Deceived by Letting Agent on Student Accommodation

CathCat

My son and friend are university students and back in February found a flat to move into in September for the 2019/2020 academic year. To secure the property we were asked to pay admin fees, referencing fees, guarantor fees and a holding fee. This totalled £1643 split between ourselves and our son’s friend’s parents.

Two weeks ago we found out by chance that the landlord had withdrawn the property and without telling my son and friend the situation, the letting agent allocated another flat to them in the same building. They have never set foot in this property, it is inferior to their chosen flat and we feel that it is extremely unethical for the agent to have done this without permission.

Unsurprisingly, we have no trust in this agent and want our holding fee etc to be returned to us but they are now saying that the original flat has become available so won’t return the money.

We don’t want them to move into this property now after the appalling way in which they have been treated by this company. In your opinion how do we stand on this matter?

davidmcn

Did they enter into a contract for a specific flat?

need_an_answer

So are you saying that they can now rent the original flat rather than the replacement?

...and its a case that even though the original flat has now been re offered to your son you don't want him to take it as you've lost faith?

If the original flat is now available I see no reason why any plans need changing,they can move as agreed

hazyjo

So the end of the matter is, they've turned round and said 'okay, we tried it on, but have admitted defeat and are now offering the original flat'.


I'd say that's fair enough and not sure I'd be cutting my nose off to spite my face. I can be stubborn, but would actually think I'd got the 'one up' in this case, not them.


They work for the landlord so I'm not too worried I'd need to 'trust' them as a tenant. Make sure they put everything in future in writing, and take lots of photos.

CathCat

They signed a contract and paid al the fees to secure that particular property while the referencing was carried out and that is when we discovered that the address of the property was different to the one they had viewed.

CathCat

To be treated like this before they even move in does not fill us with confidence. I can only guess what will happen at the end of the contract when we try to get the deposit back. Wish we'd looked more closely at the reviews for this particular agent before handing over any money to be honest!

KatieDee

I think most student accommodation companies prey on inexperienced students and overprotective parents to foot the bill, so I am not remotely surprised they would pull tactics like this. You're right to be concerned, but at least the original flat is now available to your son and his friend, which I assume he was happy with in the beginning.

The only thing you can do to protect him is take a lot of photographs when they first move in. Any marks, any dirt, any broken furniture, just take photos of everything and store them securely. In the event that they try and claim something from your son that he didn't do, at least you will have something to appeal with. The deposit protection schemes available tend to be very angled towards protecting the tenants interests, so you always have the option to contest any claims they make.

AdrianC

Let me put an alternative scenario forward...

Students: "Yep, we'll have it"
Agent to Students: "Great"
Agent to Landlord: "Got you tenants."
Landlord: "Oh. Umm. Other plans. Sorry."
Agent: <frantic behind-scenes scrabbling>
Agent to Students: "Bad news guys, but I've managed to find you another flat in the same building."
Students' parents: <toys out of pram>

Chandler85

I think if the agent had said, bad news the original one we can't give you but we can offer this one are you happy? Then the students would get a chance to say no. The problem was the agents assumed it was fine and didn't ask.


I think if the original flat is now back on offer then it should be taken as agreed and everyone should be happy. If the student look after it then they are unlikely to ever contact the agents.


Landlords often assume, and probably based on percentages, that student's won't look after the properties. When I was at university, we saw our landlord (who owned and managed the house, as well as others) 6 times.

1) He showed us round,
2) He met us there on the first day
3) When he can to say he was re-roofing the property was that ok?
4) Once it was re-roofed to as the job had knocked paint off a ceiling, he had the room repainted 3 days later
5) To show some prospective tenants round (they took it)
6) When we moved out.

CathCat

Sorry Adrian C, you have misunderstood the situation. Had the agent got in touch with my son and friend, explained the situation and offered to show them alternative accommodation, that would have been honest and professional. The point is they were not told.
And I'm far too old to be throwing my toys out of the pram by the way. I just can't afford to give my hard earned money away and came here for a bit of friendly advice.

AdrianC

CathCat wrote: »

I just can't afford to give my hard earned money away and came here for a bit of friendly advice.

No throwing away needed. The original flat is available for them to move into, on the original terms.