Beware of this agency! We are very upset and disappointed about the way this has being handled. On the 9th of December we had a viewing with Jade and we agreed to rent the place and we did paid a holding deposit writhing the agreement of the landlord over the phone with Jade. The only condition was, that as our salaries are low, we would have to pay quarterly. Even if this is the first time we had this situation, we agreed since we liked the place. And Jade explained that kind of pay,net to the landlord so he could have peace of mind. On that day Jade explained us that even that the references were going to come back unsuccessful, we shouldn't worry about it since paying quarterly was more than sufficient. Reason why went ahead and take the place. The next day we received the forms to start the references process, we did fill in everything and provided the reference agency with all the requested documents and information. At this time Jade contact us in several occasions to hurry up with the remaining payment of £10020 to settle the deposit and the first 3 months of rent. We did transfer the money to make sure we would be moving on the 21st of December since from the beginning we couldn't stress enough that this was our deadline to move in. On the 16th of December Jade contacted us again to ask for a proof of funds sufficient to pay the flat. I did forwarded a screenshot of my PayPal account with £25.000, I called her after I sent this and she said that it was sufficient and everything was going to be ok. The day after on the 17th of December Jade called again to say that now they decided that £25.000 on PayPal was not good enough and that we would have to send a screenshot of my personal account. Straight away I did send her the screenshot of my Spanish account with the equivalent of £128.000 in €. The reference agency was still waiting for a letter from wim's employment but Jade said that after I sent the screenshot Wim didn't need to send the letter anymore, however he did for the peace of mind of all of us. Today, Friday 18th of December, I called the agency and talked to Mark Yelverton after he didn't reply to my email asking about the time that we could collect the keys on Monday the 21st of December. I must say He was so rude telling me that the deal was actually not finalize and it wasn't sure we were moving on Monday. He actually said that he didn't care if we were stress and threaten me with the de deal not going trough, (I do have this conversation recorded). I called him a few more times during the day, and he said that he still needed to contact the inventory agency to let us know the time we were moving in. Around 3:30pm we talked again, and to my surprise his threats became quite real when he said that after having a meeting at his office with the landlord and showing him all our private documents like the screenshot of my personal bank account (I believe this is a breach of privacy, when we were told that those kind of documents were only for the reference agency and nobody else needed to see it) the landlord now changed his mind and expect us to pay a year in advance or 6 months for his peace of mind, and continue paying always 6 months in advance. The other option was to fly to Spain and get a paper statement from my bank and have it ready before Monday. Please bare in mind we are in Christmas period and over the weekend, so no bank would be able to do this even if I would have been willing to travel just to get those documents. Once again, breach of privacy since he requested those documents for the landlord and not the reference agency. I couldn't agree to this as it was not part of the deal, however I agreed to pay the first 6 months so the landlord could have peace of mind. Mr Yelverton said he would get back to me within 10 to 15 minutes. Around 4:45 having everything packed and organized, Mr Yelverton called me to say that no matter how much we would pay the landlord changed his mind and couldn't trust us anymore and was not going to rent out the flat anymore. We never meet the landlord since we only deal with the agency. Why did the agency show our private details? (breach of privacy) How did Winkworth handle this so badly that less than 65 hours before moving into the new place the landlord would decided that he is not going to rent the place to us anymore after the meeting held with Mr Yelverton. I do believe his threats were very real. Now we will be without a place to stay in less than 60 hours thanks to the way Winkworth handle this. This is an unacceptable behavior coming from Mr Yelverton pursuing his threats and having dramatic consequences on us leaving us with no place to live. I'll take my time to make sure that this malpractice from Winkworth gets known. I have no other option than to raise a complaint with the NFOPP.