Failed reference checks

Comms69

Patko2908 wrote: »

Thanks for the responses. Letting agents and landlord knew about her type of contract and landlord was more than happy to proceed with the application, with a condition that we will pay three months upfront, which we agreed and on next day we sent him deposit, as requested.

However, three days after he changed his mind and started being greedy and letting agents demanded six months upfront to make him happy.

And why I see it as discrimination?
1.We already agreed on terms and conditions with agency and landlord, few days before signing contract he changed his mind , started demanding more money and I don't see a reason why should I pay for their mistakes, and blaming someone else

2. Milions people works on zero hour contract or self-employed in the UK, earning and working more that others, and it doesnt make them 'unreliable' or lazy people. So therefore clasifying and judging people on their type of employment I see as discrimination. OF course from point of view I see that landlord want to get some 'extra protection' to see that tenants will pay rent and wont be behind, but I don't agree taking advantage of them and demanding more and more money.

Although, my partners contract problem I see only as an excuse, so someone from them can get away with it.

As mentioned above, landlord agreed with all of this, and I don't see normal that he changes conditions and demanding more money whenever he likes, and especially when he agreed to three months upfront

You're clearly not native, so i'll explain this very simply.


99% of the time discrimination is perfectly legal.


This is a voluntary contract between two parties. You are not entitled to rent this property.

saajan_12

The discrimination is irrelevant, income is not protected - its a relevant factor in deciding who to let to. The key here is the order of events and what agreements the LL made and reneged on (if any)

Patko2908 wrote: »

Hello

I apologies when is somewhere same post.

First of all I wanted to rent a property through letting agent. I got full time pernament contract and partner works part time. After questions of letting agents, landlord decided to go through. We paid fees,- were these legal / before 1st June? and went through references checks. After two days reference checks returned positive, - what does 'positive' mean? The LL can decide on their own standards. BUT they had problems with my partners employer. He putted to the reference checks that shes on zero hours contract, - well is she on a zero hour contract? If so then nothing wrong there. so they started asking for guarantor. - fair enough, theres no likelihood partner would have any continuity of income. Although I don't know any guarantor, we offered to pay three months upfront rent. - wouldn't be enough for me, what happens in month 4 when you haven't been used to paying rent monthly / spent income from last 3 months and partner has 0 hours in month 4. After that, landlord was more than happy to carry on that we will take a house, and also paid him deposit required. - what deposit was this: security deposit or holding deposit? When you said "more than happy", what was said? Did you sign any contracts? After three or four days I had message from letting agent that I should call them urgently. When I called them, they told me that landlord changed his mind, that we are too risky for him and all this crap that he needs reliable and prospective tenants. - well you do sound risky, but the key is whether the LL has already agreed to take you on. After argument with letting agent and this terrible experience which almost left me on a street with my family (as I already gave notice to my current landlord) - when did you serve notice? Was this on the basis of the new LL agreeing to rent to you? What are your losses as a result of not having the new property? Do you have extra moving costs / rent? I told letting agent that this is innapopriate behaviour from landlord and i see there discrimination and prejudice, - no its not. because although we provided good references and bank statements for last three months and whatever needed - clearly not good enough references, showing lots of proof of 0 hours doesn't make it a good reference. first landlord agreed and then withdrawed his decision, and had no problems with get type of contract, - what was actually stated, in writing? letting agent started being rude to me, how dare I accusing them from discrimination and such a good person like landlord, and after that we were lying on our application and that is our fault, and if we want this house we can offer 6 months upfront rent to make landlord happy, and if we dont have nothing more to offer, they will withdraw our application, which they did.

However, i would like to hear your opinion, and also if you think that I got any chance to get my £250 back from letting agents through complaint procedure, because i believe that I didnt do nothing wrong and such a disgraceful behaviour calling me a liar is not appopriate at all.

Cakeguts

Patko2908 wrote: »

Those £250 consists of 2x reference checks for two people (£125 each) and in Wales we still have to pay for that. The estate agent is big and got offices across Wales. Tenancy has to start in three days (28th) and fees were paid 7th June. On 21th June i had a phone call from letting agent that landlord is happy accept upfront rent and we just need to wait till 28th to sign contract, collect the keys and pay money. All paperwork has been completed until todays morning and shocking phone call from letting agent that landlord called them that he wants guarantor also besides three months upfront rent.

All the communication was through letting negotiator, so i had no contact with landlord directly.

The point about this is that you don't actually know if the landlord changed his mind because you don't actually know what the letting agent told the landlord or when they talked to the landlord. It could easily be that the letting agent only told the landlord about the zero hours contract when that reference came through and at that point the landlord said no. He may not have changed is mind at all.

parkrunner

Patko2908 wrote: »

Those £250 consists of 2x reference checks for two people (£125 each) and in Wales we still have to pay for that. The estate agent is big and got offices across Wales. Tenancy has to start in three days (28th) and fees were paid 7th June. On 21th June i had a phone call from letting agent that landlord is happy accept upfront rent and we just need to wait till 28th to sign contract, collect the keys and pay money. All paperwork has been completed until todays morning and shocking phone call from letting agent that landlord called them that he wants guarantor also besides three months upfront rent.

All the communication was through letting negotiator, so i had no contact with landlord directly.

Does all paperwork completed mean the tenancy agreement has been signed by all relevant parties?

letitbe90

Cakeguts wrote: »

The point about this is that you don't actually know if the landlord changed his mind because you don't actually know what the letting agent told the landlord or when they talked to the landlord. It could easily be that the letting agent only told the landlord about the zero hours contract when that reference came through and at that point the landlord said no. He may not have changed is mind at all.

I think there is a case of refund if nothing was done wrong by OP (e.g. no half truths etc). At the end of the day, OP would have not paid for the reference fees if the landlord had not agreed to rent it to them based on certain conditions (which they satisfied).


If that was legitimate, could you imagine how much money an estate agent could milk simply by telling people "Yep, they are happy to let to you", do the reference checks and receive fees and tell them "Oh, they changed their mind, do not want to rent to you".

I would be fuming if that happened to me. A lot of people here got the wrong end of the stick - no one is saying anyone is entitled to rent the landlords property, it is about the fact that these fees would have been avoided had OP been told they weren't wanted in the first place.

danlewi2

How can a landlord decide until the reference checks are completed though? Also if you fail them - they still need to be paid for as they have been completed.

letitbe90

danlewi2 wrote: »

How can a landlord decide until the reference checks are completed though? Also if you fail them - they still need to be paid for as they have been completed.

Reference checks are to confirm what the tenants have said is true. If OP said they work zero hour on the offset, nothing would have changed post reference check.

If tenant said they are not on a zero hour contract and reference check then goes to show they are - I would say in this case it is justifiable for tenant to lose £250. The tenant however shouldn't lose money if the landlord agreed to rent to them knowing they are on zero hour contract in the first place but then decided to change their mind on no new information.

Now the landlord is entitled to change their mind - but I think the estate agent should refund tenant (and agent can ask the landlord if they wish to cover it - as it really would be the landlords fault, or potentially estate agents if they didn't communicate this with them).

saajan_12

Patko2908 wrote: »

..
partner works part time.
..
BUT they had problems with my partners employer. He putted to the reference checks that shes on zero hours contract

Sounds like OP initially described it as "part time" and it was only when the employer reference was run that the "zero hours contract" came up. Those are different things, so the LL was fully entitled to turn them down on the basis of new info that the references brought to light. So the reference fees have been spent correctly and if the LL immediately said no to letting they wouldn't have to refund the reference fees.

So the £250 is out of question. The only thing that remains is whether the LL's subsequent statement to let with 3 months rent upfront was a sufficiently firm / reliable agreement. If that lead the OP to do things eg hand in notice, then the OP may be able to claim their MITIGATED losses as a result of the LL changing their mind and saying no again.

Cakeguts

letitbe90 wrote: »

I think there is a case of refund if nothing was done wrong by OP (e.g. no half truths etc). At the end of the day, OP would have not paid for the reference fees if the landlord had not agreed to rent it to them based on certain conditions (which they satisfied).


If that was legitimate, could you imagine how much money an estate agent could milk simply by telling people "Yep, they are happy to let to you", do the reference checks and receive fees and tell them "Oh, they changed their mind, do not want to rent to you".

I would be fuming if that happened to me. A lot of people here got the wrong end of the stick - no one is saying anyone is entitled to rent the landlords property, it is about the fact that these fees would have been avoided had OP been told they weren't wanted in the first place.

The problem was actually caused in the first place by the OP because when they filled up the form it appears that they incorrectly described the partners work as part time rather than zero hours contract. These are not the same because part time is a guaranteed income each month but zero hours contract could be a different amount or nothing. The zero hours contract came to light when the employer mentioned in the reference. If this had been on the form in the first place it is possible that they wouldn't have even needed to carry out any checks because the landlord would have said no at the start.



You also have to ask how much someone would understand about a rental contract if they don't understand what sort of work contract they have.

[Deleted User]

When you consider what the real cost of obtaining references is compared to the £125 charged, it is quite shameful that the applicant can't get a refund of some sort.