Can i take agency & landlord to court ?

aleks1244

Hello, and thanks for the answer in the previous thread.

This was atleast two years ago, but due to huge stress it has taken me a while to get back on track with all my bills, life ect.
We are young parents with a child on low earnings and as You can imagine its very difficult to find a place as all agencies and landlords dont want to accept three's on a one bed room which is what we could afford at the time, unfortunatlly we were forced to find a two bed which was even more difficult as they require high earnings when they do the checks, luckly i was able to get a guarantor as i knew we would fail as i was the only working person in the house, after months of searching we found a two bed on rightmove managed by an agency called chancellors, we rang to view the property and decided that we would proceed with the next step which was renting the property after all references were checked and accepted. I had to collect a big sum as they required upfront deposit plus first months rent and around 250-350 ref checks per person if i can remeber.

I paid full amount which was around 2500-2700 + 450 for checks made on myself my fiance and guarantor.

Previously i was renting a one bed for 725pcm and all payments were made on time in full, i was hoping this would help when i fail checks which was the case , however as the guarantor passed it was all succesfull and they said we could pick up the keys on this day after the inventory was complete , so the day of the key collection has come, i have ordered a van to move the stuff my fiance left home with our child to meet up with the clerk doing the check in , at arrival there was no one there my fiance waited for

Guest101

aleks1244 wrote: »

Hello, and thanks for the answer in the previous thread.

This was atleast two years ago, but due to huge stress it has taken me a while to get back on track with all my bills, life ect.
We are young parents with a child on low earnings and as You can imagine its very difficult to find a place as all agencies and landlords dont want to accept three's on a one bed room which is what we could afford at the time, unfortunatlly we were forced to find a two bed which was even more difficult as they require high earnings when they do the checks, luckly i was able to get a guarantor as i knew we would fail as i was the only working person in the house, after months of searching we found a two bed on rightmove managed by an agency called chancellors, we rang to view the property and decided that we would proceed with the next step which was renting the property after all references were checked and accepted. I had to collect a big sum as they required upfront deposit plus first months rent and around 250-350 ref checks per person if i can remeber.

I paid full amount which was around 2500-2700 + 450 for checks made on myself my fiance and guarantor.

Previously i was renting a one bed for 725pcm and all payments were made on time in full, i was hoping this would help when i fail checks which was the case , however as the guarantor passed it was all succesfull and they said we could pick up the keys on this day after the inventory was complete , so the day of the key collection has come, i have ordered a van to move the stuff my fiance left home with our child to meet up with the clerk doing the check in , at arrival there was no one there my fiance waited for

What?? Half your post is totally irrelevant and the other half just cuts off.


2 Years ago you paid some money and didn't get a property?

aleks1244

40 minutes and she called me to say there was no one there, so i called the agency and they told me that the landlord decided to withdraw and look for someone else for private reasons???? I decided i would go to cab for advice as they still wanted to charge me for ref checks even though we passed thanks to the guarantor, i even went to the council with evidence of payment and a voice call with the employee which records him saying the guarantor passed but for some reason landlord decided to withdraw... I asked for a full refund of 2500 and 450 and scared them with court and asked if cab could also get involved which they did and they rang the agency , after a week or two they did refund the money for all but when asked if they could refund immiedietly they said there would be a cost otherwise i have to wait 5-7 working days which was a nightmare as we were living 6 people on a two bed room at my fiances mums, and we had to move as it was overcrowding , due to this delay we had to look for another property and we could not rent untill money was fullly refunded, it has taken another two , three months to find another place as there was a shortage and alot of landlords were not accepting chikdren at the time, is this something i can take the agency and landlord to court ? sory for double message im on my phone and i dont know how too edit..

Fosterdog

So you got your refund and it only took 5-7 days for you to get it? If so what exactly is the problem?

Guest101

Possibly.


You got your money back, but you can claim any losses (which you tried to mitigate) which happened as a result of their breach of contract.


I've never heard of Landlords actively discriminating against children on a large scale.

ognum

I do understand your stress and also your need for your day in court but do beware, if you lose you will end up paying the costs for both you and the agency. The agency may well have a 'pet' lawyer who will represent them and make things difficult for you.

You will be required for the case to complete a lot of paperwork, witness statements and provide information on your loss. This will be an actual monetary loss rather than being uncomfortable.

If you are prepared to go through the stress then by all means take out a county court action.

I will tell you about a situation I was in. I let out a flat and had a tenant who refused to communicate on any matter with my letting agents. The flat was 120 miles from my home and I made the choice to sell and gave her notice. She decided to go for a council tenancy and remained in situ (as she has the right to) through a court case for possession and until the bailiffs arrived and she was rehoused.

I had never met her and had replied to one letter she sent me. After the eviction she decided to peruse me in the County Court for harassment !

I took a lot of time to prepare my defence, many, many hours with no legal help. Got witness statements and prepared a counter claim, only because she was claiming from me. All this was submitted to the court.

In court the judgement was there was no harassment and she should pay me £1K. She was lucky I told the judge I didn't want her money and was happy to walk away with nothing, she had no money to pay me and only wanted her day in court as she felt she had been asked to leave unfairly.

Don't go to court if you can't afford to pay if you are found in the wrong it could be expensive.

Guest101

ognum wrote: »

I do understand your stress and also your need for your day in court but do beware, if you lose you will end up paying the costs for both you and the agency. The agency may well have a 'pet' lawyer who will represent them and make things difficult for you.

You will be required for the case to complete a lot of paperwork, witness statements and provide information on your loss. This will be an actual monetary loss rather than being uncomfortable.

If you are prepared to go through the stress then by all means take out a county court action.

I will tell you about a situation I was in. I let out a flat and had a tenant who refused to communicate on any matter with my letting agents. The flat was 120 miles from my home and I made the choice to sell and gave her notice. She decided to go for a council tenancy and remained in situ (as she has the right to) through a court case for possession and until the bailiffs arrived and she was rehoused.

I had never met her and had replied to one letter she sent me. After the eviction she decided to peruse me in the County Court for harassment !

I took a lot of time to prepare my defence, many, many hours with no legal help. Got witness statements and prepared a counter claim, only because she was claiming from me. All this was submitted to the court.

In court the judgement was there was no harassment and she should pay me £1K. She was lucky I told the judge I didn't want her money and was happy to walk away with nothing, she had no money to pay me and only wanted her day in court as she felt she had been asked to leave unfairly.

Don't go to court if you can't afford to pay if you are found in the wrong it could be expensive.

I sympathise with your situation, but a harassment claim is very different to a breach of contract

aleks1244

Thanks for the answer , it helped a lot i think you were unlucky, i always watch cant pay we'll take it away and i feel sorry for some landlord that they have to deal with these loser tenants that take it over the top, i have never been late with payment always pay on time and full amount even thought it is very dificult sometimes...


If i had the time i think i would go as they wasted my time and caused a lot of stress in the family had to live another three months with family in a two bed house 6 people... It has taken 1/1 weeks for them to refund the cash
I think ill pass this time, thanks for quick reply

[Deleted User]

I think it would be a lot of trouble for you and add to the stress you are already experiencing with only a small chance of success. You did the right things, got your deposit etc back, I'd advise to leave it at that.

Glad you managed to sort yourself out eventually. Well done. Sorry you had to go through all that.