Referencing fee refund question

runningfool

Hello all. I have recently gone through an estate agent to view and potentially rent a new property. As normal, there was a referencing fee to be paid once the application form filled in. On the form I stated quite clearly that I have an IVA - something my current landlords knew about beforehand and were fine with, as I have a good job and sufficient funds to make all my financial commitments.

I realise though, that some owners won't see it that way - and the agents phoned me for a little detail on it on the owner's behalf. No problem. Referencing commenced and money paid. Referencing included giving them last two pay slips and last two bank statements as well as referees. Fine. No problem.

A week or so later they told me that the owner had actually initially asked for six months statements and three years referencing, after finding out I had an IVA. This had only just come to light, they said, as it was a different employee handling my details at the start - and they hadn't communicated this to the current one.

I had no problem with the references but the owner wanted to see the bank statements themselves. Reluctant to have a complete stranger looking at six months of where I shop and what I do, I refused - stating that I had met all the criteria laid out in the estate agent's application form and that they could clearly see I had ample funds and was a very good tenant. The estate agent also said that I wasn't obliged to let the owner see them - and suggested perhaps I let just them see the statements, and they communicate to the owner. I refused on the same grounds. In my mind that was over and above what was asked for - and had I known before referencing commenced I would have also refused.

As such, I did not get the property. Again, no problem with that as there are plenty of others - but the reason given was specifically because I would not give the extra statements.

Note, the application form criteria was two months, the owner wanted six and I was not told this until after the process had been going for over a week.

I feel I am due my reference fee back - as I was not made aware before payment that more statements would be required, over and above that stated in the paperwork. Had I been, I would have said no there and then. It seems that the agents are at fault here in my mind.

Any thoughts or help at all please?

Thanks!

BitterAndTwisted

The landlord or their agent can ask for anything they like. They would be entrusting an asset to you worth many tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds. Having an IVA indicates a lot of things which would make any landlord wary.

Normal procedure is that if you withdraw from the application then you forfeit the referencing fees. If the landlord withdraws you get them back. By not supplying what the landlord has asked for you have in effect withdrawn. I don't understand why not offering these further bank statements became so important after you'd already supplied some of them.

I think you've shot yourself in the foot here.

runningfool

Could you please re-read my post?

I said that had I known beforehand I would have refused - before starting the reference process.

I fulfilled all the criteria as laid down by the estate agents. To ask for further bank statements in my mind was too much. I had already given two bank statements (one of the January - notoriously the worst month of the year) plus pay slips and references - as required. I have no problem with that at all.

What I do have a problem with is that I was not told until well into the process that they wanted more.

Note: The owner was aware of my IVA before I paid any money - that's why the agent phoned me to clarify. There was absolutely no mention of them wanting extra bank statements. That came later, after I had paid and gone down the referencing route.

I believe, as I said, that the initial person handling my references did not communicate this to the current one, within the estate agents. THis is what they are saying anyway.

Upshot is, I am fully aware that people may want more information from me - I am not a fool - and I provided two statements, pay slips and referees from employers and landlords. All fine. This was extra and is the sole reason for not getting the house. Therefore, the fact I was not told about this extra requirement before payment means in my mind I am due a refund.

This is a principle thing. The owner would not even meet me until she had seen them. I knew absolutely nothing about her and she wanted to see my personal statements. Who's to say I had moved in and she had gone bankrupt and had the house repossessed from under me? Works both ways I think? I have nothing to hide believe me.

BitterAndTwisted

Well, I reckon arguing the toss about four month's-worth of bank statements which they didn't ask for in the first instance will get you nowhere. They can ask for whatever it is that they want in order to make a decision to rent to you, even from a prospective tenant without such a huge black-mark against them . Principle or no principle.

ging84

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

By not supplying what the landlord has asked for you have in effect withdrawn.

would you still conclude the OP had withdrawn if the landlord asked the OP to promise his first born son to marry the landlord's daughter and the OP refused?

jjlandlord

So you were fine giving 2 bank statements but somehow refused to give 6 on privacy grounds? I don't follow the logic...

BitterAndTwisted

I don't follow it either although I daresay there might be some principle involved hiding in there somewhere somehow.

DaftyDuck

ging84 wrote: »

would you still conclude the OP had withdrawn if the landlord asked the OP to promise his first born son to marry the landlord's daughter and the OP refused?

I'd certainly want to see a photo of the proffered son before offering the property - or my daughter.

Having shown some bank statements, then refused to show a limited number more, you'd have increased my - quite possibly paranoid - suspicion that there was something there to hide.

To ask for further bank statements in my mind was too much.

Maybe in your mind, but not in theirs. You are upset the LL wanted to see your bank statements, her being someone you just didn't know. She, on the other hand, was giving you, a total stranger with an uncertain financial past, the keys to several hundred thousand pounds worth of her property for several months.... maybe she has a tad more to be concerned about.

Guest101

Have to disagree with b&t.

A contract was formed between u and the agent. U were to pay a fee and provide information a. U did so.

In turn they would use this information to seek your acceptability on behalf of u to the ll.

The ll refused. U are returned ur money.

One party cannot change the contract without agreement of the other. Now if ur contract said client to provide all requested information then they'd be right. But the contract is the form u filled out, that says 2 months that's what u gave.

runningfool

jjlandlord wrote: »

So you were fine giving 2 bank statements but somehow refused to give 6 on privacy grounds? I don't follow the logic...

The point is where does it stop? I had fulfilled the criteria - I wasn't told beforehand (even though they knew) that I would have to provide 6 months worth of statements. Again, I see no reason why someone I have never met see 6 months of my private life - and had I known this at the start I would have said so.

That's the bottom line. I wasn't told at the start, before referencing started.

Surely a tenant should also trust the landlord - it does go both ways you know - there are some dodgy landlords as well as tenants.

runningfool

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I don't follow it either although I daresay there might be some principle involved hiding in there somewhere somehow.

Cheers for that. Blimey - only asked for a bit of advice not a personal critique from Statler and Waldorf. :-)