Rental credit ref fee - non-refundable under all circumstances?

kodys_angel

Hi all,

I have a question regarding rental credit check fees.

My boyfriend and I found the perfect property to rent. After viewing we arranged to meet the agent to fill out forms etc and paid the fee for credit referencing.

A moving date was agreed for 2 weeks' time, everyone shook hands and we were all happy.

A string of incompetencies by the letting agent followed - he hadn't applied for our credit check for at least 2 weeks (we called HomeLet to check).

So the moving date was put back a week because of this. The Tuesday before we are due to move in we get a call from the Agent stating that the property has been RAIDED by the police - battering ram taken to the door, brickwork damaged... After talking to the landlord and the neighbours (one of whom found a bag of BULLETS tossed into their garden), it turns out the house was basically being used to deal drugs... :eek:

Given these circumstances, the house is no longer the safe, secure, looking little house tucked away in a quiet cul-de-sac that we thought we were going to move into.

As much as the likelihood is that no one will come knocking, we don't exactly feel safe moving in (and when we asked the agent he said he wouldn't either).

Our moving date has now been put back FIVE times. Now looking at a date of 2nd August.........

Luckily we're staying with my mum, so we're not homeless, but we have had to store our stuff elsewhere because there are renovations being carried out (arranged on the basis that we wouldn't be living here anymore)

If we pull out of the rental now, we have been told that the £180 fee taken for credit referencing will not be refunded. We spoke to HomeLet and it won't be valid elsewhere, only with the same agent at their discretion.

In our opinion, the house, nor the moving date (which has now been put back by 2 months in total) are what we were presented when we paid for the credit referencing.

Do we have any rights to claim our money back based on the circumstances?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

chanz4

It costs them no where near that with homelet https://homelet.co.uk/landlords/referencing/products

Insight tenant reference (£25 +VAT)
Enhance tenant reference (£45 +VAT)
Optimum tenant reference (£70 +VAT)

ValHaller

kodys_angel wrote: »

Do we have any rights to claim our money back based on the circumstances?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

I would say yes. And the reason is that the start of the tenancy has been put back 2 months in 5 changes. The fact that you might not feel secure due to the drugs raid actually damages your case for a refund - you are cancelling for your own reasons, whereas the basis for a refund is that the LL has been unable to make the property available to you.

dimbo61

Are you sure you want to lose this property ?
Cul-de-sac location with new front door !!!
If you like the house then push for a move in date and get round to see what state the place is now in.
Talk to the neighbours and try to find the Landlord yourself.
Speak direct to the LL if possible and make him/her an offer
After the damage and loss of rent I am sure they would be happy to rent to a nice couple.
BIG SIGN IN FRONT GARDEN THIS PROPERTY IS NOT A DRUGS DEN
POLICE ARE WATCHING AREA !!!!!
Get to meet the neighbours ASAP and explain that normal people have moved in

kodys_angel

Thanks guys.

dimbo61 - it's far from a brand new door. The old tenant has 'fixed it' - taken a panel from another door and somehow glued them together. It looks messy and not sure how secure, but the landlord says that as per the old tenant's contract, that that's all he's legally obliged to do.
The first thing we did when we heard about the raid was go there and talk to the neighbours. They all seem like a very nice bunch tbh, which is the one positive I can take from the situation right now!
I think we really do want to move in. The place is perfect for our needs, location etc. We're just rapidly losing faith in the agent, the landlord and the property...

Just had a call from the Landlord (we are trying to deal directly with him as much as possible, but he seems to be reluctant to respond to anything without consulting the agent first).
We have asked for the moving date to be brought forward to 19 July. Negotiations are ongoing regarding this date. He wants us to move on 16th because it suits the old tenant's month-by-month payment, but we won;t have time to move any of our stuff mid-week. I should point out that the tenant's guarantor is paying the rent until we move in because their contract was for a year, hence why no one is desperate for us to move in.
We have inquired about the brickwork to the front of the house that was damaged in the raid being fixed. Where the wall was knocked through, the previous tenant has made a bodge-job of trying to fix it and left a metal plate sticking out on the corner of the plastering...
We have been told that this can't be fixed until we move in, because the landlord needs the money from the deposit holding company to pay for the repairs. And that we will be expected to arrange to be in when the builders come round.
Is it unreasonable to expect this to be fixed before we move, especially given that the raid was a month ago now, and there's still 2 weeks to go until we potentially move in...?

DaftyDuck

If the LL is giving you this much stress BEFORE you move in...

.... Find another place, even at a loss of £180.

However, as the agency has, at least five times, failed to meet the agreed move-in date, I'd think you'd be on pretty firm ground requesting they refund in full.

kodys_angel

We can't really afford to lose £180 otherwise we would already have pulled out.
The problem is the agent has refused to put anything in writing so we have no proof of the amount of times he's messed us about. We did request on every occasion that we were emailed confirmation of phone calls, moving dates etc, and we have even emailed him, but other than sending us the account details to pay for the credit check, we've not received anything else from him.

I'm surprised that the agents won't even offer for us to have the credit check transferred to another property as a goodwill gesture... (I guess that's my bad for thinking they're not *all* soulless) It's not the property we viewed any more with regards to the condition of the house. We ruled out other properties based on the state of repair...

It makes me wonder - if they can't deal with the simple tasks of cleaning up the place and giving us a date to move in, what happens if the boiler goes kaput in the dead of winter?

I guess the option now is move in or lose the money....?

*Sigh*

kodys_angel

:mad: Typed a huge long update and Google Chrome lost it....
Losing the will to live with this place!

We have been hounded to commit in writing to this place today... However there is still the issue of the incomplete brickwork, complete with protruding shard of metal.

We were informed by the agent that the current delays to moving date were due to the LL wanting to fix up the house because it was 'unsafe' (to quote the agent). LL is insisting that he cannot afford/is not willing to fix the brickwork before the £750 deposit from the old tenant is returned from the holding company...
We are expected to take leave from work to be present when the work is being carried out and even liaise with the builders to arrange for quote/work to be carried out... My partner has no holiday days left and frankly I'm not willing to use my last 2 days to sit making tea for workmen.

Is it unreasonable for us to expect that this work should be carried out before we move in? Considering there's been over a month of delays and plenty of time to clean up after the old tenants?

Further to all this, my partner has been asked to sign a 3rd copy of the declaration for the credit check, because apparently the first two copies he signed had out of date terms and conditions. So the credit check can't be 'completed' until this is received. Yet they managed to process the application and contact his employer using the original 'out of date' form? It's been 2 months since the original forms were signed.

This whole has been a mess from the start.... We're considering walking away, although despite the recent issues it's a really nice house, but I feel like I might as well have used our £180 to line the cat litter tray....

Any further advice would be appreciated!

Herbalus

So they want you to commit in writing but won't put anything in writing themselves? I would agree to commit in writing on the condition that the landlord confirms in writing that all the problems will be fixed/solved/restored to make a livable property on your start date.

Also, does the fact that your partner's credit check has not been completed negate their argument that the fee is non-refundable? If they have not done it because the correct form has not been signed then surely they can't have spent the money on a credit check?

kodys_angel

We have asked the LL to confirm it will be done before we agree to move in (we've now been communicating by email), but he says it was verbally agreed that it would be arranged once he received the previous tenant's deposit back from the holding company, which won't happen until we move in... We did discuss this possibility at a meeting in mid-June, but nothing was agreed and it was based on a moving date of 21st June...

Regarding the credit check - we've spoken to HomeLet and they have carried out all the necessary checks, so I don't understand how they are now saying they don't have the correct declaration - it was correct enough for them to process the credit check in the first place?

Madness!

We have a viewing for another property tomorrow......

BitterAndTwisted

Do not touch this property with a barge-pole! That the landlord doesn't have sufficient funds to have the repairs done until they have the tenant's deposit is a great big warning sign. Once you move in there will be absolutely no motivation for the repairs to be carried out at all. That they are expecting you to liaise with these alleged builders and be present during the works is just piling Pelion upon Osssa.

To lose £180 in such circumstances I would be willing to write off as a good investment against making a really terrible decision. At least you know the colour of this landlord before you are contractually tied to him.