Me and my other half are currently (attempting) to rent our first place together, which is through this excuse for an Estate Agents. The list of gripes is so long, I barely know where to start. When we had our first viewing of the property, we decided we really liked it. This being our first venture into renting, we decided to find out ALL the costs before making any rash decisions. I phoned their office and asked if an email could be sent to me, detailing ALL the costs of 2 people moving in. What I received was information for 1 person moving in (£600 estate agent fees), with rent of £725 a month and a security deposit of £1,004. I knew straight away the rent was wrong, as it has been advertised as £750pcm and this is the figure we were quoted when viewing the property. However the deposit matched with what we had been told at our viewing, so i assumed that was right. I queried the fact they had given me the estate agent fees for a 1 person applicant. Without any appology, they confirmed it would actually cost £660 for 2 of us. I wish that's where the issues ended. But not even close. We decided to have a second viewing, at which point we would make a final decision, either way. The same agent from our first viewing set up another appointment. He did warn us he might be a little later than the agreed time, due to a viewing elsewhere. However the current tenant had kindly said we could look around until the agent got there. The estate agent didn't show up at all. Not even a call to say he couldn't make it. Despite this, we had decided we wanted it. I tried phoning the agent's office, but it was after 6pm and no one was picking up. There was no answer machine facility so I couldn't leave a message to say we wanted it. We were unable to find an email address online for the branch. I ended up spending the night stressing that someone else would get the property before we had a chance to talk to the agents. When I finally managed to talk to the agents (first thing the following morning) everything seemed to go well. I gave the agent mine and my partners details and paid the £660 NON-REFUNDABLE holding deposit / estate agent fees. We were then sent the Terms of Business to sign, which detailed the deposit was £1,040 and there was this £175 checking in fee (never mentioned before). How convenient these only popped up after I had paid quite a large amount of money that is non-refundable. I emailed the agents and provided a screenshot from their own website, showing the deposit should be £1,004. They have said this is human error, but STILL expect us to pay the higher amount. As it stands we are still arguing about this deposit figure. Well, they are currently ignoring my emails, so I suppose it's just me arguing at the moment.