Hi there I am writing in repsonse to the issue regarding agencies holding deposit as I have a very similar issue. I viewed a house through an estate agents called Northwood who are a national company regulated by the property odmundbund and and NALS whoever they are. I saw the property and had some reservations but I was told by the estate agent showing me round that I should be grateful as I am a lone parent that will need to claim a small amount of housing allowances and that not many estate agents will help people who have to claim benefits. With this is mind I took the application form which stated the requirements of lots of ID, a garantor who must provide lots of ID, own a home and earn in excess of £30 K PA and if I wish to proceed, I must pay a £200 "holding deposit" This put me off as the property is unfurnished and I am short on money anyway but given his "I should be grateful" comment and after a second viewing, I managed to scrape together the £200 to hold the property. The agents requested that I provide the holding fee, bank statements, proof of address, wage slips and passport and my dad had to provide the same as the garantor with additional mortgage statement and no fee. There was no mention of financial credit checks but it did say on the application if I had any CCJ's, I am unsure as I have moved addresses but I put the one down that I thought I had. Anyway over a week has gone by and the estate agents still have the property on the market and I even got my friend to ring up about it and they offered her a viewing. They have not contacted me to update me and I have even chased up my references for them to assist. Today they have told me that the landlord isn't keen on me as I have 2 CCJ's and as I only declared one they will not pay me my fee back, of course I really did not know about the other and would have told them if they did or even if they questioned me on the application form. They made no mention that a CCJ would affect my application and that the landlords did not like them and why did they need a garantor anyway? I am really upset, I am 5 months pregnant and going to be homeless in 2 months and without my money back I will not be able to touch an estate agents again.. If I knew a CCJ was an issue then I would not have used the estate agents. They mislead me in thinking that the fee would hold the property when they didn't and that I would get the property as they had understanding landlords - how wrong I was?? Any advice please??

Hi there I am writing in repsonse to the issue regarding agencies holding deposit as I have a very similar issue. I viewed a house through an estate agents called Northwood who are a national company regulated by the property odmundbund and and NALS whoever they are. I saw the property and had some reservations but I was told by the estate agent showing me round that I should be grateful as I am a lone parent that will need to claim a small amount of housing allowances and that not many estate agents will help people who have to claim benefits. With this is mind I took the application form which stated the requirements of lots of ID, a garantor who must provide lots of ID, own a home and earn in excess of £30 K PA and if I wish to proceed, I must pay a £200 "holding deposit" This put me off as the property is unfurnished and I am short on money anyway but given his "I should be grateful" comment and after a second viewing, I managed to scrape together the £200 to hold the property. The agents requested that I provide the holding fee, bank statements, proof of address, wage slips and passport and my dad had to provide the same as the garantor with additional mortgage statement and no fee. There was no mention of financial credit checks but it did say on the application if I had any CCJ's, I am unsure as I have moved addresses but I put the one down that I thought I had. Anyway over a week has gone by and the estate agents still have the property on the market and I even got my friend to ring up about it and they offered her a viewing. They have not contacted me to update me and I have even chased up my references for them to assist. Today they have told me that the landlord isn't keen on me as I have 2 CCJ's and as I only declared one they will not pay me my fee back, of course I really did not know about the other and would have told them if they did or even if they questioned me on the application form. They made no mention that a CCJ would affect my application and that the landlords did not like them and why did they need a garantor anyway? I am really upset, I am 5 months pregnant and going to be homeless in 2 months and without my money back I will not be able to touch an estate agents again.. If I knew a CCJ was an issue then I would not have used the estate agents. They mislead me in thinking that the fee would hold the property when they didn't and that I would get the property as they had understanding landlords - how wrong I was?? Any advice please??