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Foxtons - Renewal Fees

I see that the OFT have won their latest appeal in the ongoing Foxtons Renewal Fees case.

They start their press release:

 “The OFT has today welcomed a Court of Appeal Judgment confirming its views on the application of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 (UTCCRs) ahead of a substantive hearing against Foxtons Limited at the end of this month.”

I have highlighted the word consumer above as this is a real puzzle to me: generally a landlord rents out property not out of altruism or to be charitable, but to make a profit. He therefore runs a business. If a landlord is running a business and appoints an agent, surely it is a business to business contract, and not that of a supplier/consumer.

Everything I have read so far seems not to address this basic anomaly.

This entry was posted on 16/04/2009 at 01:39 pm and is filed under Lettings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Foxtons - Renewal Fees”

  1. Juliana says:
    08/07/2009 at 09:27 pm

    Hello!
    I red a comment that you left about the fine of the LL giving the deposit back. My landlord didn’t protect the deposit and kept it 2 months after I left the flat. I sent her a letter before action and she returned only 80% and keep the rest for cleaning bill.
    A moderator called her in my behalf to ask for the rest, but she insisted to keep the money. So, I went for a small court claim, and I claimed 3 times the deposit. Then she paid the 20% remaining.

    I’m not sure if I could keep going with the claim. I have spent mornings off from work, the court fee and lot of time on this. But if you said that no one has got it, probably I should drop the case.

    If you have any guidance, I would appreciate it very much.
    Juliana

  2. Esio Trot says:
    08/07/2009 at 10:21 pm

    Juliana,

    As you have found, the deposit protection legislation was poorly drafted. Although I am aware that there are a few cases where a tenant has been repaid the deposit before the court case and still won 3x compensation, in most others where the landlord has had good advice the tenant has lost.

    I can’t go into it as a reply, but I’ll try and do a post on tenant deposit protection before the end of this weekend.

    My advice to you is that you should drop the case as such, but consider simply going for what is called a ‘wasted costs order’ meaning you want the court fee paid to you plus a bit extra for your time and trouble in bringing the case.

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