To want to complain and fight my estate agents/landlord?

[erised]

My husband and I have just secured a house to rent with Romans. We've paid a holding deposit and signed paperwork, even given notice on our current place. In the listing for the house it says 'Cats allowed' and this was confirmed multiple times by the person putting through our paperwork. I received a call today from the estate agents saying that there was a mix up and the landlord has said that we are not allowed our cats and it's either them or the house. Is there anything I can do to fight this? I'm so upset, this was our dream house and I'm also pregnant. Am I overreacting?

Landlord here.

Reading these posts encouraging people to lie about pets has cause a sickening. feeling in my stomach.

I allowed my tenants to have their dogs as the DW was pregnant and she couldn’t bear to separated from her family pets.

I agreed on the provision they signed a waiver to have the carpets professionally steam cleaned on exit. With receipts. No increase in rent, no extra fees.

A subsequent inspection revealed the dogs had written off the lawn in The garden. Rental Agency respectfully advised they must make good on leaving ( repacked WHOLE LAWN) or risk their deposit. ( There is a separate gravelled area in same garden for them to go)

Not accusing my tenants of being that way as they were upfront and asked permission. ( fantastic).

However - seeing the absolute deceit perpetrated here is really unnerving to me.

If there is a law passed forcing landlords to accept pets I won’t bother renewing any leases if I don’t get a say in who/what pets are living in my house. That’s just not on at all.

I don’t even make profit on rent FYI. I get way less. I thought I was being a decent human being and landlord.

From the replies here it seems you can move in, lie , Then lie throughout tenancy and leave the landlord to repair and replace at their expense. Lovely.

There won't be a law passed anyway

RLA had a horror story on their forum - A LL allowed tenant to have dog (he had checked tenant references) supposedly this tenant dog was going to classes & they were conscientious owners etc etc - tenants toilet & drainage got blocked the water company (or whoever looks after sewers) charged the LL because dear tenant had been stuffing pets toilet tray contents down loo & this had acted like cement & not only damaged the properties own sewers but public ones nearby - they couldn't claim it off the tenant (other than small deposit) & it cost them thousands, & for those suggesting insurance - they wouldn't pay out (you think agents are demon princes - insurance companies - shudder)

ps any LL here belonging to this organisation is worth it& you can claim it against tax

UPDATE:

After the lady on the phone offering to find us somewhere else suitable, I have heard nothing from them. I emailed them again to plead them to actually contact the LL to ask again and to tell him that we would be more than happy to pay for any damages or cleaning needed when we eventually moved and they lied about contacting him (I know this is LL lives in America and I contacted them about 10am UK time. It took them minutes to reply back with another 'He said no').

Should I write a complaint email about this? I feel bad as I never complain but this has left us in a complete mess.

you are certainly entitled to your holding deposit back as the goalposts moved, but beyond that - move on, sorry. Or rehome the cat. (I know how that idea goes on MN but up to you what your priorities are)

and yes, bloketarget, it is Guardian swallower central here when it comes to landlord hate. Until someone has some money and then they all pile on encouraging buy to let as a magic money generator. MN is clueless central at times.

So @erisedI know this may be a bit personal, but where abouts are you looking and what’s your budget? (I know Romans mainly operates in certain parts of the SE so I wonder if I can help with some advice - I have rented in some of the areas they operate in for 10 years with pets so have some experience with which agents are ok and which will do absolutely nothing to help).

I’m still so annoyed for you so would like to help if I can.

Pets enrich peoples lives in so many ways and prevent depression and mental health issues and it is inhumane that people who rent are so often excluded from having pets. That your new landlord is placing such a restriction on you is very wrong and unfair..

Maybe the landlord has an allergy to cats and would rather not risk death by having one in any property they own.

We've paid a holding deposit and signed paperwork, even given notice on our current place

We haven't signed a tenancy agreement.

Exceptionally foolish.

@needanexpert allergens can be cleaned up pretty easily, which a good landlord should be doing between tenants anyway...

allergens can be cleaned up pretty easily, which a good landlord should be doing between tenants anyway...

Doesn’t deal with visits during the tenancy though.

Try this OP. Hope it helps.
www.letswithpets.org.uk/find-a-pet-friendly-property/find-a-pet-friendly-property

@needanexpert you really shouldn't be visiting that often for so long. If your allergies are really that bad then how do you handle being around people who have pets? Or being in a public place where animals can be as well? I'm calling bs.

You don’t have to have ANY inspections. I’d take the cats anyway.

and yes, bloketarget, it is Guardian swallower central here when it comes to landlord hate

I was pretty neutral about LLs until I started working in housing-related support. I have come across some horrific cases, including a woman whose LL left her without a functioning lavatory, a family whose garden was entirely filledwith rubble when a retaining wall collapsed and a mum with a newborn and a toddler whose LL's response to a leak that was sending water pissing into the flat below was to turn off her water at the mains.

While there are legal remedies for these problems, the council's EHO (yes, just the one dealing with housing disrepair) has a 3-month waiting list for repairs and legal aid is no longer available for housing disrepair cases.

And then there are the landlords like the one DP had when we first got together, who thought it was perfectly ok to let himself into tenants' flats when they were out and to snoop through their post and gossip about them to their neighbours.

And all the while charging people £750 a month for a cramped 1-bed flat on a busy main road, and this isn't even in London. They're getting a good income while hanging on to an appreciating asset.

Mind you, letting agents are even worse. £200 to "renew" a tenancy every year, ie change the date on the agreement and get it signed? Absolute leeches.

You can make a complaint to the letting agent. If no resolution then you can make a complaint to their redress scheme which is the property ombudsman.
"Romans are members of the Property Ombudsman being the largest lettings redress scheme in the UK"

However, as frustrating as this is, I'm not sure how far you will get.
Are they likely to overturn the decision? Doubtful.

They should return your holding fee though.

They have 3 weeks to find somewhere for us otherwise we will have to stay put in our 1 bed flat for another year.

@erised Why would it be another year in your current flat?

There’s no point in you writing a complaint email about them contacting the landlord. They work for, and are paid by the landlord, not you. He is their customer, and will be paying a lot of money for a full management service from the estate agent. If the landlord has already agreed to no pets, and doesn’t want to be contacted about things like this, then they would be shouting bad customer service if they insisted on contacting him at your request. You would be writing to complain that they are doing what their paying client actually wants.

@erised
How long have you been in your current one bed? If it’s more than 12 months has your lease moved to month to monthly? Could you agree a month to monthly with them (maybe slightly higher rent) until you find another suitable option?

@nailsneeddoing

The problem there is that Romans are utter wankers for making up their own rules and saying it’s the landlord. They’re fucking diabolical agents.

@NeedAnExpert. Given the LL is in America, I doubt a cat in a property here is going to be affecting his hypothetical allergies.

What are they supposed to say though if the landlord has already told them once that he won’t accept the OPs two cats, yet a potential tenant keeps asking because they don’t want to accept the answer?

That's all I want from them is for them to do what they said and find me another property.

They probably don't want you to contact the LL because then the LL will find out what a cock up they have made. They will probably lie to him and say that you didn't mention you had cats until the last minute.

OP I hope you have a record of what Romans said and emailed rather than spoke to them. And that you have a record of the fact the flat was advertised as pet friendly and confirmatory emails from Romans (though from what people are saying about them I bet not).

I think you should email them saying what you've said here. Say, having let you and the LL down badly you are considering taking it further. Say you want the problem escalated to the LL and your email sent to him and copied back to you, given there was no time between your call to them at 10am and the fact (have you got the time on your phone) that there was no way they could have telephoned him direct unless s/he was on a flying visit to Europe. You can find out who owns a place with a minimum fee to the Land Registry, but it's harder if the owner is hiding behind a shell company.