Rental Agents leave us high and dry! A little long!!Comments and suggestions please

[chesternutz]

Good morning all!

What a hell of a day!!!

We went to see a property two weeks ago, and that day the manager of the agency agreed to call us back that day with response to our queries.

We called her back and left messages and no reply. On the monday we called and arranged for another viewing. We went to see and asked them to bring paperwork to get the ball rolling. We met one of their members of staff on the Weds and gave card details for a "holding deposit" also known as a "good faith payment" that ensures you will proceed with the tenancy.

We took our forms away and completed application form for tenancy and the guarantor application and then we returned them to the office with all proof required to "speed up" the appication and not delay it as it stated on the form.

We then had to start packing, moving and arranging with our current landlord and removal vans etc. Buying and selling furniture. friends taking time off work unpaid to help you.

We chased everyday, got the references for them, arranged everything, called and checked it was all being done, to hear well no as not done or we will do tomo! if you can imagine you have 9 days to do this it is quite stressful while working full time!

We then call them this am, as they hadnt called us, to be told "you cant have keys today as we need guarantor to come into the office sign a form, and you wiat 24 hours! The guarantor is a driver as stated on form, he could not stop working and drive all the way back to the office to do this, he wouldnt be back until almost 7pm and that meant tomorrow when we were due to move with removals etc as landlord has someone to move in here!! Then it would be monday at the earliest, thus being homeleess with all furniture etc and nowhere to go!

Waited 2 hours for call back from head office, regional director didnt even know what was happening!!


It did state on the Guarantors application that the guarantor must be available 24 hours prior to chck in, however it was never mentioned by any of the 3 members of staff concerned to arrange this in order to get the keys as promised, for over two weeks.

When we raised the concerns with the branch manager we were told that criticism of her staff would not be accepted, however we were mereley raising our concerns that we felt
1) let down by staff whom she advised were "new" and "unsupervised" by her due to an office audit.
2)I also raised the concern that this was not based on any individual but merely the lack of communicaiton, customer service and commitment to the transaction.
3) I also raised that we were told "you wont let me down" by the branch manager at an earlier meeting and expressed that we were "completely honest and showed integrity throughout the whole process, put in every effort for providing all documentation and more to ensure the process went smoothly. however on several occasions we were given misleading information, blatant dishonesty by staff, totally different stories to each of us and our current landlord, and thus we were the ones who had been "let down" by them, her reply "well that isnt the case, is it?" and no form of apology or offer to help rectify the problem ASAP

CANT BELIEVE IN THIS DAY AND AGE THAT IT IS SO DIFFICULT TO FIND PEOPLE WHO PUT IN THAT EXTRA EFFORT AND CAN SUFFICIENTLY DO A JOB AS GOOD OR IF NOT BETTER THAN YOURSELF. IT SEEMS THIS COUNTRY HAS BECOME LAZY IN ALL ATTITUDES TOWARDS WORK ETHIC AND CUSTOMER SERVICE AND YOU CAN NEVER BE TRUSTED TO BE TAKEN ON YOUR WORD.


Who do I contact ARLA? Ombudsman? WATCHDOG?
As we want our holding deposit back as we did all the chasing for our references and even had to hand deliver some of them!!!

please reply ASAP so I can get the ball rolling!!

Good news after almost having a nervous breakdown we managed to get another house to move into to rent and £1600 later on we realised that some agencies are fantastic and some are ****!!

[MrShed]

Realistically, they havent done anything illegal, nor are they in breach of contract. Are they a member of ARLA I guess? Have you signed a tenancy agreement yet? If so, does the tenancy agreement have a start date? Was the guarantor form signed by the guarantor(obviously not at the office)?

[chesternutz]

thanks mr shed the application form was signed and returned to the office and at no time were we told of the 24 hour colling off period and that he would have to come in 24 hous before we got the keys to sign.

we sent an email with all complaints to the regional director of the agency and ARLA and we are now being offered a refund of the goodwill payment, I am £800 down due to their incompetence, from lost working hours, cancellation of the removal van that day, having to pay more to another agency as they were unable to offer a suitable alternative, until oh 3 hours before we were due to have to leave our flat.

if i were to file for more would it go through small claims or shall i accept the refund and then claim the rest back through small c;laims??

[m3shl]

Originally Posted by chesternutz

if i were to file for more would it go through small claims or shall i accept the refund and then claim the rest back through small c;laims??

I dont fully understand what you believe you can claim? You are being offered your holding deposit back. You also said "It did state on the Guarantors application that the guarantor must be available 24 hours prior to chck in" Please then think about WHY you didnt read this

In your opinion not being told has caused a great deal of inconvenience, however it could also be sais that by failing to read the application forms you have brought it upon yourself