Help please. Letting Agent threatening (unfair) bad reference

laurazelle

Moved to the UK from Australia.
Found apartment in Hampshire. Submitted Australian letting agent's details for reference.

After nearly 1.5 months of no communication they (Australian agent) say they received a request for a reference. They have found a,b,c,x,y,z... wrong with the apartment and are taking over 80% of our security deposit, (more when they calculate bills).

Cheeky little statements essentially threatening with a bad reference unless we respond favourably.

(The justification for why they are effing mad is here. You can skip this paragraph but for the curious... The apartment was old and dirty and their property condition report was wrong. I included 6 pages of amendments which the then Property Manager, acknowledged. The New Property Manager is a bully and, IMO, has no case if I choose to argue in Oz court.

I don't expect you to help me with that. My question is how to proceed from here in the UK.

We lived a brief year in Manchester (UK) and we will get a good reference from that agent/landlord, but was 3.5 years ago. (I wanted to use them as I didn't trust the OzAgents but the English agent said it would slow the process and they won't even contact the Ozagents. Well regrettably they did.)

A (hopefully) independant company is doing the referencing.

I decided not to respond to the Oz!!!!!!!s for now. (Whoa !!!!!!!s is censored?!) :eek:

I feel like I am at a disadvantage, I don't know what is sensible behaviour and I need ideas and options.

Should I

- Do nothing? If, I don't respond, hopefully Ozagents will send no reference, the agents here won't chase it up or they will ask us for another reference source.

- Approach our new UK letting agent? Are they likely to empathasize with my situation? Can I ask them to request a reference from elsewhere? By declining us due to this they can pocket more fees from s/o else.

- Approach independent company and request to try a different reference source? They profit from a bad reference as my reference fee is not refundable and they get to do it for s/o else.

That's all I can think of doing. I would be grateful for any help.

Gonzo1987

Why don't you speak to the agent and offer a different from of reference - personal references from employers or something.

I'm going to be looking to move and don't to use my current LL as reference, so far a few agents I've spoken to said so long as I can show bank statements proving my rent is paid on time each month and character references, not using my current LL will be fine.

laurazelle

Gonzo1987 wrote: »

Why don't you speak to the agent and offer a different from of reference.

Thanks, I am glad for your opinion. I was worried from reading that letting agents are money grubbing scum taking cereal out of children's mouths etc etc
After the Ozagents and all the fees I had paid I was wondering if they were bad enough here to take advantage of a bad reference and if approaching them would be out of the question.
:j

topdaddy_2

Are you even gonna be asked for a refrence? Wouldnt worry about it.

dancingfairy

Offer 6 months rent up front.
Offer a guarantor.
Offer a different reference.
Try and speak to the actual landlord rather than the letting agent as they may be more willing if they can meet you in person.
df

laurazelle

dancingfairy wrote: »

Offer 6 months rent up front.
Offer a guarantor.
Offer a different reference.
Try and speak to the actual landlord rather than the letting agent as they may be more willing if they can meet you in person.
df

I really appreciate this help. I know my problems pale in comparison to some others are having. I wish that it made me feel better.

We spoke to the company doing the referencing. They can do nothing and referred us to the UK LA. The UK LA says they MUST have a reference from the place we stayed in the last 3 years. i.e OZAgents. The Property Manager says they are just looking for if we damaged the property and were bad with the rent payments, but they must get that reference.
So strike different reference and guarantor out.

The landlord has paid all funds for UKagent to fully manage the property. Clearly, they do not want to be bothered with any tenant issues.

Offering to pay 6 months rent would be £4,200 upfront, excluding lost interest. We need to pay all the bills, council tax & I am still unemployed. We would like to have some furniture, health insurance etc. Of course we are not entitled to any benefits.
Possible (thanks in part to MSE motivation) but crippling, especially with the £ at a high.

I feel our only option is to somehow get OZagents to submit a fair reference.
I do not know if to be diplomatic and spell out why they are being unfair
Threaten them with reporting their infringements to the governing body
Threaten the agent with lodging a complaint against her conduct

OZAgents are
"finding it very difficult to submit a favourable reference" until we
"accept responsibility for the issues".
That all this is "unfortunate" as we were
"good tenants who always paid rent on time."

This is what we are up against. They have not yet submitted the official documents. This is just an email in response to the request for a reference. They waited a month and a half, when they knew we would be out of Australia, to confront us with this.

They believe we are overseas and helpless, which is what I am feeling now.

RAS

Find a different property where the LL/Ea's requirements for references are less onerous. there are much stricter than normal.

In the time you take to lose this one you could be in the new house.

pimento

Why not say you were living with relatives/parents for the past three years? I'm sure your mum will give you a reference.

laurazelle

RAS wrote: »

In the time you take to lose this one you could be in the new house.

That one really hit home.

Thanks, everyone's advice did not fall on deaf ears. We have until July 24th to sort it out which leaves some time to fight.

I was furious but after 4 draft letters managed a letter which removed anything angry and confrontational. I ended with a passionate plea that we would lose our application for our home only because they failed to provide a factual reference based on the entire duration of the tenancy.

For all my pleading and facts, this heartless agent sent another rude email with a final refusal to send any reference as we 'won't accept responsibility' and have 'unresolved issues'.

Fortunately for us she had the gall to cc her colleague, who saw the email threads and apparently has some decency. The despicable agent send a message 6 minutes later saying the reference was sent.

Still not knowing what kind of reference was sent, and armed with all of your advice, especially the knowledge the agents were being unusually strict, I roused up, guarantors, character references, a friend who was willing to say we rented with them previously and printouts of the emails from this vile agent.

We went to UK agent later that day to negotiate. They said the application went through that morning and the paperwork would be with us shortly!

Still waiting for it and still have to deal with the underlying issue, but at least we have the house and do not lose our holding deposit. (Assuming everything goes OK.)

egoode

Glad you got the place you wanted. For the Australian agents issue it will depend on which state you were living in but there is usually a tribunal system you can use to resolve disputes and they are generally quite favourable towards the tenant. However not sure if you can submit things online or need to post them in as it's been over 9 years since I lived there and I'm sure it's changed a bit since then. Do a google search but make sure you are looking at the right information for the state you lived in.