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Letter agent membership scheme - Love your postcode

13

Comments

  • TheBanker
    TheBanker Posts: 1,783 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    swoody1362 wrote: »
    This is the blurb on their website:

    LYP Club Membership

    Love Your Postcode does not take custodial deposits for any of its properties. Instead it provides a premium membership contract for all working class applicants that are seeking great quality homes throughout the country.

    Although I am the son of a Yorkshire coal miner I consider myself to be Middle Middle Class. Does that mean I am not eligible to rent one of these properties? If I apply, will they take into account my working class background and accept my application, or have I missed the boat on this one? :rotfl:
  • bap98189
    bap98189 Posts: 3,801 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary
    So having read the various terms that are on their website, let me see if I understand this correctly. If you want to rent a house from them, you first have to join their club and pay a non-refundable membership fee of somewhere around £1200.

    Then you have to pay them a £500 holding fee, which really isn't a holding fee as it is non-refundable.

    They then charge £360 for arranging the contract, and another £500 as a "check-in" fee.

    Then assuming you are single and don't need a guarantor, there is another fee of between £300 and £500 "for return of any property in satisfactory clean order" which isn't a deposit (honest guv) because it would be illegal to take a deposit and not register it with one of the agencies.

    So having given them close to £3000 you can then move in. But remember to ensure rent is paid on time and to the agent not the landlord, because if you are late or pay the landlord direct then you have just signed up to a [STRIKE]fine[/STRIKE] <ahem> "exit fee" for leaving their club of 6 months rent.

    Wow. :eek: And this appears to be legal. :mad: Well it isn't new at any rate as they have been operating like this since at least 2015.
  • Smodlet
    Smodlet Posts: 6,976 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    bap98189 wrote: »
    So having read the various terms that are on their website, let me see if I understand this correctly. If you want to rent a house from them, you first have to join their club and pay a non-refundable membership fee of somewhere around £1200.

    Then you have to pay them a £500 holding fee, which really isn't a holding fee as it is non-refundable.

    They then charge £360 for arranging the contract, and another £500 as a "check-in" fee.

    Then assuming you are single and don't need a guarantor, there is another fee of between £300 and £500 "for return of any property in satisfactory clean order" which isn't a deposit (honest guv) because it would be illegal to take a deposit and not register it with one of the agencies.

    So having given them close to £3000 you can then move in. But remember to ensure rent is paid on time and to the agent not the landlord, because if you are late or pay the landlord direct then you have just signed up to a [STRIKE]fine[/STRIKE] <ahem> "exit fee" for leaving their club of 6 months rent.

    Wow. :eek: And this appears to be legal. :mad: Well it isn't new at any rate as they have been operating like this since at least 2015.


    ... So why has no-one reported them to Trading Standards long before now?
  • Pixie5740
    Pixie5740 Posts: 14,515 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post Photogenic First Anniversary
    Love Your Postcode has reviews on Trust Pilot.

    https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.loveyourpostcode.com

    The majority of them are from people named Singh. My particular favourite is..
    Fateh
    Fateh!

    This Singh is smashing it.

    This lion of ours makes all of us UK wide proud. What an acheivement for the Khalsa. Marketing done on another level.

    Wow marketing brother. Full support.

    Inder Singh

    Interestingly (well not that interesting really), if you look Love Your Postcode up on Companies House there has only been one director, Catalina Lopez Hoyos, since the company was incorporated in August 2012.
  • bap98189
    bap98189 Posts: 3,801 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary
    Smodlet wrote: »
    ... So why has no-one reported them to Trading Standards long before now?

    Presumably what they are doing is legal.
  • Smodlet
    Smodlet Posts: 6,976 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    edited 5 July 2018 at 2:19PM
    Pixie5740 wrote: »
    Love Your Postcode has reviews on Trust Pilot.

    https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.loveyourpostcode.com

    The majority of them are from people named Singh. My particular favourite is..



    Interestingly (well not that interesting really), if you look Love Your Postcode up on Companies House there has only been one director, Catalina Lopez Hoyos, since the company was incorporated in August 2012.


    Wot? No Singh? This lot are beginning to sound iffier and iffier, notwithstanding the fact that anyone can and frequently does post reviews for their own business on Trustpilot/similar sites. They are not worth the paper they are written on. It is actually tragic that anyone not named Singh is so desperate they would touch these charlatans with a barge pole.

    Theresa May + cronies would do much better to go after the likes of these and forget about inflicting 3 year tenancies on LLs and, more to the point, the poor unfortunates who have to live next door to their tenants.
  • Pixie5740
    Pixie5740 Posts: 14,515 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post Photogenic First Anniversary
    bap98189 wrote: »
    Presumably what they are doing is legal.

    I don't know about that. An AST by any other name is still an AST just like a deposit is a deposit no matter what Love Your Postcode want to call it. The problem is that it would take a tenant who has been shafted by Love Your Postcode to challenge them in court for not protecting their deposit or an illegal eviction and not all tenants understand their rights or have the wherewithal to fight them. Hopefully the vast majority of tenants are like the OP who realise it's a massive rip off before handing over any money.
  • madvicker
    madvicker Posts: 157 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Anniversary
    Interestingly, the vast majority of 5* reviews on trustpilot for them are by 'people' who have written just a single review. Bots perhaps? Or family and friends?
  • bap98189
    bap98189 Posts: 3,801 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary
    Pixie5740 wrote: »
    Love Your Postcode has reviews on Trust Pilot.

    The reviews are so obviously fake it's comical. I'm sure there are companies who write more believable fake reviews, but they clearly didn't engage them.
    • Buying our first home made easy. We avoided the waiting list and got the first appointment. It helped that we were loyal and big fans of Bobby Singh
    • This Singh is smashing it. This lion of ours makes all of us UK wide proud. What an acheivement for the Khalsa. Marketing done on another level. Wow marketing brother. Full support.
    • It’s always been about love and happiness with this agent.
    Pixie5740 wrote: »
    Interestingly (well not that interesting really), if you look Love Your Postcode up on Companies House there has only been one director, Catalina Lopez Hoyos, since the company was incorporated in August 2012.
    Pixie5740 wrote: »
    Interestingly (well not that interesting really), if you look Love Your Postcode up on Companies House there has only been one director, Catalina Lopez Hoyos, since the company was incorporated in August 2012.

    There is also the imaginatively titled a Love Your Postcode 2 Limited which was incorporated in 2016. Same address, same woman named as the sole director.
  • Smodlet
    Smodlet Posts: 6,976 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    This is beginning to sound really dodgy, as if it could be a front for something... What do you guys think? Should we send the link to Trading Standards? Or is paranoia descending on planet Smodlet?
This discussion has been closed.
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