Help with dodgy letting agents

[idcormack21]

Calling all estate agents/lawyers/TSOs

I have recently applied for a property and paid a holding fee of £150 and the first months rent when handing in my application.

I found out on Tuesday that a piece of information key to my decision to go ahead with the tenancy was incorrect. I have been liaising with them ever since but they havent come back with any offer of compromise at all. At each point in correspondance I have given them options and deadlines all of which they have failed to meet.

My question is, am I entitled to my monies back in light of the fact that they have misled me on a key decision point?

Any help gratefully received - have already received some advice from a letting agent and a TSO but wanted to see what others thought

Thanks in advance

[Esio Trot]

Originally Posted by idcormack21

I have recently applied for a property and paid a holding fee of £150 and the first months rent when handing in my application.

I found out on Tuesday ...

There is a lot of difference in, say, applying the previous Friday and finding out on Tuesday (four days), and applying some time longer when the property might have been "held" for you for some weeks.

Where landlords/agents take any monies to hold a property, the OFT regard anything more than actual administration costs as an "unfair term". So, on the face of it, you have a strong case if it went to court. However, much of what the OFT regards as "unfair terms" in tenancy agreements is pie in the sky: almost none of it has ever been tested in case law. (They've done a substantive document that you can download/order). I know of a tenant who took a landlord to court and showed the judge pages of this publication, to which the judge said "Poppycock. It's not the real world".

You need to give more clarity regarding dates and circumstances before anyone can venture an opinion as to your chances of gaining reimbursement.

[idcormack21]

I viewed on 4th June, paid holding deposit 5th June and handed in rent and forms on 7th June

they didnt respond about my application until 2.5 weeks later when i complained and demanded to know what was going on.

The guy sorted the app out and then I found out that the piece of information give on 4th June when I decided I wanted the place was wrong.

[idcormack21]

Sorry, not sure I explained it well... the information that I found to be incorrect was information told to me at the time of my viewing, in response to a question I asked.

This information formed the basis of my decision to go ahead with the letting

[MrShed]

I think you need to specify what the information was - otherwise we cannot make a judgement as to whether the property was misrepresented.

[idcormack21]

I asked, as i always do, if the property has a BT line connected so that I can have my broadband.

I was told yes, it would just be a case of switching it over.

When I phoned BT I was told there had never been a line installed in this property and I would need to pay for it to be connected

The reason this is a key decision point for me is having moved a few times recently ive been subject to this charge more than once, and now refuse to pay it and choose properties accordingly. If I knew this place didnt have a line, I wouldnt have applied for it in the first place - this is Birmingham, there are plenty more places that would have

[SirHumpy]

Thr charge BT issue is really out of order - I had to pay £125 when I moved in just to turn the exsisting line on (it had been instaled and connected but never switched on).

See if the landlord/agent would be willing to meet some/all of the charge, afterall it will be a selling point for the property in the future.

[raydetinu]

Seems fair to me, but is all this verbal have you got anything in writing from agent or letting data sbout the landline connection, otherwise this could be a problem for you if you did not record this caveat to your taking the let.

[Esio Trot]

Originally Posted by idcormack21

I viewed on 4th June ...

they didn't respond about my application until 2.5 weeks later ...

The guy sorted the app out and then I found out that the piece of information give on 4th June when I decided I wanted the place was wrong.

If I read it correctly, it looks to me as if you didn't do anything about your application and this "important" information for 2.5 weeks.

If it was only a few days you would have a much stronger case.