it can be reversed after apparently clearing.