Being screwed around by estate agent - advice?

nero120

nero120

nero120

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Hey guys,

looking for a little advice here. Basically, I and three friends have put down a holding fee on a flat with Ludlow Thompson in London. The agreement that we signed when we handed over the holding fee was that the flat would be ready to move into on 22/09 which has come and gone and we were unable to move in because the estate agents said the landlord had not given them the keys yet. Note, that we have not signed a full tenancy agreement yet, only the holding agreement.

We are now in the position that we will be moving out of our current place this coming weekend and if they do not have the keys then we will need to find temporary accommodation plus storage for all our stuff. The estate agents are being very cagey and difficult to deal with (no surprise there), plus there admin fees is a ridiculous £500 (but thats another issue). We have no guarantee that we will get the keys before the weekend, so I'm wondering if we have any legal grounds to claim compensation for all costs incurred since we have not moved into the property on the agreed date.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Are they in contact with the landlord, if not, why not?

It's his fault, not the estate agents, if you are giving them 500 bucks they are on your side :p (or at least will be until they get the money from you).
 
helmet said:
Are they in contact with the landlord, if not, why not?

It's his fault, not the estate agents, if you are giving them 500 bucks they are on your side :p (or at least will be until they get the money from you).
Click to expand...

They are, but they are saying that he is some big hot shot property developer and is difficult to get hold of. However, we are not dealing with the landlord, we are dealing with the estate agent and the agreement that we signed was with them.

to be honest, the holding agreement doesn't have hardly any small print on there, basic stuff though I can't remember it off the top of my head. Will pop in to the CAB, good call.

Thanks guys.
 
helmet said:
Are they in contact with the landlord, if not, why not?

It's his fault, not the estate agents, if you are giving them 500 bucks they are on your side :p (or at least will be until they get the money from you).
Click to expand...

No, it is the fault of the estate agent - it's their respsonsibility to get the keys from the landlord.

If there were no keys, how did you view the place?

Bad luck on Ludlow Thomspon though, I have dealt with possibly hundreds of agents through my work over the years and they are the worst agent I have had to deal with. Also, £500 admin fee is disgusting. The standard is about £100-£200, and even that is expensive.

Why haven't you signed the tenancy agreement yet? The start date was the 22nd September!
 
I would be looking for another flat and demanding my £500 back.

If the agent/landlord can't even sort out something as basic and fundamental as giving you a key, what are they going to be like when your heating packs up in the middle of winter?
 
This happened to my boyfriend's brother's girlfriend (;)) not sure who the agent was, but they managed to put them up somewhere else (they paid the rent) until it was all sorted at the new place.

IMO it is the agents fault for not having anything organised and I would suggest that they pay the cost of housing you until you can move into your property.

BB x
 
nero120 said:
They are, but they are saying that he is some big hot shot property developer and is difficult to get hold of. However, we are not dealing with the landlord, we are dealing with the estate agent and the agreement that we signed was with them.

to be honest, the holding agreement doesn't have hardly any small print on there, basic stuff though I can't remember it off the top of my head. Will pop in to the CAB, good call.

Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

Exactly right - They MUST be held accountable. Put it this way, if I was in your shoes and was unable to move it when agreed it's off to see the solicitor.
 
Here is a scanned copy of the agreement:

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/6112/dansdocumentgb12ve4.jpg

Lysander said:
If there were no keys, how did you view the place?
Click to expand...

We didn't!!! It is a block of 4 identical properties that are being let by the same landlord as he bought them all up. We saw one, it was a great price, great location and a proper amazing property. 4 bed flats are dissappearing like virgins on prom night this time of year so we had to act fast (there were 3 other parties waiting outside to view it when we were finished).

Lysander said:
Why haven't you signed the tenancy agreement yet? The start date was the 22nd September!
Click to expand...

Because they do not have the keys and we can't get in. Once they have the keys we will sign the tenancy agreement and hand over the full deposit (less the holding fee).

The £500 admin charge makes me so angry, but the sad fact is they can get away with charging that much because frankly people will pay it. They have us by the balls, and we can tell them to shove it, but there isn't much alternative if we want to live in such a property in this location for that rent. Estate Agents are proper scum, worse than lawyers!
 
nero120 said:
Here is a scanned copy of the agreement:

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/6112/dansdocumentgb12ve4.jpg
Click to expand...

That's not a tenancy agreement, it looks like a receipt for a holding deposit.
The fact that you haven't seen a tenancy agreement yet is worrying.


nero120 said:
Because they do not have the keys and we can't get in. Once they have the keys we will sign the tenancy agreement and hand over the full deposit (less the holding fee).
Click to expand...

In which case you should do the following:

- Demand they change the start date of the lease. It's their fault that you have no keys and you shouldn't have to pay from the 22nd September. Also demand to know the date that they will have the keys by or say you'll pull out and claim the £500 by whatever means necessary.

However - if that's not an options because you don't have time to look for a new place and you can't afford another £500, put more pressure on them to get the keys. Go round there. Call every hour. Get the CBA involved. Get as many contact details of the Landlord as possible.

nero120 said:
Estate Agents are proper scum, worse than lawyers!
Click to expand...

Not so - estate agents at the lower end of the market can be terrible, but the further up you go, you'll find some really quality estate agents - Knight Frank, Douglas & Gordon, John D Wood to name a few. However, agents like Black Katz and Ludlow Thompson are sharks.
 
Thanks for the advice Lysander, much appreciated. We are putting lots of pressure on them right now. Hopefully we have scared them into action a little more, but it never hurts to plan for the worst! :)
 
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