Landlord/Agent - "Reasonable Costs" (Deposit Return)

mither_2

Hello,

I wonder if someone can help me onn a few legal questions?

Background
I found a room through spare room website in January.
Property's "agent" had offered to reduce rent by £25 a month if somebody could move in by the following weekend which I could.
"Agent" wanted someone for 6 months but I told him up front that I wanted 2 months maxmum as a stop gap until I found my own flat. It was agreed that I would take two months from 2nd February but it woukd be a full two months as he wanted somebody to moved in to place during last week in March (29th). Price was agreed at a discount of £25 therefore saving me £50.

Contract
Agent gave me a very basic contract which he had taken from the spareroom website and claimed not to have read in full.

Licensor was defined as the house owner care of the agent with the "agent" being the party that I was to continue to deal with. The term agent was handwritten into the contract and was not defined or mentioned elsewhere.

I was listeded as the licensee.
I paid a deposit to cover the first month's rent and a month's rent as a deposit however deposit wasn't entered in any scheme because "the deposit will be not be registered in a government tenancy deposit scheme as it is not a qualifying assured shorthold tenancy (minimum 6 month agreement) under the Housing Act"

I questioned how the set up would work.The agent claimed to be a friend of the house owner and was renting it out for him as a favour. Upon my signing up this story quickly dissappeared as the agent was renting a number of properties on behalf of landlords and this was clearly a side business on top of his day job.

Is this legal?
Is the contract I signed even legally binding given that he was not the landlord and likely had no legal permission to act as an agent?
Agents usually have to be licensed I believe?
I've searched for his company

Circumstances
The agent proved incompetent from day one.
Shortly after signing I was told that I couldn't move in as the landlord wanted to paint the room and so i'd have to wait 2 days which was impossible as i'd already given notice to my previous landlord and somebody else was moving into my room. Instead i had a to preten i hadb't moved in so that it wouldb't get back to the landlord. Is this legal?

The owner clearly had no idea how incompetent his agent was as he forgot to ask for all of the details that agents usually require such as proof of employment etc.

He also regualrly sent people around to view the room without giving me 24 hours notice. They would then turn arrive but he wouldn't turn up so we'd give the viewings ourselves (the house was shared with 2 other people).

These are just a couple of expamples of this neglience/incompetence.

Reasonable
I paid the first month up front. When I came to pay the 2nd months rent I was a day late. I don't deny this. I was on holiday and forgot do it (usually I'd have a DD set up). When the text came I paid straight away.

The agent texted me said he was going to charge a fee for this but didn't specify what it was.

He'd asked me to help find a tenant to replace me which i had agreed to do. In the spirit of things i didn't think he'd actually charge me but when I came to get my deposit back i found he'd charged me £50. Funnily enough this is the amount that i saved at the start by moving in promptly. He described this as a deduction for late payment of rent.

Within the "contract" provided there is a section as follows:
Costs for breaches or failure to comply with licensees obligations under this agreement
He is calling on the following clause to try and jusytify this fee:
The licensee is responsible for any reasonable costs reasonably incurred required to compensate the licensor for any breach or failure to comply with any obligation on the licesnsee's part

How can he arbitarily choose £50 as being a suitable charge?
This has not been agreed previously and is not recorded.
How can he enforce this within such a flimsy contract?
How can he just take the cash without agreeing it with me?

I have the name and the address of the landlord.

Ther agent has said the landlord charged him a fee for the late payment and he had to pay the funds from his own cash. Neither of which points have been verified to me and I don't believe.
Are there any legal issues in my contacting the landlord directly about this to find out if he did apply a fee to the agent?
Can I contact the agent to tell him how incompetent and dishonest his agent is?
This is just one of many incidents. The other people living there are regularly lied to and coerced into doing unethical things by the agent to save him money and inconvenicene

What is the procedure for reporting him if i belive that he is not declaring his earnings for tax purposes? Based on my experience of him I doubt that he is.

I believe the agent saw an opportunity to get the £50 back and exploited it so he wouldn't have to pay out of his own pocket.

Its not a massive issue but he shouldn't be able to just get away with such things all the time as he does. At the same time i don't want to get in any trouble for slander and definitely wouldn't want to be seen to be threatening anyone.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

BitterAndTwisted

Suck it up and move on

[Deleted User]

Its not a major loss (like hundreds of pounds).., u got a room for 2 months instead of 6., and to be honest, I am not sure there is anything you can do. Would the tax office chase up over 50 pounds (if you can provide the evidence they need).., I doubt it. Far more hassle than its worth in my view. The other things (showing tenants around etc) you agreed to do.., how many tenants could you have shown around in 2 months?

mither_2

I showed about 3 around.

It's not so much the money but more that he's able to get away with it. I'd rather burn the cash than let that opportunistic weasel have it. I'm sure I'm just one of many that he squeezes cash out of here and there.