Landlord Reference - aka "Bribery"

1565,004,126

So we are with a letting agency and have lived and rented in one of their properties for 8 months, we still have a month left and are one step away from securing a house with the same agency again (we looked around but the location is ideal).

So after the extortionate sum of £200 each for the application fee (how I regret this) we are now being charged £100 between us three for a "Landlord Reference". Now this isn't the landlord who owns the actual house, we are on great terms with them and they would certainly give us a reference for free.

They mean our previous "landlord", aka themselves. Is this even a thing? They are holding back our entire application to charge us another £100 just to say we are good to pay the rent. We even met the landlord of the new property and they even said to him that we always pay on time (I should of took his number!) .

What can we do? We have just about had it for all these goddamn secret fee's and this agency.

EDIT- adding to the problem they keep bringing up a two week deadline, I've even had Homelet the 3rd party application folks call me up saying "Please can you call LettingAgent to provide your permission for the reference etc". I've told them both they have my permission, I just don't want to pay them to click send.

vectistim

Give Homelet your actual landlord's details then as opposed to the agents'

Smith_007

They are holding back our entire application to charge us another £100 just to say we are good to pay the rent

Get in touch with the new LANDLORD directly (details on the land registry website. Cost £3).

Tell him/her that you want to rent the property (and that you pass all the relevant criteria), but that the letting agent is taking the p1ss. Tell him how much they are charging ALL his prospective tenants (I bet he doesn’t know this), on top of deposit costs etc, and that this is acting as a barrier to him renting out his property.

With a bit of luck, the agency will call you back having 'magically' reduced their fees. :-)

1565,004,126

vectistim wrote: »

Give Homelet your actual landlord's details then as opposed to the agents'

Apparently the agent count's as our landlord they say, but I think they may not be entirely truthful of them.

Smith_007 wrote: »

Get in touch with the new LANDLORD directly (details on the land registry website. Cost £3).

Clever! I have found out his name and addresses without having to do this (for one of us have a guarantor, it's on the Tenancy guarantor Covenant ).

Would doing this land check give us the phone number? That's the key. Think there is a chance in hell the letting agency would give it to me if I requested it?

DRP

1/565,004,126 wrote: »

Apparently the agent count's as our landlord they say, but I think they may not be entirely truthful of them.



Clever! I have found out his name and addresses without having to do this (for one of us have a guarantor, it's on the Tenancy guarantor Covenant ).

Would doing this land check give us the phone number? That's the key. Think there is a chance in hell the letting agency would give it to me if I requested it?

either write, use directory enquiries etc

1565,004,126

DRP wrote: »

either write, use directory enquiries etc

Thanks all, I got his number! To be continued...

G_M

The agent is not the landlord. The agent is.... the landlord's..... 'agent'!

The new landlord wants a reference. This could be provided by the current LL, or by his agent.

Having said that, it is a rip off. Since both LL's use the same agent, that agent should simply tell new LL "I know these tenants and their payment record is fine".

1565,004,126

UPDATE! UPDATE!

Back Again! Here is what they say about this, when asked about who is the Landlord that they need the rederence off.

[FONT=&quot]"You require a reference from the managing agent which is ourselves if you were to go and rent another property through ourselves or anybody else you will need a previous landlords reference.

Which we would be asked to give for yourselves and the charge is £60 each however because you are actually going to be taking our property again like I said I can give you a discounted price.[/FONT]"

Is there any truth to this? If we go elsewhere are we forced to use this agency as our reference?

Isn't the application fee supposed to cover all of this? Feel's like there is no end to these fee's, and they can be made up on the spot.

princeofpounds

No it's not true at all.

When asked for a reference normally either your landlord or your agent is good enough.

Of course the new agent/LL might have ridiculous requirements like only accepting character references from your 3rd year school teacher and your local vicar.

But this is clearly a scam to insist on more fees.

Firstly it's ridiculous that the agent is both the party writing and receiving the reference.

Secondly it's ridiculous that they are refusing to accept your previous landlord's reference because they were the previous landlord's agent

Thirdly the price is ridiculous. It's not out of order to charge a reasonable fee for writing a reference (which given business overheads is higher than simply pressing 'print', even if that's all they do) but only one reference is required for all tenants, not several separate ones.

This is exactly the sort of situation where, if it's not going to imperil you too much, I would consider talking to the new potential LL to explain what is going on.

Smith_007

1/565,004,126 wrote: »

Is there any truth to this?
If we go elsewhere are we forced to use this agency as our reference?

Of course not!
They are just trying to stiff you for more fees.

1/565,004,126 wrote: »

Isn't the application fee supposed to cover all of this? Feel's like there is no end to these fee's, and they can be made up on the spot.

So what did you pay the "application fee" (ha!) for and what do you have in writing?

You need to learn how to stiff them back and negotiate these fees down. Get the landlord on the case. Tell the agency you are looking at a cheaper / better property elsewhere. Those fees will magically reduce if you play hardball. (Either that, or some other mug will come along and pay full price )

1565,004,126

Thanks all. Gave the 3rd party our the current landlord for reference and bypassed the fee.

Got a call saying it's all done, just gotta sign and pay.

Then later a different agent called saying he wrote down the rent wrong, it was supposed to be £75 more every month. Despite all paperwork and the price on their site says otherwise. Am I in my right's to more or less to tell him to **** himself?

As in ,this seems (is) like another last second swindle, is as far as the law is concerned, the rent stays to the paperwork (also the amount submitted to 3rd party reference)?