Please help, I don't know what to do.

maybes

I've applied.for.a house through an agency, I would of preferred a private landlord but where I live there are none with 3+ bed houses, they're all 1-2 bed flats. I've been accepted by the landlord and I paid my credit check fee last Thursday, which has now held the house for us. They know we're going to fail this due to my partner being under 25 and we've already agreed (with the landlord and letting agents) that we will pay a double bond and a months rent upfront which they both accepted. Now the problem I'm having is the credit agency are waiting for a reference from my current landlord (well estate agents), but they're refusing to give one until we clear the debt on our account.

The debt came about because when we moved in sewage was leaking under our floors from our house and nextdoors. It took us 4 months to get the estate agents to listen (this was us and my neighbours ringing and complaining because their house was being affected by it). They sent someone and they pumped it all out and that was that, we had no problems for about 9 months. It's started again and the smell is awful, we are all becoming ill and I have 3.children, ages 7, 4 and 8 months. I have asthma and when the smell is bad which is usually when it rains I have to take steroids or I'll have an asthma attack. My estate agents went bust last July and got taken over by another one, who took our account on with apparent debt on it. Now, we did owe money but we paid it off but apparently the old estate agents say we only paid £40 which isn't true. We have some ripped off pieces of paper proving the dates and amounts we paid, apparently these can't be used as proof because they're not on proper receipt paper.

I only found out about the debt we owe (£1,600) a few days ago when I rang to see what the hold up on the reference was. They said when they took our account on that was the debt on it. Now, when the old estate agents sent someone to pump the sewage out they tried to say we needed to pay which funnily enough cost £1,600. We refused.to pay it and didn't hear anything back until a few days ago. The new estate agents have it down as rent arrears when I know for a fact that our rent has always been paid on time, housing benefit have covered our rent from the word go and I got it paid straight to the estate agents so I didn't have to handle it. When I spoke to the new estate agents today she said they legally can't give us a reference if we're in arrears, which I said were not, but according to what they took over we are. She said I need to write to the landlord and offer a set amount each week to pay it off, which I agreed to become even though I know we don't owe it for rent we need to move. She said if we pay £10 every week for 6 months then they'll release the reference which isn't possible because we need.to move now. I asked if I paid 6 months worth of £10 tomorrow will they give the ref and she said yes. I needed to ring back to see if I'd still have to wait for the landlord to accept then I can let the new letting agents know. The woman I spoke to said the lady I needed isn't in until tomorrow so i asked her and she said "I don't know because I'm not dealing with it, but I do know that when X Came off the phone to you she told us all you offered £10 a week and she said it isn't enough, it needs to be at least £30 a.week" she was the the one who suggested £10! Not me! Plus if that was the case why didn't she tell me? Why let me think we could.sort it tomorrow?

I need to know where I stand with this. They're denying knowing anything about the problem under the floors and tried to deny us ever ringing up about it. Well she was a bit stumped when I said my neighbours had been ringing every month about it because it affects them to! They're trying to deny that we ever moved in here with the problem but I can prove we did because 2 months before we moved in my partners uncle came to have a look at it and give them a quote. When he told them the quote they said "no, it's too expensive". They don't know that he's my partners uncle, he's a professional btw, so used can get him to back us and say they let us move in to a property that was unsuitable.

What can I do about it? Do I have to pay the £1,600 because they're saying it's rent arrears? How do I prove that rent has always been paid? Are they correct in saying recant give us a reference? What can I do? We can't stay here anymore, I'm becoming reliant on steroids and its obviously not going to be good long term. Sorry it's so long, I'm just stumped and you all seem like knowledgeable people. Thanks.

Edit: I was thinking of ringing the new landlord and ask if he will let us move in without the letting agents and explain why. They've already accepted us as new tenants. Would this annoy them and then they could decide to pull out from it and go with someone else? Thanks everyone.

athtrasna

Are you based in Ireland? Your post mentions £ and there are a couple of references that don't sound as if you're here. Boards is an Irish site so people on here can really only advise properly if you're in Ireland.

TheBandicoot

athtrasna wrote: »

Are you based in Ireland? Your post mentions £ and there are a couple of references that don't sound as if you're here. Boards is an Irish site so people on here can really only advise properly if you're in Ireland.

Indeed, the credit check stuff for a tenancy is definitely not an Irish thing.