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“In our search for a house to rent, we had viewing with...”

Written on: 02/04/2010

In our search for a house to rent, we had viewing with many agents. Most were courteous and at least on time. When it came to Haart however, they were late and unapologetic. Unfortunately for us, the house we liked was only advertised with them. Then came the charges. They were the second most expensive of all the estate agents we had come across. The most expensive were already known for being a rip off. I reluctantly paid the £300 extortionate charge and was told that once the referencing went through I would have the keys the following Friday. This I thought would be fine. I was able to get a work reference that day and sent the scan through as was agreed. The agent said she would get the tenancy reference direct from the estate agent who managed the property. Everything appeared to be going to plan. we got all packed and had transport lined up for the Saturday ready to move us. Then at the last minute on the Thursday, I get a call to say that we are not allowed to move in for at least another week because they have not done the referencing. They claimed they had not received the work reference which I had sent personally the previous Friday, when questioned about it they changed their story to not being able to read it, yet this was a week later and we had never been contacted and our attempts to contact them throughout the week to ensure everything was going well were ignored. They said had not followed up with the other agency to get the tenancy reference, the house had not been cleaned or an inventory done. Basically we are being left homeless now. We had signed a contract and done everything asked and paid extortionate fees but all because the agent was too lazy to do what was required of her, we now have nowhere to live and face being homeless for a week while we wait on her to get her act together. We have a young child and fear that this could drag on for a long time as this agent has already been paid and is in no hurry to sort us out.