Letting Agent mis-advertised property

jordcluff

Now then all. Posted this in the big 'advice' thread but thought it worth setting up a new thread for it, apologies if this is not exactly correct.

My girlfriend and I have applied for, and had accepted, tenancy on a house, on the basis of a property being advertised on rightmove.co.uk as 'Unfurnished'. On viewing the house (before putting down any money) we confirmed with the agent that the furniture currently in the property would be removed, and so we proceeded with the application on this basis (can you tell where this is going yet?); however, on having paid the fees, the deposit, being given the keys to the property and paying the first month's rent in advance, it turns out the furniture is still there, and the letting agent is now refusing to remove the furniture, stating:

'It was advertised as part-furnished' (it most assuredly was not)
'the landlord lives in the US, and has no provision for moving/storing the furniture elsewhere in the UK'

We have evidence, in the form of screenshots of the advert on rightmove.co.uk, that the property was advertised as unfurnished, and since they don't appear to be ready to change their minds about this, I was wondering what our rights were in terms of getting money back. My initial opinion would be that because the property was mis-advertised and the application we made was therefore under a false assumption (twice confirmed by the agent), that we're entitled to all of our money back, including the fees, if they don't agree to make the property in a state which we expected it to be, but if anyone has a more informed opinion I'd be happy to hear it. I just don't want to get ripped off, and I'm prepared to take the time and effort needed to stop them from doing this to us, if it is at all possible.

Thanks in advance for any advice, it's enormously appreciated in a stressful situation.

Trying my best to stay cool :cool: (but really :mad:)

SerialRenter

First step: Go to the letting agents and talk to them in person, with your screenshots. They're more likely to back down face to face. Also trying to be within earshot of other customers always helps.

Second step: call the council and tell them the landlord is using your unfurnished rental as storage. They should be able to talk sense into the agent. They might even tell you that this storage presents a fire hazard (did for me and told the landlord off).

xoAmyox

What does the inventory say about the presence, or lack thereof, of furniture in the property?

You can also threaten the letting agent with placing the furniture in storage and subtracting this (with invoices) from the rent in order to put you in the position that you signed up to.
This will require you to write (pen to paper) to the landlord/letting agent several times with no action from them before carrying out.

jordcluff

xoAmyox wrote: »

What does the inventory say about the presence, or lack thereof, of furniture in the property?
.

The inventory we've now got (which we were only given yesterday) lists the furniture on it, which is now a central part of the dispute (as in we probably should have been given this before money changed hands).

With regards to seeing them face-to-face (I agree this should help) I'm currently working away so I'll send my girlfriend in in my stead (I wish she had a giant for a brother or dad to help), will see what happens.

Thanks for the quick responses! :A

jordcluff

Been a while, but I just thought I'd put up an update on this one and thank you guys for your help; after about a week of arguing with them they accepted it was their mistake (having advertised it incorrectly) and they refunded us the money. The property is now advertised on rightmove.co.uk as FURNISHED in bold block capitals, so at least they're doing half their job correctly now...

Cheers again,

Jord:money:

jamesml

Glad you got the outcome you are happy with - although to be honest I'm wondering how bad the furtniture must have been to have made it better to find somewhere else than try and and come to an alternative solution?!

jordcluff

@jamesml - it wasn't that the furniture was bad - it's that we had all our own and had specifically looked at and signed up to this one on the basis that it was advertised as unfurnished and explained on viewing that the furniture would be removed, only for them to then go back on that and insist that it had been advertised as furnished/part-furnished. They lied, basically, and I think they only relented because we had evidence to attest to that.

Mulder00

Well done!! I wouldn't want to accept a place that's furnished either. You then end up being responsible for looking after someone else's furniture.

The only point I don't agree with is that you should have got an inventory before money changed hands. It doesn't normally work like this because usually you have to pay deposits and first month's rent before moving in. The inventory has to be done ON moving day (or as close to it as possible) to ensure that everything is captured as at the start of the tenancy (including things like meter readings etc).

It appears that you obviously had somewhere else to live in the meantime - thank goodness for that - you are very lucky!! For most people this realisation would probably only happen at the point of no return!!!