I got ripped by a letting agent; Now What?

If you got ripped by a letting agent, there isn't much you can do about it. Unfortunately, the law in England do not protect a tenant from getting ripped by a letting agent. The law says, "A letting agency can charge you an unlimited fee once you have signed a contract to accept a tenancy. You must have agreed to take the tenancy before the agency can charge you."

Anyway, I have a few points that may be worth reading. One of these could work in your case at least to some extent.

1. Citizen's Advice Bureaux - You could discuss your issue with the Citizen's Advice. I've been there but unfortunately they can't do much to help us in this case because the law is in favour of the letting agent.
• They could try to negotiate with the letting agent as the "trade" was unfair. But I personally find the negotiations in this case a waste of the precious time of Citizen's Advice Bureaux. You can try.
• The Bureaux can forward the case to a "national council" where similar issues are archived. I am not too sure what this council is about but when the same issue appears in the archive multiple times, someone from the council takes it up as a "social issue" and tries to address it. It could eventually get churned into a law.
2. Complaints - Some of the details about how you can complain against a letting agent in England is given at Shelter. 
• It could be worth giving a try to make a complaint directly to the letting agent via their website or to their complaint's section directly. Although your complaint would most probably find the path directly into their waste bin easily.
• Complaints to the professional association(s) at which the letting agent is a member of can help. The details of the associations where the letting agent is a member of can be found on their website or on their shop-window. But those dodgy letting agents aren't a member of any such professional associations.
• The Property Ombudsman: Don't waste your time here. The "Code of Practice" at the tpos.co.uk do not protect a tenant from getting ripped off. All it talks about is that the letting agent has to be nice with the "Client" who is the landlord. Tenants aren't really considered in their "Code of Practice".
• Advertisements Standards Agency - This is something worth trying. If you found the property through an advertisement e.g. Rightmove or Zoopla, the advertisement should provide the rates or at least a way to derive the rates. If not, you can make a formal complaint to ASA that you were ripped off with hidden charges. You can find the details on this link - http://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/Media-Centre/2013/ASA-clamps-down-on-hidden-letting-agent-fees.aspx
3. Reviews/Blogs - You could (you should please) write reviews/blogs about your experience with your letting agent. Even if your review is good or bad please spend a few minutes to write it. This could help many potential tenants from losing their savings. Your review could save someone's hard earned money. It could make a lot of difference to people who struggle to make their ends meet. There are people who work day and night, doing tough jobs to earn money and try to bring happiness into their families. And there are these money mongers who make easy money by cheating them.

That's all I know at the moment. Unfortunately, tenants are second class citizens and the law isn't quite helpful where the letting agents rip them off. There seems to be discussions around how to tackle this social menace in Shelter.co.uk, Citizen's Advice Bureaux and other similar bodies who are trying to put pressure to amend to law. Let's hope it does get done soon.

Mann Countrywide Review: They robbed me!!!

You must have read about articles like "…victim was lured into a secluded area and raped (or robbed) at knife point." Well, this letting agent did pretty much the same thing to me. I was shown a a nice looking flat and took a holding deposit from me to take the property off the market and later ripped me off with enormous sum of hidden charges.

Here is my Mann Countrywide story...
My wife and I were shown a nice flat by a lady from Mann Countrywide. We quite liked the property. I was a little cautious about their rates. So, when asked, the agent explained that their charges were -

£75 for reference check per adult - £150

Inventory: £120

Administration Fee: £100

Total = £370

This was a little higher than what I had paid before. But since the property quite nice, we decided to go ahead. So we were asked to pay a holding deposit of £300 to take the property off the market and also to do our reference checks. We paid for which we were given a dodgy printout confirming that the payment has gone through but with no details of why the amount has been taken for and what the outstanding amounts were. This looked a little unprofessional to me but there was no reason to mistrust Mann Countrywide at this stage.

>> Mann Countrywide: Surprise 1.
After the reference checks were done we received an invoice via email amounting to £624/-. This was the breakup as per the invoice -

Tenancy Agreement (£150 + VAT) = £180
Reference Fee (£150 + VAT) = £180
Administration Fee (£100 + VAT) = £120
Inventory Fee (£120 +VAT) = £144
Total = £624

Whooaa!!!

We were surprised to find the additional charges for doing the tenancy agreement and the VAT that added up to £624.

>> Mann Countrywide: Surprise 2.
Attached was also a quote for property contents insurance of £126. It was stated in the email that it was mandatory for us to insure the property if we had to live there.

Discussions and arguments with the agents didn't help at all.

This made our total cost to rent the property to £750.

Who would want to pay £750 to rent a property? So we decided to forget about the £300 holding deposit we had paid and tried to find another property as soon as possible. We had to check-out from where we were living in a week's time. But unfortunately it was quite late to find another property, nothing worked out and we had no choice but to go with Mann Countrywide.

>> Mann Countrywide: Surprise 3.
We were given a draft tenancy agreement which had this clauses - "Insure landlord's possessions, fixtures and fittings against accidental damage." The insurance had to be taken for the landlord's benefit.

>> Mann Countrywide: Surprise 4.
Since we didn't have any choice we paid the outstanding amount and signed the tenancy agreement. To my surprise Mann Countrywide refused to hand us an original signed tenancy agreement. We were given photocopies. When questioned, the letting manger said - they had to keep it on their file and that photocopies are what they would give us. So the amount of £180 they charged was for those damn photocopies.

>> Mann Countrywide: Surprise 5.
Additionally, when we had viewed the property initially, the letting agent had told us that the landlord had agreed to re-cover the sofas before the move-in date. The sofas and old rug made the living room look like a refugee camp. When I checked with the landlord, he didn't have any clue about having agreed something like that. The letting agent had lied. Anyway, the landlord being a nice person agreed to get us new sofas.

So the moral of the story is before you rent a property from Mann Countrywide be prepared to

• Pay enormously high hidden charges.
• Buy mandatory contents insurance to cover landlord's fittings and fixtures.
• Not have the original tenancy agreement.
• Expect surprises against what you were promised when you actually move-in into the property.

How to rent a residential property

Do you trust your letting agent? Well, you may get ripped off.

"Trust them but just don't trust the devil inside them."

You have just viewed a beautiful property that you think is your dream home and you're desperate to rent it. Beware!!! The letting agent could surprise you with an invoice that you didn't even expect in your wildest dreams and may burn big holes in your wallet. It's always good to keep a few things in mind before you commit to rent a property. 

So how to rent a property? After all it's your dream home; so what's next?

Step1:

Put forward your offer and you may casually ask what the letting agents' fees are but do not take notes or insist on knowing all their hidden fees. If you do, the letting agent would understand that you are a tough customer and that he wouldn't be able to rob you with their 'hidden charges'. The agent would simply not come back to you at all or he would rather say that there was another tenant who agreed to pay more rent or that the landlord didn't accept your offer. 

Wait until the letting agent talks to the landlord and gets back to you. You should see other properties meanwhile. There is nothing wrong in walking away even after your offer was accepted. You can always say that you have found another property.

Step2:

Once the letting agent says that the landlord is happy with your offer he would most probably ask you to pay a "holding deposit" or similar to take the property off the market and to do your reference checks. Now this is the most trickiest part of the whole process of renting a property. Before you make the payment, ask them for their charges. Make sure you get the breakdown of everything on their letter head and (or) on an email. You have to insist. A typical high-street letting agent charges you for the following -  

• Administration fee
• Reference check
• Tenancy agreement
• Inventory check

Some may also charge for

• Renewal fees of the contract at the end of your tenure
• Check-in fees
• Check-out fees
• Check-out administration fees
• Inventory check charges when you checkout and an administration fees for administering the inventory check.
• And other costs that you never knew could really be a part of an invoice. (eg: Holding fee of landlord's contact details)

So don't be shy to ask the questions directly. Just say, "I am sorry, but I have had bad experiences with other letting agents; so I am just being cautious."

• Make sure all the charges that are given to you are inclusive of VAT. 
• Make sure you get a proper receipt with details about what you have paid for and the amount outstanding and not just any dodgy printout.

If the letting agent refuses to give you the above information in writing before you pay the holding deposit, just walk away. You would have just saved yourself a few hundred pounds.

Step3:

Contents Insurance: - Check if you have to take any mandatory contents insurance. Some letting agents insist that you have to take contents insurance to protect your contents. Landlord should be having property insurance for the building and the stuff he owns. But some agents (eg: Mann Countrywide) make tenancy agreements that say that you have to take contents insurance for the landlord's "fittings and fixtures". The letting agent may also give you a quote which would usually be more than double what a normal content insurance costs in the market. They cannot legally insist that you have to buy their insurance. But if you have to, you can always buy the cheapest contents insurance available through gocompare.com.

Step 4:

If the letting agent agrees to give you all the information in writing, you may also want to check the following -

• Will the rental agreement be 'rolled-over' after the tenure? Will you have to pay for any renewal costs. 
• Will you get possession of one of the original tenancy agreements? Usually, there would be three copies of the tenancy agreement that you have to sign (ideally, on all pages). One copy would be given to you, one would be given to the landlord and one would be kept by the letting agent. You have to make sure you would get one of the originals as photocopies are only photocopies.
• What is the notice period? A notice period of one month is reasonable. But some of them asks for 2 months or even more. If it's more than a month you may find it difficult to find and move to another property if required later. Most letting agents/landlords do not consider tenants who cannot start a new tenancy within a few weeks.
• What is the initial deposit and who will be holding your deposit? Legally the money should be held in a "tenants deposit scheme".
• When can we move in? Will it all be clean and ready to occupy on this date?
• Find out what furnitures will be left behind. Some furnitures may be that of the tenant who is moving out.
• Don't forget to check the garage if there is one. Most landlords use the tenant's garage as a storage place for dumping all their useless stuff. Tell them that you want that to be cleaned before the move-in date. If not it will never be done.
• When you check-out, do you have to pay for the professional cleaning which include the cleaning of the beds, curtains etc? 
• When you check-out, do you have to pay for inventory check again? Are there any associated administration fees?
• Can you bring in any additional furniture? Some letting agents have tenancy agreement written in such a way that you cannot bring in any additional furniture without their or the landlords prior written consent.
• When can you sign the tenancy agreement? You may insist you see a draft copy of the tenancy agreement as early as possible (ideally, before you pay the holding deposit) so that you have plenty of time to find another property if you do not agree to something that's there on the tenancy agreement.
• Check if would have to pay for the whole month or 'prorated' rent for the first month and the month you leave the property? This happens quite rarely but considering the agent's hunger for money, it's worth checking if you would have to pay the rent only from the date you're checking-in and not for the whole calendar month. 

Make sure you get a proper receipt for all the money you pay.

Additional Information/Tips: - 

• Ideally, it's better to keep away from a letting agent who would want to do an inventory check. It's just their trick to make more money. No matter how good you keep your house there would be wear and tear from usage. When you check-out they would again charge you for the wear and tear you have caused due to usage. And would hold your deposit and probably also charge additional administration charges to "take care" of the property when you check-out. The only way you can give the house back as is it was before, is not to live there.
• You could also rent a property directly from the landlord. The only caveat is that you have to make sure the landlord owns or is authorised to the rent the property you are renting and he doesn't trick you into renting someone else's property. Legally there isn't much difference if you rent a property directly from a landlord.
• Look for a letting agent who operates locally to the town where you're searching the properties rather than going for bigger branded letting agents. The big letting agents have targets to meet, profits to make and isn't bothered if the tenants or the landlords are happy.

In many ways, a happy output for all the points mentioned above may not practically be possible. You may skip some with your best judgement of the situation. And finally the things that contributes to a peaceful start of tenancy without any frustrations is obviously luck.