Claim against letting agent
Discussion
I'll start by acknowledging this is probably a waste of everyone's time, but I hope at least it wastes the agents time for dicking me around.
I was due to move into a flat on the 17th September but there were complications that meant I could not move, the issue was that I was not notified with any certainty until the 16th @ 13:00hrs.
As a result I still had a van booked and paid for, I had to move my stuff to another location and I had to live out of a suitcase for the period until the issue was resolved.
It took until the 23rd September for me to be able to move into the property I had paid for.
As a result I invoiced the letting agent for the cost of the van hire and a pro-rata day of my time with notice to pay within 14 days.
Fastforward to today and they are now 1 day overdue on the invoice and have failed to pay. As far as i'm concered the next step is small claims, but I have a bit of reservation as they have stung me before.
I'd like to know if i'm in the right here of if I should seek to reclaim my losses directly/ via alternative means ?
I should add that although all payments were made ahead of schedule, no tenancy agreement was signed until the day I actually moved in. I figured these guy's know exactly what they are up to?
I was due to move into a flat on the 17th September but there were complications that meant I could not move, the issue was that I was not notified with any certainty until the 16th @ 13:00hrs.
As a result I still had a van booked and paid for, I had to move my stuff to another location and I had to live out of a suitcase for the period until the issue was resolved.
It took until the 23rd September for me to be able to move into the property I had paid for.
As a result I invoiced the letting agent for the cost of the van hire and a pro-rata day of my time with notice to pay within 14 days.
Fastforward to today and they are now 1 day overdue on the invoice and have failed to pay. As far as i'm concered the next step is small claims, but I have a bit of reservation as they have stung me before.
I'd like to know if i'm in the right here of if I should seek to reclaim my losses directly/ via alternative means ?
I should add that although all payments were made ahead of schedule, no tenancy agreement was signed until the day I actually moved in. I figured these guy's know exactly what they are up to?
Edited by citizenmtb on Thursday 8th October 23:55
TooMany2cvs said:
"Complications"? That seems to be a fairly relevant bit of the whole tale...
Apologies, I guess it is.The previous tenant was due to move out a week before I moved in, they didn't. They actually moved out on the 18th sept if I remember rightly.
EDIT: also had to adjust the dates in the first post as I was a month out.
Edited by citizenmtb on Thursday 8th October 23:58
JustinP1 said:
I would not recommend suing the agent, or anyone, due to this.
You could have quite lawfully walked away at any time up until that point - because you have no contract in place. So, you can't sue for breach of contract, because you don't have one.
Yes, it's s
tty what happened. But, if you want to take legal action against someone you need to prove that in law that person/organisation owes you money.
Might there be another angle? There is a sliver of hope that there be some kind of angle that might give you hope depending on the communications between the parties, but, that is unlikely.
My gut feeling is that you'll have to notch this up to experience. Usually the LL likes a few days at least to check, clean, and if necessary repair the property between tenancies, and this covers this situation so it does not usually arise.
Thanks Justin.You could have quite lawfully walked away at any time up until that point - because you have no contract in place. So, you can't sue for breach of contract, because you don't have one.
Yes, it's s
tty what happened. But, if you want to take legal action against someone you need to prove that in law that person/organisation owes you money. Might there be another angle? There is a sliver of hope that there be some kind of angle that might give you hope depending on the communications between the parties, but, that is unlikely.
My gut feeling is that you'll have to notch this up to experience. Usually the LL likes a few days at least to check, clean, and if necessary repair the property between tenancies, and this covers this situation so it does not usually arise.
Unfortunately they refused to sign the agreement before the day of moving. I think they clearly knew the game they were playing.
ATG said:
Had you paid anything to the letting agent or the landlord prior to signing the tenancy agreement?
Yes, everything. totally nearly £2k. Fee's, deposit & rent.On acceptance of the property the agent took £200 for processing and I signed paperwork that rent + deposit funds would be cleared into their accounts prior to moving in.
Sounds like it's mostly a waste of my time to pursue. It also sounds like a situation that it is not possible to protect yourself from?
Sounds like it's mostly a waste of my time to pursue. It also sounds like a situation that it is not possible to protect yourself from?
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