Letting Agent - morality vs legality

JustLikeThat

In May my daughter started proceedings with a letting agent to rent a bigger home for her family. She was excited at the prospect of moving in at the end of June. She paid £525 admin fee and £300 good faith money and filled out forms. She told them she needed to give a month's notice for where she was renting currently. Things went slowly and they only told her things were complete on the 22nd June. She was still expected to move by the 26th June and when she reminded them that she had to give a month's notice and assumed the move-in could be put back into July, she was told 'no'. If she couldn't move, they would go with other tenants. An attempt to compromise for a 12th July move was attempted but rejected on the 24th June and that same day they have agreed another tenant can move in.
Is it unreasonable for her to feel aggrieved?
One reason for matters going slowly is 1. they forgot she said she had a 'DRO'. (they now deny it was said) (2) They said she lied when saying her husband was employed as he is on a 'zero hours' contract (this is so he can work up to 60 hours a week in ambulances). All this meant a wait while a guarantor was lined up.
Do you think when they ask about employment they should indicate it doesn't count if you are on that kind of contract? They have called my daughter a liar when she did not know it was a problem.
All this has left my daughter distressed (her newest baby is a few months old) and she is still a little emotional.
Any thoughts?

19lottie82

I'm afraid I understand about them wanting to stick to the moving in date.

An empty house for the period you have described would mean a 2 week rental void for the landlord, thus a loss of hundreds of £. If they have someone else who is interested in the property and is willing to move in when they want, well it's a bit of a no brainer really, isn't it?

I hope your DD get's something sorted soon x

Smith_007

She told them she needed to give a month's notice for where she was renting currently.

• Does she have it in writing this is what she told the letting agency? ...That she needs them to give her a months notice of the moving in date?
• Did she put this down this on the paperwork when paying the letting agents "fees" which presumably included a holding deposit?

I'd suggest the letting agent is something of a cretin for calling your daughter a liar..... and clearly they don't know what a zero hours contract is. Unfortunately, anyone can set up as a letting agent. No qualifications needed.

Next time you are advised to get everything in writing. And negotiate down those extortionate "fees".

Mr_Moo_2

Morality and Letting Agent in the same sentence ?? )

fitter2000

Mr_Moo wrote: »

Morality and Letting Agent in the same sentence ?? )

Funny thats what caught my eye too !

rpc

Eek, tricky one.

If it went to court, you would say that the agent withdrew the offer and therefore the fees should be refunded. They knew of the grounds in advance, so they knew they would reject the tenant, but charged the money anyway.

The agent would say that the tenant withdrew and the fees are non-refundable.

It depends how much you can prove. If everything was done verbally (which it probably was) then I think you will have difficulty. If you have letters or even emails, then you might manage to get some/all the money back.

JustLikeThat

I have only just got involved and will help them take matters up with the Property Ombudsman under maladministration /incompetency as per their website.
The reason there was such a delay before being told to move was down to them adding hurdles as they went along instead of clarifying everything at the start.
The £825 was paid before they even had a chance to inspect the house and was requested on the initial phone call. Sadly so much of what was done was by phone. The agent is a branch of a well-known national company.

Smith_007

JustLikeThat wrote: »

The £825 was paid before they even had a chance to inspect the house and was requested on the initial phone call.

And you just paid it !
Without looking !
You just signed it away?
I'm honestly gobsmacked.

Perhaps this has been an expensive lesson in getting paperwork (and viewings!) sorted to your benefit before handing over large sums of money to strangers willy-nilly.

JustLikeThat

I didn't pay it, the post is about my daughter. However they did research it online first and when they viewed it really wanted it as it was an improvement on their current rental. They paid quickly in May so as not to lose the property and to try to move in by end of June. That's the point - the estate agents did not help move it quickly.
Apparently while their admin was proceeding the property was still showing on RightMove and was only taken off when a new tenant was found at a few hours notice (at a higher rental apparently).

ognum

I am not clear if your daughter is getting her money back, if not then she should IMO.

the agent is just that an agent, the landlord should make the final decision. It is clear there has been a lot of problem communication, probably not your daughters fault.

The landlord has been offered more money from someone who can move in more quickly they have sadly made the buisness decision to go with what they consider to be a 'better' tenant.

Tenants frequently need to have double tenancys if they want a particular property and the property is in demand. This is not great for the tenant but it's not great for the landlord to have a void either.

I hope you persue this to a good conclusion.

[Deleted User]

Looks like the letting agents just assumed your daughter knew how things worked and your daughter assumed her situation was unique. Almost every person renting has to provide notice, it's a given that when you're looking at new properties there is a notice period on the current tenancy, which the prospective tenant is responsible for.

Sometimes it doesn't always work out that the tenant is able to move at the end of the tenancy, for example my last tenancy ended on May 12th however the house I wanted was available at the latest April 6th, so I had to swallow the cost of renting two places during the tenancy notice period.