One day before move Chancellors sends us a fully furnished inventory after selling us an unfurnished

Keeper98

andy444 said:

Keeper98 said:

I record all my calls for personal use, its just a button you press once on the mobile. I've got a recording where they clearly say it was unfurnished. We didn't view it in person, and the video was clearly a video of the house being lived in by the previous tenant. 

Why didn't you ever view the place yourself?

We live a long way away, and the incompetency came late enough that we had no option but to keep going. The contract does not state that it IS furnished, but states that we are responsible for ANY furnishings. We asked and were told that white goods would be there, so it was not unreasonable for us to assume that this is what it referred to.

I'd also like to point out that I have not shared any phone recordings with anyone, and honestly it's really weird to hear people respond to me catching someone mis-selling me a huge purchase with 'shame on you for catching him'. If it is ethical for all private companies to record me for the sake of self-protection, it's ethical for me to do the same. I was not an idiot and I read the contract, carefully, twice. I'm the exact opposite of wealthy, we cannot live at a furnished apartment because of allergies, this guy has possibly cost me so much I will have to take out loans to fix my life. 

PlumLuck

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel said:

Why would you even enter an agreement with a company who have already shown you to be incompetent? 

Agree with this 100%. 

We viewed a rental where it said there was a 'no deposit option'. After putting in an application and having it accepted by the landlord, we asked for details of where to send the deposit to. To which the response was 'oh there's no deposit needed'. Turns out the 'no deposit option' wasn't an option at all and he told us the landlord wouldn't accept a traditional deposit because it offers them more protection to go with the no deposit option.

He also tried to sell it to us with the retail discounts we'd also get - we get these through our employers anyway - and with that it would improve our credit rating - when we both had perfect credit ratings anyway.

None of it made any sense to us so we walked away. I refuse to deal with people being dodgy!

Keeper98

PlumLuck said:

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel said:

Why would you even enter an agreement with a company who have already shown you to be incompetent? 

Agree with this 100%. 

We viewed a rental where it said there was a 'no deposit option'. After putting in an application and having it accepted by the landlord, we asked for details of where to send the deposit to. To which the response was 'oh there's no deposit needed'. Turns out the 'no deposit option' wasn't an option at all and he told us the landlord wouldn't accept a traditional deposit because it offers them more protection to go with the no deposit option.

He also tried to sell it to us with the retail discounts we'd also get - we get these through our employers anyway - and with that it would improve our credit rating - when we both had perfect credit ratings anyway.

None of it made any sense to us so we walked away. I refuse to deal with people being dodgy!

By the time we realized they were dodgy we had signed the pre-rental agreement that stated nothing other than what we expected, and bound us to financial penalties if we backed out. It was also close to the moving date, because they had taken a while to get it sorted. We signed a tenancy agreement because they assured us that the zero deposit scheme was the only option, and I asked to give a deposit and they refused.

The second they got the signature, the floodgates opened. We made a list. They ignored seven emails, I couldn't contact the letting agent in charge for a week, they didn't call me back 5 times when they said they would, they asked us for documents they had received three times and once asked again after it was reprovided. They sent us bizzare autogenerated emails and sold our data to at least four companies I know of, one because they tried to sell me insurance in the middle of the night. One of the companies they sold our data to came at us with a £370 'bill' as a ploy to make us make an account with them. My partner cried over that one.

I mean, you are ultimately right, maybe I should've done something better but is this really reasonable to expect? Do I have to treat every interaction with a letting agent as an absolutely hostile legal fight? And if I do, why are people criticizing me for recording the calls?

gingercordial

OK, focus on what you want to happen, or what alternatives you could live with.

Presumably what you want is for the landlord to immediately remove all furniture and therefore allow you to move in today/tomorrow(?) to a completely unfurnished property?  That *may* be possible, for example if they are a landlord with a large number of properties and a storage space.  I know I have previously rented from landlords who basically kept their own warehouse with (cheap, poor quality) furniture and would cobble together for a furnished place or remove if the tenants wanted unfurnished.  BUT you'll be lucky if this is the case.  Failing that...

Option 2 - you put your own furniture into storage, and you accept the property as furnished.  There's a cost of storage of course.  Do you want to ask them to pay that, via a rent reduction?  Would you accept splitting it?

Option 3 - you accept the property as furnished, you move the landlord's possessions into storage, bring in your own, then put the landlord's stuff back when you leave.  Costs as above.

Option 4 - some kind of negotiation on the above, eg if the landlord could get rid of the bed as you have your own, could you live with their other stuff being there?  We did this once - the landlord owned a massive CRT television which he wanted kept in the flat, as it had been expensive, although he was probably the last person to spend several thousand on a big screen CRT before flat screens became a thing.  We had to live with it under the dining table.  It wasn't ideal but we managed. They grudgingly agreed to remove and dispose of the sofa but we had to have that on-end in the corner of the room until it could be collected by a house clearance company.

Option 5 - you all agree to mutually void the contract.  You find somewhere else to live asap.

Having your preferred outcome in mind, but also what other options you *might* be willing to accept, will be helpful.

Jude57

Apologies if I've missed it, but if OP hasn't yet physically seen the property, is it possible that the INVENTORY is another mistake by the letting agents? Perhaps it was attached to the rental agreement in error?

Keeper98

Jude57 said:

Apologies if I've missed it, but if OP hasn't yet physically seen the property, is it possible that the INVENTORY is another mistake by the letting agents? Perhaps it was attached to the rental agreement in error?

Hi Jude, I didn't say I think but I called the inventory agent and he said it was definitely all there on monday.

Keeper98

gingercordial said:

OK, focus on what you want to happen, or what alternatives you could live with.

Thanks gingercordial, this is great advice. I think with all things considered, the most practical thing to do would be to move our stuff into storage while they sort out their situation. I'm at them today to make sure they pay for it, and the landlord is furious with them as well. I don't know what the plan is for sleeping somewhere tonight, but I'm asking my current agents to let us stay a couple of extra days where we are. The estate agents we are heading to are very aware it's their screw up and told me it was unfurnished in their system, so they at least seem motivated to fix it asap.