“I was a tenant for around 18 months and for the ......”
1 Star Review
Oct 24,2012
By:
'Stereotypical'
Oct 24,2012
Branch: London, 363 Goswell Road
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode:
Branch: London, 363 Goswell Road
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode:
3
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I was a tenant for around 18 months and for the most part didn't have any issues. Myself and a flatmate took over the previous occupants lease for which they had around 6 months left, everything ran smoothly and we paid them their deposit back and Loft Lets signed the money they were holding into out names. There was one occurrence where the building was bought by a new owner and we then were asked to sign a new 12 month lease of which our rent was put up but we accepted.
After 6 months we decided to move out after one of us was going travelling. We consulted with Loft Lets about finding someone to takeover our remaining lease as per how we moved in but they said they'd rather just re-list the property, i'm expecting so they could increase the rent again but all fine, we didn't incur any charges for terminating the contract early.
The maintenance company, who apparently Loft Lets don't won yet they all drive Loft Lets vans, came to inspect the property prior to the final inspection, to advise of any work that might need doing prior to the final move out day. They advised us to get it professionally cleaned and handily recommended someone... which no doubt ended up being the maintenance company anyway but still, we decided to go for it as ultimately we knew as per out contract we didn't want to leave anything for the landlord to do an incur any further charges.
After the final inspection they said that all was fine and our fill deposit would be returned, which obviously we were happy about. THEN, we are told a couple of weeks later as they're processing our deposit return that they take off a fee to pay for the final inspection, which worked out around £129 or so. I challenged this seeing as they'd said that the property way fine and as such what are we paying for. They referred us to our contract where it states that tenants pay the maintenance company a fee to come along and inspect the property on vacating and the landlord pays when a new tenant moves in. Obviously a landlord wouldn't need to pay for an inspection on someone moving in if the property had been inspected while someone moved out as ultimately no-one would have lived in it so there's no reason for it to be inspected twice between the time of no one occupying it.
The second issue i had was when it came to receiving my cheque, after around 10-14 days of them telling me it had been issues, minus the £129 vacating inspection fee of course, i called them to find out where it was. They said they'd mailed and i should have received it. I explained that nothing had arrived and could they please reissue the cheque... of which they politely told me that they could - at the cost of £15. Once again i challenged this, asking them why this should be at my expense, i hadn't had any other problems receiving post and yet this hadn't arrived, i asked them to show me the proof they'd sent it - Lambros, the agent's response along the lines of if they hadn't posted the cheque then it would be sitting in the office... of which i explained that if they had posted it then why didn't I have it.
Coincidently there it was in the vacating agreement, pretty much word for word reflecting exactly what was happening... if they send a retuned deposit cheque to the correct forwarding address and it doesn't arrive, then they will reissue the cheque at the cost of the tenant.
All in all it was a very poor experience, they quite clearly fit the stereotypical mould of a lettings agency, take what they can and get the you out as quickly as possible and get the next ones in. The situation with the reissued cheque was far too coincidental, the fact that i hadn't received my cheque and yet there was a line, word for word mirroring my situation... just as if they'd purposefully not sent the cheque out just to make things that little but more difficult... because they can.
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