As always, there are two sides to every story. We cannot go into detail regarding the reasons why an application was not progressed online, as inevitably this would mean sharing specific, confidential information.

We are confident that we have done all that is reasonably expected of an agent here. It is our obligation to the landlord to ensure that tenants are a good match for properties and that we carry out due diligence throughout the application process to protect our clients. We are not discriminatory on the basis of age or any other factor. When information given to us is missing, incorrect or we are unable to get hold of referees (or guarantors where required), it is our duty to cancel an application.

Last week, despite our efforts to move the application forward, we refunded all fees paid to this applicant and we have been in touch on multiple occasions. We accept and have apologised for the fact that on Friday last week one of our team was difficult to get hold of, however this has not affected the end result here. Further, one of the owners of the business has twice been in touch directly to walk through the issues; unfortunately 'shanepeters' terminated the calls mid-conversation.

We are proud members of The Property Ombudsman and we act in accordance with their Code Of Practice. Sometimes things can go wrong - but we're a decent group of people and when they do, we will put our hands up and try to put things right. In this case, we simply feel that we did all we could.