to be fed up with letting agents?

[glitterball]

am trying to rent a house - explained to agents wanted to move asap due to deteriorating home situation & other reasons - so last monday go & see literally the perfect house. pay my fees there & then go back to office sign all paperwork hand over copies of id/bills etc & referees. house is vacant & am told i will be in well before end of may, 7-14 days is usual

thurs i get a call from agents - sorry, the house is also up for sale & someone is going back for a second viewing on saturday morning & may want to put in an offer. am told my tenancy application therefore 'on hold', but they will call me saturday to let me know.

no call by 4.30 sat so i call them. no-one knows anything about it - they'll call me back. get a call at 5.30 - sorry they need to speak to the vendor/landlord, they'll call me tommorrow (sun).

sun comes and goes with no call.

i phoned at 11am this morning. they havent heard from vendor/landlord. i suggest why dont they speak to the agents who had arranged the viewing - they dont know who they are! called again at 4pm - someone will call me back; of course no-one has.

in my view this is really unreasonable; i've been left hanging since thurs not knowing whether or not i will get this house, and even if i do get it nothing yet has been done with my application despite filling in forms & paying my money (which cheque they have cashed btw) a week ago!! they seem to have no urgency about anything, and i have little doubt i wont hear anything tomorrow & I'll have to call & chase yet AGAIN!!!

surely if you have signed the agreement they have to honour it?

that's appalling!

sorry i should explain - have not signed a lease, it was a tenancy application - once that was processed (in allegedly a few days!) i was told i was going to get the lease to sign......

oh right, in that case, what they have done is not nice, but technically they have done nothing wrong.
If the house is also for sale, I wouldn't proceed with a tenancy to be honest, as it may well not be a long term one.

imo it is wrong to be taking money for something that isn't properly available.

I've come across letting agents who will happily take 'application fees' from several interested parties for one property.

I would give up on the house tbh - if they have messed you around so badly already they will probably do it again. I would also call the council housing officer for advice and to make a complaint about the agency.

I have rented for years and never had to pay an application fee without knowing for certain that the house was mine. Normally fees handed over at the same time as deposit and lease signed. IME you are better off dealing with a landlord personally than through an agency - largely because when landlords have met you in person they seem less inclined to rip you off.

Letting agents can be just awful. I had one hell of a time getting our deposit back from one (they had deducted an extra months rent from it which is illegal as it is protected money) when we were between houses. In the end, I turned up at their offices with my screaming 3 month old in a sling and vowed to stay put until I saw someone who could and would help. Result was that I got all of my money back!