Can I get this money back?

[milliec]

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Small claims court but you will have to pay, I think it's about £35 but you can get this added on to the judgement. They should refund it really though. Do they have any other houses availiable?

Yes they should give your money back, it's not your fault they let the property to someone else, what they are doing is surly illegal otherwise everyone could do this just to gain money.

I would phone them & tell them you want your money back or you will be taking the matter further.

the only problem is do you have ny proof at all that you handed over this money?

Speak to Trading Standards - they should be able to advise suitable strong wording to use to demand it back.

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Presumably they carried out credit checks on the other people too, so should have held off doing yours until they were sure they weren't letting to the others.

I think this is taking money under false pretenses (i.e. provided your credit check is good, you can have the property, knowing all along that there was someone else in the running). They should not be running credit checks on more than one applicant at a time.

Write them a letter, enclosing a copy of your receipt, pointing out that they should not have started your credit check if they were already running one on another applicant. Require them to return your money within 7 days (it was paid in cash so they don't have to wait for cheque to clear) failing which you will be taking legal action. And, if they fail to do it, issue a claim in the small claims court. There will be a small fee and you can do it online.

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I didn't say they weren't allowed to carry out two credit checks, but it would be good practice not to, otherwise they know they are risking the money of one of the applicants.

In your situation, they had either started the cc on the other applicant, in which case they shouldn't have started yours until they knew for sure that they wouldn't be letting the property to the other applicant, or they hadn't, in which case they should have waited for the outcome of your cc before starting the other one. Makes most sense that way.

Also, if they say they had started the cc so can't refund, they should be able to provide proof of what exactly they have been charged and, if it doesn't total £55, they are profiting from their practice of carrying out more than one cc at a time.

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