Letting Agent Misrepresentation?

SlimJimSouthend

Hi, I'm looking for some advice as to whether I have a case against a Letting Agent which I believe has misrepresented a property leading to me losing the £360 I paid in fees. I live on my own in a 1 bed flat but wanted to move to a 2 bed flat in a better area. I found a flat online that was in the right area and arranged a viewing. I attended the viewing with my brother, the letting agent greeted us and opened her pitch with the line "Try to look past the state of the decoration because the whole flat is going to be professionally decorated in white with new carpet being fitted in the main bedroom" to which I replied "The lounge needs a new carpet, its got paint stains on it" to which she replied "The lounge carpet is being cleaned and if they cant get the stains out it will be replaced aswell". She went on to tell me that the kitchen and bathroom would be professionally cleaned. I liked the area and thought the flat would be perfect with all the improvements that she claimed were going to be carried out before anyone moved in so I went to their office, paid £360 admin fees and I then went through all the checks. 14 days later I was told my application had been accepted which I was chuffed about, I asked to go to the property to measure the windows for blinds and curtains and I was disappointed to see the flat in the same condition as when I viewed it, I asked when the decoration and carpet fitting was going to be carried out and I was then incredibly disappointed when the girl from the letting agent (a different employee to the one who did the viewing) informed me that no decoration was to be carried out and no new carpet had been agreed by the landlord, the flat was also still dirty despite the 'cleaning' having been carried out.

I spoke to the office the next day who denied their employee ever said the flat would be decorated and new carpet fitted, at which point I said I was withdrawing my application and was told that I would lose my £360 fee.

I then put in a claim against the letting agent through the small claims court to try to get my money back, the letting agent has filed a counterclaim against me for £1014 claiming I owe them for the deposit and loss of rent.

Do I have a case? I'm quite worried!

00ec25

obviously your word against theirs.

what written evidence can either you or they produce setting out the terms and conditions of the admin fee?

if you have not taken possession of the flat then they will struggle to get rent & deposit out of you as the contract consideration has not been exchanged, but the admin fee is a different matter.

G_M

Was a contract or tenancy agreement signed? Sounds like not, so I doubt the counter-claim will succeed.

In any event, it appears you are suing the agent, correct? The rent would belong to the landlord, not the agent, so the agent cannot claim this, the landlord would have to, and he does not appear to be involved in the legal action.

As for the deposit, even if you'd paid this, it would remain your money, to be returned to you at the end of the tenancy, so again the agent cannot claim it.

So much for the counter-claim.

Your own claim would appear to come down to a dispute over a verbal statement. You claim the agent said "xxxx", and the agent denies saying it.

Who will the court believe? That will depend who seems to be most convincing on the day.

If you had a witness with you, that would strengthen your case, as would any email, advert or other document referring to redecoration.

SlimJimSouthend

G_M wrote: »

Was a contract or tenancy agreement signed? Sounds like not, so I doubt the counter-claim will succeed.

In any event, it appears you are suing the agent, correct? The rent would belong to the landlord, not the agent, so the agent cannot claim this, the landlord would have to, and he does not appear to be involved in the legal action.

As for the deposit, even if you'd paid this, it would remain your money, to be returned to you at the end of the tenancy, so again the agent cannot claim it.

So much for the counter-claim.

Your own claim would appear to come down to a dispute over a verbal statement. You claim the agent said "xxxx", and the agent denies saying it.

Who will the court believe? That will depend who seems to be most convincing on the day.

If you had a witness with you, that would strengthen your case, as would any email, advert or other document referring to redecoration.

Thanks for your reply,

No tenancy agreement was signed and I'm sure the counterclaim is either an attempt to scare me off or just an angry reaction, either way I was confident they didn't have a case for a counterclaim.

My brother was with me on the viewing and heard everything the agent said, he's just as shocked at the way the agent has lied. surely its mis-selling!

SlimJimSouthend

00ec25 wrote: »

obviously your word against theirs.

what written evidence can either you or they produce setting out the terms and conditions of the admin fee?

if you have not taken possession of the flat then they will struggle to get rent & deposit out of you as the contract consideration has not been exchanged, but the admin fee is a different matter.

I signed a bit of paper entitled "terms and information for tenants" in which it states "The letting contract or agreement must be signed by all tenants and, until this has taken place, no contractual agreement, offer or obligation is deemed to exist"

it also says the fee will hold the property off the market for 7 days while references are being checked, after 7 days the property will be re advertised and other applicants will be considered.

[Deleted User]

While, legally, this will come down to the believability of the two of you (and unfortunately the Judge you get), it is good to see you doing this. I hope you succeed. Did you take any photographs at all to show the state of the flat? Or do the LA have photos on Rightmove? Then you could at least establish the place was in a sorry state when you viewed it and no right minded person would have agreed to move in in the state it was shown to you (although I expect the agency could then show that this did in fact happen after you turned the place down i.e. another tenant took the place).

You only have to prove that what you describe is more likely to have happened than not but you don't have any cold hard evidence other than what you describe. So you both will have to describe in detail what you saw and what was said.If the letting agent who took you round the place is not present, that will help as you will be able to argue how can someone else know what was said? However, even if you did have evidence, it can happen that you have a Judge who won't listen or allow points to be made and you will lose regardless. Its not supposed to be that way but can be.

However, the LA may not even turn up in court so a default judgement could be made.

Let us know how it goes.

Marvel1

I can only give advice for future viewings, when viewing and it's a mess and they say it will be cleaned, walk away, think about it if you are selling something why would you leave it a state - says a lot about future landlord and if repairs are needed.

[Deleted User]

Or get them to write it down and sign it. If they won't (probably the case) walk away. At least will make them sweat a bit lolol.

saajan_12

SlimJimSouthend wrote: »

I signed a bit of paper entitled "terms and information for tenants" in which it states "The letting contract or agreement must be signed by all tenants and, until this has taken place, no contractual agreement, offer or obligation is deemed to exist"

So when you paid the £360 you were aware that you hadn't signed a letting contract, so per the above, no obligation exists.
- You don't have an obligation to pay rent (ie no counterclaim)
- They don't have an obligation to clean / replace carpets (ie no claim)

You paid the £360 for certain checks / agent services, and that has been fulfilled. No further breach that you can claim for.

Comms69

The counterclaim is obviously bogus.


But the claim is interesting. OP can you update once you have a result

aneary

Please keep us updated.