An anonymous article on young consumer website the Debrief claims that tenants’ holding deposits disappeared into the coffers at a mystery Fitzrovia office of a London lettings agent.
The author, who is unidentified, says that holding deposits were never refunded, suggesting outright theft.
However, the amount quoted for the holding deposit – at six weeks’ rent – looks high, and could be more likely to be the sum paid by tenants placing security deposits.
The poster, who also claims listings fraud by the agent, claims to have spent three months working at the unnamed letting agent between their masters and a graduate scheme last summer showing potential tenants around posh flats in Marylebone and the West End.
The article, titled “What I learned from my summer as an estate agent,” claims trickery was an essential part of the job.
Some worrying practices are described, such as posting fake listings at artificially low prices in order to attract attention to a particular area, and blaming the London location for all high prices.
The article said: “Trickery was an essential part of the job. I checked BBC Weather updates for the sunniest times of day to show our dingy basement flats. I learnt the buzzwords: spacious; competitive market; outside space, and if all else failed, the buzziest word of all: London.
“London was how you explained everything. High rents? Hello, it’s London. Titchy space? Yes, but this is London. Fierce competition for ******, overpriced flats? What the hell else would you expect in London?”
Given Debrief’s prominent role in campaigning for the tenant fee ban, it is also not surprising that it hones in on fees.
In other passages the writer claims £300 was charged for checking references “which basically involved no more than photocopying a passport and emailing a tenant’s boss and previous landlord for a reference”.
It is also claims that the “worst of the fees” was the holding deposit of six weeks’ rent that “was never repaid”.
“It went straight into the agency’s coffers. Attempting to justify this colossal fee to flummoxed tenants was excruciating, it’s also technically completely illegal,” the article says.
Strangely the writer didn’t see fit to report this practice and waited a year to write the article in which they also reminisce about being driven in a Ferrari to viewings.
They also mention colleagues having issues with getting six months’ worth of rent paid, but gloss over this point rather than recognising this may be lost income for the landlord and agent.
There doesn’t seem to be any link made between the rich clientele, the higher house prices in the Fitzrovia area and the higher fees paid.
The author does finish with one sad anecdote that seems to eventually blame letting agents for the housing crisis, claiming a mother of two didn’t understand what the holding deposit was on a one-bedroom flat in Old Street, East London.
The article says the mother slept in the same bed as her children and would take the flat but after being told she would have to pay £4,500, the writer admits facing issues explaining what the holding deposit was.
They said: “I began deploying the buzzwords and finished by yelping: ‘London!!!’
“She obstinately (and quite rightly) would not buy my ******** and kept asking straightforward questions that I could not answer. I gave up and told the truth, ‘I’m sorry. I can’t tell my boss you’ll take the flat but you won’t pay the holding deposit.’”
Somehow the situation of the mother sleeping in the same bed as her children and not being able to afford a property is then blamed on agents, with the article concluding: “Being faced with a seven-year-old boy sleeping in the same bed as his mother and toddler sister put all of that into perspective for me.
“These are the people hit hardest by the housing crisis, suffering because of the extortionate prices, the dodgy practices and the lack of security and stability.
“Worse still, agents and landlords up and down the country but especially in London benefit while these people suffer.
“They reap the rewards of our broken housing market and make hay while people in search of a home for themselves and their family have no choice but to agree to their outlandish terms.”
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