Deceived by Letting Agent on Student Accommodation

Fire_Fox

CathCat wrote: »

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Two weeks ago we found out by chance that the landlord had withdrawn the property and without telling my son and friend the situation, the letting agent allocated another flat to them in the same building.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?

Welcome to MSE.

The handling of the situation is certainly disappointing and unsatisfactory, but "extremely unethical" and "appalling" is a bit strong. It may have been the result of poor communication or a mistake rather than a (rather risky) 'bait and switch'.

Please understand that your sons will be in a contract with the landlord not with the letting agent. Their deposit must be protected in a scheme, so neither the landlord nor the agent will have free access to it. Your sons must be supplied with contact details for the landlord so have the option of writing directly to them if there are further problems with this agent.

Whether the deposit (or any other monies) are returned to the tenants themselves or to their guarantors at the end of the tenancy (or at any other time) depends how the documentation has been worded and the contracts set up. Do read this carefully: regardless of any moral rights as concerned parents, you may have few legal rights to have a say in the tenancy going forward.

IMO your sons have learned a useful life lesson. Do encourage them to deal with the letting agent in writing throughout the tenancy (e-mail is fine, but not texting) wherever possible and to keep a copy of everything just in case. If there are any problems at a later date such evidence often leads to the tenants 'coming out on top'.

HTH.

Housebuy12345

I’m not sure why people are disagreeing with the original poster’s comments. Students get taken for a ride.

They are expected to enter a contract into a halls of residence and don’t know which room they will get. Would you be happy on the ground floor, next to the bins? Sure I understand it’s not practical but this practice is than transferred to private student lettings.

Is it possible that they went to see a private student accommodation provider and was shown around a show flat?

What have you/your son signed?

Doozergirl

Housebuy12345 wrote: »

I’m not sure why people are disagreeing with the original poster’s comments. Students get taken for a ride.

They are expected to enter a contract into a halls of residence and don’t know which room they will get. Would you be happy on the ground floor, next to the bins? Sure I understand it’s not practical but this practice is than transferred to private student lettings.

Is it possible that they went to see a private student accommodation provider and was shown around a show flat?

What have you/your son signed?

They've been offered the original flat that they viewed.The issue is over.

The OP wants to pull out now because of what might happen, not what is happening.

lookstraightahead

Students and uni accommodation - try not to get too involved. It's a minefield if dodgy agents and landlords, and very lazy students who aren't bothered about anything until it's a crisis, leaving parents stressed.

Been there, done that.

CathCat

Thanks for your welcome Fire Fox and for your sound advice. Your message was much appreciated x

CathCat

Thanks for your reply HouseBuy12. It isn't student halls accommodation on campus. It is a private rental and they were shown around just one property, paid a holding deposit, then suddenly the address changed to a smaller property of less value without informing them, but the agent wanted the same rent.

silvercar

I can understand your reluctance. The letting agent has proved to be underhand and you have no confidence in how they will manage the property going forward.

The first question I would ask is whether these letting agents will be managing the property or whether the landlord self-manages. If the latter then you will have no need to worry about these letting agents going forward. If the former then I would now be asking if your deposit has been protected as required by law.

need_an_answer

Is it possible that the agent just put the wrong flat number on the tenancy agreement?
I'm not trying to justify the agents actions but experience tells me that for several months of the year student accommodation agents are "very busy" and regrettably mistakes happen.

I'm the parent of uni offspring who's about to enter their 4th year in Sept,I'm also a LL although I really wouldn't put myself in the same class as student accommodation.

What I would advise you to do is take a step back and let your son and his friend deal with this and the coming year.they will learn invaluable lessons from it trust me!

Give advice to them but let them lead the battle....firstly if there is an inventory when they move in,make sure its checked and amendments made if necessary before returning to the agency....(its amazing how many professional inventories have an almost picture of damage but it gets cropped at the vital point)

They should be issued with a CP12 gas safety certificate when they move in(if any GCH or gas appliances in the property) this needs to have been completed within the last 12 months and should be renewed annually.

Whilst you may not like the property I'm sure your son will adapt to it well...I personally didn't like the place mine had this year,but its become home so much so that its been signed up for next year too...

The fact that you don't trust the agent is understandable too...but again you have to take a back seat and appreciate that its not you that's personally renting the property.The agents or the LL will have clear timescales to fix issues that may occur during the tenancy,get your son to understand any information he's given on how to report a problem and as I said earlier just let them get on with it

onwards&upwards

I get that it’s annoying and you feel you now can’t trust the agent.

Thing is though, you can’t trust ANY agents managing cheap student accommodation. Finding any letting agent that’s half decent is a challenge even at the top end of the market. None of the alternatives are going to be upstanding, scrupulously honest and always helpful.

Don’t rock the boat, your son and his friend now have the flat they wanted with a rent they were happy to pay. There are plenty of protections in the law if anything else goes wrong. If you try to jump ship now they could easily end up worse off, much worse off!

Housebuy12345

@Cath I didn’t stay on campus but it was student specific accommodation. What did they sign and when?