Changing mind on rental property

MollyOh

Hi,

I made an offer on a rental property about 4 weeks ago. I have paid a holding fee and gone through the referencing and am in the process of finalising the lease, however I have now found a more suitable property that I would prefer to take. I have not signed the tenancy agreement yet. I am due to move in in 8 days time. Is it too late to withdraw my offer, and if I do, will I be liable financially if the landlord has a delay in finding a tenant for the property?



The terms and conditions for making the offer include the following clauses:


The Deadline for Agreement is the specified date that the tenant and landlord or their agent must agree and sign a tenancy agreement. This is usually the 15th day beginning with the day on which we receive a holding deposit, but this can be varied if both parties agree to do so in writing. This deadline should be agreed prior to the payment of a holding deposit. ** NB this date has passed but this was never discussed with me in advance of making the offer, nor have we discussed or made an agreement about the deadline for agreement**


Holding Deposit
We take a refundable holding deposit which allows you to reserve an available property and demonstrates your commitment to renting this property reserved. Once this is paid, we will begin our tenancy application and referencing process for the property. Payment of the Holding Deposit does not oblige the landlord to let the property concerned or any other property to you and it does not commit the landlord to granting a tenancy or constitute a tenancy.


we may retain your holding deposit for the following reasons:
• Your or any proposed joint tenant(s) withdraw from the property for any reason that is not the fault of the landlord or ourselves.
• You fail to take all reasonable steps to enter into a tenancy by the Deadline for Agreement where the landlord and ourselves take all reasonable steps.


The agency took my holding deposit before sending me the offer form to sign. The email on the offer form said I had 72 hours after making the offer to pay the holding deposit. But they took the payment before this.

They did not explain any of the terms and conditions or the terms of the lease before taking the payment.

When I signed the offer form, the form stated there was no break clause in the lease. This was not stated to me in advance. So I had to go back and negotiate the break clause after signing the offer. I brought this to the agencies attention within 24 hours of signing the offer form, they assured me there would be no problem, but then never did anything about it. So after the referencing was complete, I had to go after them again to get the break clause added. This and some delays to the referencing process (them not asking for all documents up front and some dragging of my feet on my side to be fair) meant that the process from offer to signing of the agreement have taken longer than expected. And in the meantime I have found something better.



I don't want to be a jerk, but I also want to do what is right for me.



Any advice guys? Will I get myself into trouble if I pull out now?
Thanks!

need_an_answer

My understanding is that the legislation bought in at the beginning of June would allow your holding deposit to be withheld

The fact that you have now found a "more suitable" property is not the fault of the LL or agent so your holding deposit can now be used to compensate for the fees incurred by the LL to reference you etc

You would be eligible for your holding deposit back if the LL or agent had changed their mind or you were unable to progress with the application because of the LL's circumstance but not because you have changed your mind

If the process has taken longer than expected then you can query it with the agent however if your holding deposit is returned it will be totally at their discretion and not because it is an automatic right for the payment to be returned.

You wont get yourself into trouble if you pull out now...you will just possibly lose the holding deposit.

If you can afford to do that and this other property is genuinely better then that's your decision.

System

MollyOh wrote: »

Hi,

I made an offer on a rental property about 4 weeks ago. I have paid a holding fee and gone through the referencing and am in the process of finalising the lease, however I have now found a more suitable property that I would prefer to take. I have not signed the tenancy agreement yet. I am due to move in in 8 days time. Is it too late to withdraw my offer, and if I do, will I be liable financially if the landlord has a delay in finding a tenant for the property?



The terms and conditions for making the offer include the following clauses:


The Deadline for Agreement is the specified date that the tenant and landlord or their agent must agree and sign a tenancy agreement. This is usually the 15th day beginning with the day on which we receive a holding deposit, but this can be varied if both parties agree to do so in writing. This deadline should be agreed prior to the payment of a holding deposit. ** NB this date has passed but this was never discussed with me in advance of making the offer, nor have we discussed or made an agreement about the deadline for agreement** But you have you agreed a move in date


Holding Deposit
We take a refundable holding deposit which allows you to reserve an available property and demonstrates your commitment to renting this property reserved. Once this is paid, we will begin our tenancy application and referencing process for the property. Payment of the Holding Deposit does not oblige the landlord to let the property concerned or any other property to you and it does not commit the landlord to granting a tenancy or constitute a tenancy.


we may retain your holding deposit for the following reasons:
• Your or any proposed joint tenant(s) withdraw from the property for any reason that is not the fault of the landlord or ourselves.
• You fail to take all reasonable steps to enter into a tenancy by the Deadline for Agreement where the landlord and ourselves take all reasonable steps.


The agency took my holding deposit before sending me the offer form to sign. The email on the offer form said I had 72 hours after making the offer to pay the holding deposit. But they took the payment before this. You could have withdrawn once you had received and read the T&Cs and would probably have had a refund, you chose to continue

The legislation states the holding fee can be retained should the applicant fail the referencing, provide false or misleading information, fail the right to rent check, withdraw from the proposed agreement or fail to take all reasonable steps to enter an agreement


As most ASTs are signed on the day you move in then that agreement was made when you agreed that date. You have now decided to withdraw from that agreement so the agent can retain your holding fee.