letting agent

[jcmaxed]

Hi, first sorry if its in the wrong place.

 

Myself and my partner put an application in for a property to rent. The cost in putting this in was £125.

 

Everything went through, they was just waiting for a works reference to come back. We had no contact from them, but noticed the house was taken off the website, so we thought great, its all gone through. My partner called to be told we have not got it as works reference had not come back and they accepted another apllication which was put in a day after we put ours in.

 

At no point were we told they would accept further applications, and at no point does it mention it on their website either. Every other letting agent we have rang has said there is a application on it if there was one and would not even accept viewings. This particular one has told us after we did not get the house that they would have accepted three! This would be a guarenteed extra £250 off peole that would not even get the house, nice little earner!

 

I don't think we do but do we have a chance of getting any of our money back, we would not have even gone for it with those fees if there was a chance we would not get it through no fault of our own. Any help at all would be so grateful. Money is so tight at the moment, new house and baby on way, just feel so let down.

[perplexity]

Do you mean to say that there was a charge or deposit of some sort to pay, a charge of £125?

 

If so it's a matter of what the charge was for, considered as a contract. What exactly were you promised in return for the money?

 

If you got what was promised there is no complaint to make. Otherwise, it's a breach of contract.

 

8)

[jcmaxed]

Hi, thanks for the reply

 

It was a charge. It was £50 per application (2 of us) and £25 guarentor fee.

 

The problem I have (maybe morel) is that it was a fee to put an application in and at no point was I told they would accept further applications while ours was being processed.

[perplexity]

The agency's acceptance of another application seems to me to be beside the point:

 

Why would the agency require the "works reference" except to reserve the right to refuse an application? Surely, it should have occurred to anybody obliged to anybody obliged to provide a reference, that the reference may not be good enough.

 

 

 

 

On the understanding that the application was a contract concluded at a distance, does the agency allow a cooling off period, before the expiry of which an applicant may cancel?

 

If they fail to do so, the possibility arises of prosecuting that as a criminal offence.

 

8)