ROMANS Estate in Reading, anyone had any experience dealing with them?

lanren77

Hi Guys,

renting a flat in reading is truly a headache now!

From my first post here, we had bad experience dealing with agent.

Now We contacted Romans, the Reading office. All seems excellent: prompt respond and seems very helpful.

We are going through the reference check (just got the email, both my hubby and I have passed, that's another story), paid the initial payment of 2746.70 including the insurance that we never seen. signed the contract.

BUT this morning, they called both my hubby and I, claiming £95 as check out fee! the thing is we carefully read through the tenancy agreement and the Essential tenant guide and any other paper they gave to us, NO where ever states the check out fee.

And swear to GOD, no one ever mentioned that, they always said all is included in the admin charge which is £507 ish (cannot remember the exact number, but defo over £500).

anyone rent a house from Romans? and is that normal or reasonable to pay this check out fee?

Reue

They are trying to charge you a checkout fee before youve even moved in? good luck.

lanren77

Hi just an update on this:

the guy from Romans said the check out fee is stated on the offer letter as part of the terms and conditions that we need to pay before the start of the tenancy.

AN OFFER LETTER? all of sudden, there's an offer letter, the guy said he went through this offer and explained this check out fee with my husband as I was not there last Thursday.

but what amuse me is:

I checked the offer letter and the date when this filed was created is today just half an hour ago???? and was not signed by any party, not landlord, not my husband not even by this agent????

I feel like we are trapped, can anyone help with this?

lanren77

oh and since the landlord and landlady's contact details are all on the agreement, is it wise to contact them to verify this check out fee? I mean the landlord let the agent to manage the letting, would they be annoyed if the tenant (-to-be) to contact them now?

Reue

If I read that right, you have already signed the tenancy agreement and passed reference checks? In which case I'd be asking them for the keys to my new house and ignoring any demands for further payments.

If the checkout fee isnt listed in the signed tenancy agreement, nor on any other signed documents they will be unable to deduct it from the deposit at the end.

either way, dont pay before moving in

lanren77

Reue wrote: »

If I read that right, you have already signed the tenancy agreement and passed reference checks? In which case I'd be asking them for the keys to my new house and ignoring any demands for further payments.

If the checkout fee isnt listed in the signed tenancy agreement, nor on any other signed documents they will be unable to deduct it from the deposit at the end.

either way, dont pay before moving in

we signed, but landlord and landlady havent neither the agent

but they claim we wont be able to get the keys for the new place if we dont pay the check out

Reue

lanren77 wrote: »

we signed, but landlord and landlady havent neither the agent

but they claim we wont be able to get the keys for the new place if we dont pay the check out

Personally I'd be saying that as there is no mention of it on any of the current documentation they'll need to take the fee from my deposit at the end of the tenancy.

Then come the end of the tenancy.. just put it a dispute for the amount as it wont be detailed anywhere on the agreement

Oh, and welcome to the **** that is Reading's lettings agencys.

BitterAndTwisted

If they're not going to hand over the keys until you've paid it, they've got you over a barrel, haven't they?

That doesn't make it right, however.

It's perfectly normal for a tenant to pay for either the check-in or the check-out and for the landlord to pay the other one. Only someone who had never rented before wouldn't have anticipated this charge. Or would you expect the landlord to pay for both? Because it certainly wouldn't be the agent picking up the tab, that's for sure.

lanren77

Reue wrote: »

Personally I'd be saying that as there is no mention of it on any of the current documentation they'll need to take the fee from my deposit at the end of the tenancy.

Then come the end of the tenancy.. just put it a dispute for the amount as it wont be detailed anywhere on the agreement

Oh, and welcome to the **** that is Reading's lettings agencys.

why Reading? it seems a nice place with nice people only the agent. Prospect the first then the Romans which seems the biggest 2 agents in Reading. and what the odds the !!!! happened to us?

Reue

lanren77 wrote: »

why Reading? it seems a nice place with nice people only the agent. Prospect the first then the Romans which seems the biggest 2 agents in Reading. and what the odds the !!!! happened to us?

Im not a fan of Reading as it is, but ive found the estate agents here particularly awful.

lanren77

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

If they're not going to hand over the keys until you've paid it, they've got you over a barrel, haven't they?

That doesn't make it right, however.

It's perfectly normal for a tenant to pay for either the check-in or the check-out and for the landlord to pay the other one. Only someone who had never rented before wouldn't have anticipated this charge. Or would you expect the landlord to pay for both? Because it certainly wouldn't be the agent picking up the tab, that's for sure.

Hi thanks for your reply, I understand, we've been renting for sometime and that's why we asked how they gonna charge the check out fee: separately or included in the admin charge everytime we viewed the property. estate agents are not trustworthy from my experience so both my husband and I have to be very careful when renting from an agent.

with Romans, my husband went through the first few steps with them but no one ever mentioned it, and as I said before, it's no where in written.