Unable to rent new flat because of "adverse" UNFAIR reference.

Smoothape

Cakeguts wrote: »

You were making late payments. You were not paying on the day that you signed to say that you would pay. A tenancy agreement is a contract and a legal document. When you signed it you agreed to pay the rent on a certain day you can't just change the day because it doesn't suit you. If you had wanted to pay on the 30th you should have set it up to pay on that day rather than the one you agreed on.

The day that you get paid should make no difference to when you pay the rent. You get paid on 30th and you put the rent money aside so that it is ready to go on the 25th. If you know that the day that you pay is going to change you make savings so that you can still pay on the correct day.

You have actually caused this problem by trying to alter a contract without the landlord's permission in writing.

When you decided to break the contract by changing something in it did you make up the difference between the 25th and the 30th or do you have rent arrears as well?

Remember a tenancy agreement is a contract. It is a legal document. You cannot change it unless you have the agreement of the person who is party to the contract. This would be your landlord not the landlord's letting agent. You need to get permission from the landlord in writing. You have to remember that the day that you pay your rent is the landlord's pay day. So for example if you pay your landlord on 25th and they have a contract with someone else to pay on the 27th using your rent and you just decide that the 25th is no longer convenient for you how would expect the landlord to make their payment?

You did sign a legal document to say that you would pay on a certain day.

Do not try to change contracts just to suit you. To alter a contract you have to have the agreement of all parties in writing.

Cakeguts wrote: »

So did you make up the 5 days difference between paying on the 25th and paying on the 30th.

Paying on the 25th means that you have paid up to the next 25th. If you change to the 30th you pay from the 30th to the 30th but there is a gap of 5 days between the 25th and the 30th of a few days that you will not have paid for so did you make up the difference in rent to include those days?

The important point still remains though that you cannot alter a contract unless all the parties are in agreement and it sounds as if you did not agreement from your landlord? The letting agent can't make decisions on behalf of the landlord regarding the contract because they are not on it.

I'm not in any arrears. The reference stated multiple late payments but otherwise said I am a good tenant that keeps the property clean and that they would rent to me again....

The agency speaks on behalf of the landlord. I do not have any contact with the landlord whatsoever. They were completely fine with me making payments on the 30th up until a new agency contacted them for reference. On agency rating websites they are rated 1.8 out of five stars. They are just a scummy agency putting me into a bind so they an continue to make money off of me.

PersianCatLady

Smoothape wrote: »

I'm not in any arrears. The reference stated multiple late payments but otherwise said I am a good tenant that keeps the property clean and that they would rent to me again....

The agency speaks on behalf of the landlord. I do not have any contact with the landlord whatsoever. They were completely fine with me making payments on the 30th up until a new agency contacted them for reference. On agency rating websites they are rated 1.8 out of five stars. They are just a scummy agency putting me into a bind so they an continue to make money off of me.

If you think the agency is doing it out of spite then why don't you write to the LL directly and ask him for a reference?

PersianCatLady

1.8 stars totally irrelevant.

beeg0d

Cakeguts wrote: »

The letting agent can't make decisions on behalf of the landlord regarding the contract because they are not on it.

Of cause they can. The key is in the name "agent" the Letting agent is the landlords appointed agent. That is what the word agent means, someone appointed to represent and work on behalf of another party. If the agent went beyond their authority by agreeing to vary the rent day is an issue between the agent and the LL NOT the tennant and LL.

The tennants only issue is proving the agent gave permission to vary the rent date, as permission was granted verbally ruther then in writing.

moneyistooshorttomention

It was your mistake in the first place to ask if you could vary the payment date. That is not the tenants decision. The decision on payment date has already been made and has to be accepted.

You will know in the future to have sufficient savings available to do any swopping over from one rent contract to another and wouldnt have "asked" to unilerally vary the contract at the outset on current place.

I've had tenants before now (ie lodgers in my last house) and their finances were not my concern and I've refused to vary any agreements because of their financial issues.

To date - you've been lucky on this current place that you've been allowed to change their decision for them.

Forget the maintenance issues. They are now irrelevant - as you intend to move. I'd follow Doozergirl's advice actually and go and visit their office in person. Take all relevant paperwork with you (receipts from them/bank statements/etc) and explain what happened and tell them the name of person/time/date of the phonecall you had with this person that agreed to vary the payment date with you. That person made a mistake to make that agreement with you and I doubt the firm will be very happy with them for having done so and broken their procedures - but if you can give the name of this person then they will probably recognise them as being "That M. surname that did make rather a lot of mistakes" and you might be lucky and they'll agree to amend their reference on you.

For future reference - don't ask anyone to vary their terms of their agreement again to suit yourself.

steampowered

A letting agent represents the landlord. That is what the word "agent" means in legal terms. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_authority.

If a matter is within the apparent authority of the agent, the landlord will be legally bound by that.

I'd think the agent does have apparent authority to agree a minor variation to the payment date on behalf of the landlord.

steampowered

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I've had tenants before now (ie lodgers in my last house) and their finances were not my concern and I've refused to vary any agreements because of their financial issues.

It is a bit hypocritical to act as a landlord - making money and profit from other people's inability to buy a house - and then complain when they have the occasional financial issue.

The fact that people don't have enormous savings is the reason why they are renting in the first place. If you don't want to deal with people who have the occasional financial issue then don't be a landlord.

It comes with the territory. Your post is a bit like selling cigarettes in the day and complaining about people smoking in the evening.

I'd think most landlords would be much more reasonable about the odd financial issue (provided that tenants catch-up, otherwise pay the rent on time and look after the property).

marliepanda

There is literally nothing wrong with asking to change a payment date!

Not sure what cakeguts and moneyistooshorttomention are so upset about. He didn’t just start paying 5 days late, he asked and got permission from the landlords agent, so as good as from the LL himself.

Literally nothing wrong with asking, getting permission, and then doing.

Doozergirl

marliepanda wrote: »

There is literally nothing wrong with asking to change a payment date!

Not sure what cakeguts and moneyistooshorttomention are so upset about. He didn’t just start paying 5 days late, he asked and got permission from the landlords agent, so as good as from the LL himself.

Literally nothing wrong with asking, getting permission, and then doing.

Agree. It’s certainly no reason for someone to be refused future accommodation. I wouldn’t have bothered engaging with cakeguts at all if I were the OP. There’s nothing to justify.

Someone at the letting agency needs to employ a bit of common sense.

FBaby

They have agreed over the phone that paying on the 30th was no issue.

That could be your interpretation though. What they might have meant is that they can't force you to pay on the 25th, so if you pay on the 30th, that's your choice, but that doesn't mean they would have considered this acceptable.

Also, you say they put 'multiple late payments'. This implies that the late payments were irregular. At one point did you change the arrangement? Was there any new contract signed in between?

Really it comes down to either them disagreeing with you that you had an arrangement, so they won't change what they've said, or the whole thing is so bureaucratic that the agreement got lost in transition as it was only verbal.

Your best option is to ask the new agency if there is any chance you could meet/speak with the new LL. The LL will have gone through the agency to sort everything out on their behalf paying them for it, so the agency is unlikely to take the initiative to do so, all they care about is finding a tenant that ticks the boxes so that the LL can't complain if the tenant turns out to be a bad one.

However, it is very possible that the LL is actually prepared to be more flexible than the agency and is happy with your explanation if you can show that you have indeed just changed the payment date and paid each time by standing order.

If they are refusing to give you the LL contact details or to ask them to contact you, or the LL says they don't want you as a tenant, there is nothing you can do in this occasion, but next time you go for another property, do enquire from the start whether you could meet/talk with the LL directly.

In all circumstances, I personally think that LL and tenants should always meet before taking on a tenancy as both should personally feel satisfied with first impressions rather than relying on a third party that couldn't care less about the interests of either party.