New to renting through an agent , are these terms legal?

SouthLondonUser

Determining when a holding deposit is returnable or not is one of the many things that many tenants tend to overlook.

The landlord wants to ensure the prospective tenant is serious, so would want the tenant to lose the deposit if the tenant then changes his mind.

However, what if the tenant doesn't change his mind, but the landlord comes up with a contract containing terms that the tenant doesn't like and which had not been mentioned previously? In most cases, the answer is the tenant has little to no recourse.

Eg the agent says that pets are allowed, takes the deposit, then sends out a contract which says they aren't.

To avoid this, the best thing to do would be to not pay anything until the actual detailed contract is in place. This may not always be possible, so an alternative could be to receive a template of the letting contract, and have it in contract that the holding deposit is subject to entering into a contract substantially along the lines of the one attached, plus/minus certain changes (if they are important to the tenant).

Of course the world is full of people who don't care / don't realise and are happy signing whatever without understanding. If a potential tenant is competing against those people, there isn't much that can be done - either consider a different property or accept the risks.

Morbier

Right!  I'm still not sure what you mean by 'initial enquires'?  As a current tenant (but not looking to move just yet) at some point in the future, I may be in that position, so it would be useful to know.