Letting Agent will not refund application fee less than 24 hours later

[benq]

I looked round a house and applied for it, giving £105 over to the Letting Agent.

About 23 hours later I decided that I didnt want to move into the house.

I rang up the LA and they refused to refund my money. They say it clearly states in the Terms and Conditions they gave me that the monies are non refundable.

The Terms and Conditions they gave me had to be signed and handed back at a later date. As I decided so quickly I didnt want the house I never signed the documents, and thus never handed them to the LA.

 

I have not signed anything agreeing that the £105 is non refundable, so should they be forced to give me my money back.

I told the LA that they could give me a part refund, as I'm sure they mustve made some phone calls and had an employee take the house off their website. But they still insisted, 'No'.

That £105 included the refencing fees. I have never been referenced so they must be able to give me at least something back. But ideally I'd like they whole lot back.

 

Does anyone have any pointers or ideas?

[Steve__M]

Do you have a copy of their terms and conditions - what do they say?

 

How did you find the property you viewed? There are certain rules about how they have to advertise their fees.

 

Write them a letter laying out the facts and requesting a refund.

 

Raise a complaint with their professional body or redress scheme if they have one.

 

If they do not have an ombudsman then complain to trading standards.

[agencynightmare]

Are they a member of a regulatory body?

 

Where are they located? Heard of similar agent doing this sort of thing in Paddock Wood, but for larger sums of money, half the deposit generally, without landlords knowing about it.

 

Let us know if you resolved this.

[ericsbrother]

Letting agents work for the landlord though many like to double dip, like in your case. I would be sending them a very stiff letter saying that you had not entered into any contract with them and therefore you expect to have your money refunded within 7 days otherwise you will use civil action to recover it. If you do this then you had better mean it.