Can a Letting Agent do this to us?

aperson123

post deleted

AnnieO1234

Speak with student services who should be able to help you from the legal aspects. X

csgohan4

what is the letting agent called? Is your deposit protected?

theartfullodger

They CAN do this (in the same way I CAN drive down M4 @ 123mph - but MAY not). The legality of their actions sound suspect.

Sue them for any financial loss: Follow citizensadvice small-claims advice.

Complain to whichever trade body they are a member of & trading standards.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lettings-agents-and-property-managers-redress-schemes

BrassicWoman

One of you doesn't have a deposit sorted on time
One of you doesn't have a guarantor

Are you sure it is the agent who is the nightmare?

If you are unable to move in because of a failure on your side (ie no guarantor) then I would reckon they can keep the holding deposit.

bobbymotors

Whereabouts in the country is this please?

aperson123

I understand your point, however the guarantor dropped out after being shouted at by the estate agent, he was the reason why the guarantor dropped out in the first place

BrassicWoman

aperson123 wrote: »

I understand your point, however the guarantor dropped out after being shouted at by the estate agent, he was the reason why the guarantor dropped out in the first place

The law does not take good manners into account

dimbo61

Which university are you going too?
Please have a look on the " Manchester Student Homes " website at how things should be done.
You do not have a contract until both parties have signed the tenancy agreement and deposits/guarantor forms have been signed.
Letting agents now have to be registered with a Redress scheme as theartfullodger has already pointed out.
Good Luck

Innys1

aperson123 wrote: »

I understand your point, however the guarantor dropped out after being shouted at by the estate agent, he was the reason why the guarantor dropped out in the first place

If the guarantor dropped out because they couldn't take being shouted at, as a LL, I'd be concerned at them meeting their obligations as a guarantor.

DaftyDuck

aperson123 wrote: »

post deleted

And.... we're back!

So, anybody who has taken the time to reply hasn't actually wasted their time....

Basically me and three others have been in the process of letting a house. We have had a nightmare Letting Agent who has not only been quite rude to all of us, but keeps changing the goal posts. We're a group of four students going into second year, and I know this is a massive learning curve, but we would really appreciate some advice on what to do now to get us out of this sticky situation.

The day before we were supposed to move in, I was told by the Letting agent that the rent was higher than I thought it was, and he had told me that I had negotiated this price. Which I hadn't, but either way there was no way of getting out of the situation because all four of us had signed the tenancy declaration form. I asked for proof of the 'negotiation' to no avail, but pretty much accepted defeat because it was our own fault for signing the tenancy declaration. The difference in rent wasn't dramatic, so we decided to continue. We had filled in all our reference forms with the amount of rent that we thought it was, but they never thought to correct us at any moment or let us know. The phone call ended with him basically telling me that we had to have all our docs signed and deposit paid before move in or we wouldn't get the house.

Also, I had to tell the letting agent that we had all been sent the wrong tenancy agreements with our names all mixed up, and that the figures on some of the documents sent to us by his colleague were incorrect. He later replied saying that the figures were 'irrelevant' and the figures previously sent to myself by him were correct. If we hadn't of pointed this out we would have paid a smaller deposit. How can they chop and change the figures so last minute and get away with this?

The next day: One of my flatmates-to-be didn't have their deposit sorted properly we had to ask the letting agent to give us an extra day or two, which he did without any problems. Later we find out that actually even if we didn't have any problems on our part, there were problems with the property meaning that it wouldn't have been ready for us to move into anyway. This information wasn't disclosed to us, and they were just going to take our money, let us set up standing orders, and pay for insurance, sign the tenancy agreement etc and then let us know, which doesn't really come as a surprise, but still very immoral to do so.

Anyway, fast forward a few days and the same flatmate to be is being told that one of their guarantor documents is invalid because it was hand signed - even though that was the only option. My guarantor did the same and it was fine, but for her guarantor it wasn't? She is then told that unless she gets it done within half an hour the property is going back on the market - even though we had paid a holding fee and had been told we had until Monday to get the other stuff sorted and that there was no specific time limit on this document in particular.

Anyway this same guarantor spoke to the letting agent on the phone regarding this document and some general queries and he was so appalled by his behavior that he decided to drop out of being guarantor. The letting agent has been down talking all of us, acting like we're stupid, and it finally got on someone's last nerve.

I got an email from the letting agent saying basically 'Unfortunately the property has been put back on the market. This is due to a guarantor not wanting to comply to a terms of business' and then the classic 'if you have any problems please do not hesitate to contact my manager'. We later phoned up head office and they said that we had until Monday to resolve the situation.

We paid a holding fee when we put in the offer, and we were told that these documents had to be in before move in. Move in would have been delayed due to the Landlord anyway. We did not have a specific time, which is why I'm firstly questioning CAN they do this? Do they have any grounds for their argument? Secondly what can my guarantor-less friend do? What are her options when it comes to finding a new guarantor? And thirdly if we definitely don't get the house due to lack of guarantor, can we get our money back? Their policy is that if anything goes wrong and its on our side of things then we don't get any money back. BUT if it's the landlord's problem we do. The root of most of our problems has been the rudeness and lack of professionalism of the letting agent. And lastly does anyone know of a student house search tool for houses in London that doesn't look incredibly shady?

Like I said before any advice would be much appreciated...