Hi, me and my girlfriend moved into a new house on July the 2nd. The rent on the initial advert stated £545 but was never discussed on the viewing.

We decided to go for the property and went in to sign the lease which then (3 weeks later) said £525 which we guessed was due to the agreed improvements not being completed.

We today received a letter stating the contract was a mistake and we owe extra as the rent is £545 and we made a mistake on the lease with £525.

Where do we stand with this? Is our contract at £525 and tough luck for the agent they will have to pay the shortfall to the landlord?

Any advice would be great as obviously over the year the extra is £240 which is a lot to us and we’ve budgeted for £525.

Thanks

Personally I think a good mutual way forward for all parties is you’d probably need to pay that amount going forward as it was a typo mistake but the agreed improvements need to be done as per original agreement.

This shows you are playing ball by paying the original agreed amount and they would also need to do the same. Thats a fair compromise.

i dont think they have a leg to stand on in my non qualified opinion! they made the mistake not you

they made the mistake not you

but was there an act of bad faith in assuming the £525 was correct when the advertised amount was £545?

Split the difference.

What Hora said, it’s acceptabel to make a genuine mistake in the contract and have it corrected at a later date. I’d get stropy if they back date it though.

I’d accept the increace but fein ignorance about having to do this legaly and say you’ll only pay it on the condition that XYZ improvements are made. As they’re saying it was meant to be £545 and your saing well thats what it was advertised at, but you alsoe said XYZ would be done before we moved in.

I’ll give them another ring tomorrow as at the moment we still have a gas cooker with no ignition, hot water that won’t turn on without 3 random radiators coming on and a kitchen unit that is dangerous (bowed shelves that won’t hold weight). Also they assured us the decorating would be done before we moved in and here we are a month later and still nothing.

No radiator keys or booklets for appliances either. All agreed to be done and present before we moved in.

Great point about the back dating and going forward I’d rather not be arguing with my landlord.

Assuming this is let through a Letting Agent.

The contract (tenancy agreement) stands. If they’ve (the Letting Agent) made a mistake then they are responsible to make up the shortfall to the Landlord. Any payment by you would be for their (the Letting Agent’s) benefit.

ETA: You won’t be arguing with the Landlord. The Letting Agent has been negligent in their actions representing the Landlord. They are the ones the Landlord will be upset with.

Hi yeah it’s through a letting agent in Sheffield.

Speak to the landlord direct if possible. IIRC the agents have to give you the landlords contact details

We are going to go in tomorrow with everything in writing.

We were told an inventory would be done when the agreed improvements had been done yet we got one through the post today?! How I don’t know as nobody has been round or spoken to us and the improvements have certainly not been sorted!

We won’t be signing it as its shockingly wrong!

I would, as you have, merely assume that the price had been reduced because of the faulty cooker and central heating and the dangerous cupboard. They sound like the typical letting agent to me, absolutely rubbish at helping you but quite keen on extracting as much cash as they can. You have a contract which states £525. Where’s the problem?

TandemJeremy – Member

Speak to the landlord direct if possible. IIRC the agents have to give you the landlords contact details

I wouldn’t, at this time. The LA is trying to cover up their mistake.

As for the non-completed maintenance items. Was it agreed in writing that these would be done prior to moving in? If not then it’s hard to ‘enforce’ that they are done – unless they are Environmental Health issues – for the same reasons that you don’t HAVE to pay the extra rent.

The inventory is another matter. You need this to be correct to protect both you and the Landlord.

It wasn’t agreed in writing no, error on my part, but they assured us on signing it would be done before we moved in.

They keep saying they will contact us regarding the issues we have raised but never do. As per usual they only ring when they want their money.

In regards to the faulty cooker they say this was mentioned and included in the inventory before we signed?!? Funny how we only got it through the post yesterday and no mention of the cooker.

I’d have a word with the landlord – not about the rent but about the shoddy job the LA is doing on his behalf. Left unsaid and these issues will escalate to you becoming a problem tenant in the eyes of the landlord – not because you are in any way but because the LA is not likely to tell him that they have messed up are they!?

I agree with cb – the agents are being incompetent and blaming you.

Decent tenets are worth a bit to the landlord so if you are reasonable with them they will be with you.

As per usual they only ring when they want their money.

They’ve got their money, as agreed in your contract. DO NOT give them any more or even try use that money to bargain with, because it won’t make them any more competent. And you’re doing the right thing in refusing to accept the inventory until the property meets your standards/inventory is correct.

My only advice would be to document EVERYTHING with photos and pay very close attention to your contract terms. I fully expect that the agency would try and recover money from your deposit as a matter of principle, and they are good at doing this.

We have taken photos of everything (including the last remnants children’s writing on the bedroom wall we were promised would be gone) and written down dated and signed all problems etc.

It’s such a nice building but so shabby inside and they know it. They even said we could decorate the awful living room but why should we fund it?

We moved in with the promise all work would be complete within 2 weeks.

I wouldn’t even be considering the diff in rent as the main issue- its small beer. Its been over a month and I’m guessing its difficult to progress forward without souring relations but in your case they probably see you as a done sale.

I’ve never been in this situation but I’d consider speaking to the agent and advising them that you will be moving out and consider they’ve broken their promises/contract. If you are worried about your deposit it should legally be held by a third party. This should get them moving.

Do not sound threatening.

as an ex letting agent of over 300 properties I think this is an easy one. A contract is a contract and you have to pay what is on the contract. It cannot be revoked until they have right to serve notice on the 4th month (assuming 6 month agreement).

The repairs are totally separate issue and the landlord is bound to make the repairs even if you aren’t paying.

The agent should pick up the slack in their commission for blatantly being incompetent and not checking the most obvious element of any rental, the price.

THey will however probably put you on notice at first available opportunity so if you like the property/area etc then get negotiating now as you will probably spend the £240 when you have to move in six months time

This is why you need to speak to the landlord. a tenant that pays is worth a lot to the landlord and you won’t get turfed out if yo are reasonable. Offer to pay the extra after the decorating is done. don’t let incompetent agents get in the way.

Thanks everyone, yeah were happy here and what worries me most is that I’m not even sure the letting agent is talking to the landlord.

I think they are saying yes when I call just to keep us happy.

The letting agent I presume is a small Sheffield only firm and just don’t seem on the ball.

opportunity to shaft a rental agency then do this thenwrite to the landlord when they are evicting you to explain they are evicting you fot their mistake.
Explain to landlord you wish to saty, say they can inspect property personally if they wish or chat. If I was a landlord I think the fact the letting agents are shafting you for their error and costing me will make me have a word with them tbh.
If you want to say long term ignore all this and ask for a longer contract with the new price and ask them to do the repairs etc.
Get them to admit the error writing as well.

Ok I’m not drunk. It sounds like the letting agent over-sold the property to you ‘yeah yeah we’ll get all this done for you’ (when in reality the owner probably thinks its good enough at the price already due to the amount he also has to give to the letting agent).

I think I’d look for somewhere else to live with a different agent. I bet you paid some fee as well though so a loss 🙁

My last letting agent was absolutely magical. Real professionals- get things done asap with tradesmen etc (and they are based in a pokey part of Manchester). The one previous tried shafting us for our deposit but didn’t like me standing in their office every lunchtime.

…but didn’t like me standing in their office every lunchtime.

That would be bad for the digestion.

😆 it worked. They soon dropped the £60 bathroom cleaning charge for ‘mildew’ (we were only there 6months and it was around the base of the bath taps).

for the OP.
strictly speaking you can pay whatever is written in the lease, and the letting agent and landlord can do very little to make you pay anything more*. thats it, its very simple
BUT, and this is the bit you may want to consider;
if the landlord/letting agent is miffed with a tenant they can serve them notice. not they may be able to serve notice straight away and you have rights (lots of them) but you really should consider if the cost of moving, paying the costs of relocating, a new lease somewhere else is worth the grief of not paying the extra £20 per month.

I’m happy to discuss the whole thing in detail, you’ll have to mail me direct.

*without serving you a formal notice of a rent increase, which you can choose to pay or not. ime if you choose to not pay, you will receive a notice

when you have to move in six months time

They won’t have to move in six months time. Even if the Landlord correctly serves a s21 notice at the end of the contracted period this is not notice to quit. The Landlord will still have to obtain a Posession Order from the Courts and get this properly actioned by a baliff. Only then will the OP have to move out.

Unless of course the LL decides to ilegally evict them.

I’ll repeat myself. The Letting Agent has been negligent in not proofing the contract properly. They will be responsible to the Landlord.

Maintenance/repairs is a seperate issue.

Besides, from the sound of it you maynot want to be staying there after the tenancy period anyway.

mk1fan you are right, but you have not mentioned that the tenant will incur costs of a court hearing. possibly as much as £150 for a possession hearing, then another £150 for the warrant of possession(eviction warrant)

i’m quite happy to debate intricacies of housing law, but it’ll be rather boring for everyone to read.

Hi,

Thanks everyone for the advice. Bit of an update on this after we turned up in the letting agents head office today with pictures of all the damage.

We talked about the contract and they agreed/admitted they had (agents owners words) “**** up” and the letter they sent asking for back dated payment was out of order.

They also admitted that the supposed inventory was actually last years and all they had done was change the word excellent to good in every box. This is now destroyed and our inventory including pictures is the actual document.

They stated the whole process of getting us in and again in the owners words had gone “tits up” and all the work should have been done as agreed.

The agent says the handy man who does all the work has been away on holiday hence the work not being done so we pointed out all it would have taken was a phone call to let us know that and that would have been fine.

It’s been arranged that the handy man/plumber is coming round this week and we have this in writing signed by the owner of the letting agent and agreed if this isn’t kept to we have the right to stick to our £525 contract agreement.

Apparently all the orders have been placed for furniture and all maintenance has been planned for weeks! Again all it would have taken was one phone call to tell us this.

We now have all the above in writing and signed by the owner of “….” Estates and have agreed a timescale of 28 days for all work to be done.

So thanks guys all the advice really helped and I used a lot of what was mentioned to get my point across.