We're renting a house privately (but found it through an estate agent). We had to pay his administration fees, but it was through his own privately-owned financial business, not the estate agency. It's some of his relatives that we're renting the house from and who act as landlords. They're pretty much the worst landlords on the planet, but that's another story. We signed the tenancy agreement and moved in in mid-December. We had to pay his administration fee and 3 months' rent upfront. This is what our tenancy agreement says, what we have receipts for, and what we agreed upon.
March will be the first month we actually had to pay rent, as the 3 months covered December, January, and February. When my husband went to the estate agent to pay for it, he mentioned that we also owed him bond (the same amount as a month of rent). He asked if my husband could pay it then or by the end of the month (which we can't) or if we could pay half (we can't). They sort of left it at that and upon looking at our tenancy agreement, we both see no mention of paying a bond whatsoever. All that is mentioned is the 3 months of rent upfront and the administration fee.
So after 3 months, he's suddenly decided he wants an extra £550?? I'm sure it's no coincidence that this just happens to be mentioned right around the time we had to get stern with the landlord about repairing things we've been complaining about for months (including a bird that lived in and eventually died in our gas fireplace for a MONTH, and replacing a refrigerator that is faulty, which we had to REALLY push for, even though it's clearly covered in the tenancy agreement).
So, any advice on what to do? It's hard to find any help online as most information isn't aimed at private rentals. The landlord already mentioned wanting to "edit" the lease so she isn't liable for any of the other furnishings that were left in the house, although I know she can't change the lease without our approval. I just feel like this is a situation that's going to get ugly fast and any info I can get would help!
And if it's relevant, we've been in regular contact with both the landlord and estate agent since we moved in, so it's not like this was his first opportunity to mention a bond-- he was actually even at our house just 3 weeks ago to look at some of the things we'd made complaints about.
