Landlords Don't Get Done Get Dom

I'm Dominic Littlewood and I'm here to champion your consumer rights.

We'd like to try and sort that out and see

if we can initiate that refund and get that done for her.

Any problem, no matter how big or small,

I'll help you get the service you deserve.

Well, I think she's going to be very happy with that, so thanks ever so much for your help.

Whether it involves getting your money back...

They kept sending bills and they were going up and up

and I was becoming terrified.

..or taking on your contract conundrums...

They had pulled the wool over our eyes so many times,

at that point we were just exhausted.

..I'm on the case.

Today I help both landlord and tenant try

and resolve their estate agent woes.

I couldn't find any terms

and conditions in Pamela's files. I couldn't find an invoice

from them at all and there was nothing really in the files.

Our landlord said that we hadn't been giving rent.

When he tried to get hold of the estate agent, the estate agent wasn't answering his calls.

Plus what every car owner needs to know about protecting

their four-wheeled friends.

Ask for a price and what they are going to do first and

if it does need any work, make sure they get permission for the repair.

And the dangers of signing up to something online without even realising.

I saw a payment had gone out to a company that I'd never

heard of before for an amount that seemed a bit odd. I rang the bank

and asked them how my details had been passed on to this company

and how they had access to take £10 a month from my account.

I'm taking on your consumer problems to make sure you don't get done!

Chances are, all of us will have had to deal with an estate agent

at some point in our lives

but they're not all about buying and selling.

The rental market in the UK is massive and sometimes estate agents

can offer that vital link between landlord and tenant.

But if my inbox is anything to go by, that process isn't always

as smooth as it should be.

Wendy Elliot lives in Sussex

and has spent the last few months trying to help her

mother-in-law Pamela resolve a dispute with her estate agent.

I didn't really know where to start.

They wouldn't reply to my e-mails, they wouldn't reply to my letters.

Wendy and husband Simon live next door to his

mum Pamela on a farm that's been in the family for years.

Got about 20 acres down here.

This is Pamela and John's house

and we're right next door, so she can nip across any time she likes.

But these aren't the only properties in the family.

Since 2000, Pamela has owned a small rental house.

Pamela inherited some money and as an investment, she bought

a little property five minutes from here and that's her income.

As well as being a useful nest egg,

the rental property has been a good project for Pamela.

Pamela has always looked after the property herself.

I've never had anything to do with it.

But late last year, all that changed

when Pamela fell ill with what turned out to be a brain tumour.

Wendy stepped in to help manage her affairs

and soon realised all was not right with her rental property.

I was going through Pamela's accounts for her

and I realised that no monies had come in.

And been through her bank statement, couldn't find any income at all.

This seemed strange to Wendy because since October 2013, Pamela's

property had been managed by local estate agent Kimber Estates.

The idea was that they were going to fully manage it,

collect the rent, do all the maintenance work, and just

literally take everything off her hands, and that's what was agreed.

Pamela had already dealt with Kimber in May 2013

when she'd found a new tenant and had paid them to draw up

a tenancy agreement, organise an inventory and handle the deposit.

But as Wendy dug deeper, she found she was missing things.

I couldn't find any terms and conditions in Pamela's files, I couldn't find an invoice

from them at all and there was nothing really in the files.

Wendy got on the phone and spoke to the boss.

Mr Kimber was charming on the phone.

He told me that he was fully managing the property.

In fact, he reiterated that he was going to

take 15% of the monthly rental income

and that he was fully in control and he was managing the properties.

Wendy requested some key pieces of information about the property

including the whereabouts of Pamela's rental income.

This is the follow up e-mail that I made after I'd spoken to

Mr Kimber on the phone, just outlining all the information

that I wanted from him - the invoice, the terms and conditions,

the contract, the invoice of the rent received, the list of any

outstanding works and timescales of completion, check the balance

of the works and confirmation that the gas boiler certificate

had been done.

Wendy was told they would get together all the documents

and she could pop in the next day to collect them.

He just said that he would leave it for me and he'd leave it

with his secretary, which he did.

But when she opened the envelope, all it contained was

the inventory and the original invoice.

I spoke to the secretary and said, "Oh, I was expecting a lot more than this in the envelope,"

and I said, "Could you get hold of Mr Kimber on the phone for me?"

and she wasn't able to do that. She said he wasn't contactable at the time.

I then said, "Well, could you contact him and get him to contact me?" which he never did.

This is what made us quite concerned as to if he's not giving us this information,

which is the basic information that we've asked him for - what else hadn't been done?

One of Wendy's questions to Kimber was whether some essential

works had been carried out at the property.

These included some plumbing repairs inside the house

and fixing some unsafe brickwork and damaged fencing in the garden.

But apart from one visit on Christmas Eve

to try and fix the fence panel,

it seemed these maintenance issues had not been properly addressed.

The tenant had told us that she on a number of occasions

had asked Kimber to "please get on with the works",

and she wanted them done.

The tenant had paid three months' rent totalling £2,700.

Kimber Estates had been supposed to pay Pamela this rental income

minus their fees on a monthly basis, so by now she should

have received well over £2,000 but she hadn't been paid a penny.

And that wasn't all.

I also wanted to know where the deposit was.

The tenant had put forward £1,350 in May the previous year,

and we didn't know where it was. And I wanted him to confirm -

where was it and was it in a secure deposit account?

Wendy chased Kimber about the money and spoke to the owner's son.

He told me that his father managed all of the finances

and that he wasn't able to help me with that.

He couldn't give me a reason why that we hadn't received the monies.

He kept apologising, he was very charming and

he couldn't believe that I was...that, you know,

the situation had happened - but he was not able to help me in any way.

She continued to request Pamela's rental income and confirmation

of where the deposit was being held but so far has received neither.

I didn't really know where to start to look to get the money,

to be quite honest.

So I thought, "What do I do?"

So what she did was send yours truly an e-mail

in the hope that I might be able to get Pamela's money back.

It's Pamela's money and she needs it - it's her income,

this is what she lives on.

Wendy is one very concerned daughter-in-law

and I can certainly understand why.

My job is to try and work out what has gone on here

and see if I can get Pamela back some of that money she's owed.

Kimber Estates started up in Sussex in 2012

and as managing agents, are there to help run things

smoothly for both landlord and tenant.

It's run by a family who have over 30 years' experience in estate

agency and they offer property management services

including 24-hour tenant support and regular on-site inspections

as well as the monthly depositing of rent into landlords' accounts.

So what happened in Pamela's case, then?

Well, hopefully I'll soon find out, because I've dropped

Kimber Estates a line and asked them to tell me their side of the story.

Let's see what they say.

If you break your arm, you'd expect the doctor to fix you up.

Chip your tooth - a dentist.

But what about when it comes to our goods - like for example, our beloved car?

How do you know the mechanic is going to do a good job?

We Brits love our cars but when it comes to getting them fixed,

most of us turn to a mechanic for most things,

from a minor service to a major repair.

And that means we have to trust that the garage will do what

they say they're going to do and whilst they should be competent

and reputable, there are of course a few who aren't.

Years ago I used an MOT station that would charge for things that

wasn't being replaced.

Some garages do say they've changed some things when they haven't.

In my experience, I have seen that.

William Guyett trains mechanics on how to carry out MOT tests

and what he doesn't know about motors, you couldn't write on a stamp.

We test everything, from a light bulb to suspension,

braking systems, chassis components.

We check and test everything.

And there are common denominators that he looks for.

On a suspension test or bounce test

we're checking for condition of the shock absorber.

We go to the corner, we bounce away and it should bounce once then settle.

That's the correct bounce.

What we're looking for on the handbrake - we follow the cable through

and this one - I've pulled down to show you it's fraying.

So there's fraying on the handbrake where it connects.

One of the tyre checks we do is we check the tyre depth.

The legal limit is 1.6.

So we would check the depth across three quarters of the tyre.

OK, here's a couple of shock absorbers on the bench.

What we're looking for is if there's oil or dampness there -

we know that there's a fault.

Checking the spring - this one is nicely coated.

This one has got rust on it.

That could fracture and weaken, so we're looking for condition.

That wouldn't be a fail - it would be a "pass and advise".

So we'd advise the customer that there could be a fault occurring.

Interesting stuff but if you're not a dedicated

petrolhead like William,

what can you do to make sure you don't get done?

The only way you can protect yourself is get to know the mechanic

that you're working...who's working on your vehicle.

Now that doesn't mean you have to become best mates

and buy him a birthday card every year,

but before you employ any mechanic or garage it pays to do

a bit of background research and find out what other people think.

Ask the locals in the area - is this a reputable garage?

Recommendation is the best form to choose a mechanic.

I've worked on recommendation. I've never advertised.

If it's a main agent, you know you're going to be fine.

Their reputation is their lifeline.

A common complaint I get is people telling me

they were overcharged, so how can you avoid that?

Ask for a price and what they're going to do first

and if it does need any work, make sure they get permission for the repair

and you're not taken for a ride.

Right, so when you leave your car at the garage while they carry out

the work, make sure they have your phone number, so they can

contact you to let you know what needs doing and how much it's going to cost.

But what about when the work's already been done?

Is there any way you can check they've actually carried it out?

Ask to see the old parts - can you take the parts home with you?

If you have any concerns, you could also get a second opinion from another mechanic.

And remember, if you're not a happy customer, make sure you complain.

If a customer's taken a complaint back to where they've had the car repaired,

if they take all their documentation,

so they can lay it on the table, what's been done

or what should have been done, that will help them immensely.

So take stock of some of these insider's tips

because that way, you won't get done.

3.8 million Brits live in privately-rented homes,

many dealing with a managing agent to pay rent or if there's a problem.

However, if you're the landlord, you pay agents

to ensure everything is looked after.

She engaged Kimber Estates to do the full management -

collect the rent, do all the works

and just literally take it all off her hands.

Wendy's contacted me on behalf of mother-in-law Pamela who

feels that neither she nor her tenant are getting the service

they expect from their managing agent.

Crucially, she is also owed three months' worth of rent

and has no idea where her tenant's deposit is being held.

The money is essential. It's what Pamela lives off - it's her income.

We've already contacted Kimber to find out what's going on

and they've been in touch.

We've had an e-mail back from Kimber Estates and they have said they're going to look into things

and get back to me within three working days.

So it's a good start. Let's see what they come back with.

But Pamela's story does raise some interesting issues for anyone

with a property to rent.

In the UK, there are over 1.5 million private landlords like Pamela

and with interest rates at an all-time low, many people have

invested in rental property

to try and provide an income during retirement.

I'll be looking at a tenant's point of view later,

but if you decide to become a landlord, you need to know your

rights and what you should expect from your estate agent.

-Right, come on through, Tim. Let's make ourselves comfy.

-Thank you very much.

I'm hoping housing lawyer Tim Crook - yes, that is his name -

can give me the lowdown.

This is a growing sector and a growing industry,

and people sometimes fall into it, inadvertently almost,

sometimes to plug the gap of a pension

or to resolve the non-sale of a property, perhaps.

And there are some serious responsibilities that come

with being a landlord.

The administration puts an obligation onto a landlord to ensure their properties are safe.

For instance, the obligation on a landlord to carry out

gas safety checks in terms of the safety of the property.

So the landlord needs to ensure that the agent acting for them,

know and understand the obligations and that they carry them out.

Because otherwise it is the landlord who could be held responsible

for any failings that can happen.

And those obligations don't end with safety.

Because of problems there have been

with the returning of deposits by landlords to tenants in the past,

the law has been changed over recent years

to make that process simpler and to cut out too much court involvement.

A landlord has an obligation to register any deposit that the tenant gives.

Now the landlord would rely upon the agent, probably,

under the terms of the agency agreement to do that for them on their behalf.

There are several Government-approved schemes

like the Deposit Protection Service or DPS that will

safeguard a deposit but one of Wendy's concerns is that Kimber

Estates hasn't told Pamela where her tenant's £1,350 is being held.

So how can the landlord - and, for that matter, the tenant -

have 100% clarification that it is in an approved scheme?

The tenant can expect and should get notification from the landlord or

the agent within 30 days of paying the deposit that it has been registered

and details about the scheme within which it's been registered.

Every landlord will be aware of that.

So all the landlord can really do is to chase the agent

and request that it be done and they be given confirmation.

And if Kimber Estates haven't registered the deposit?

Unfortunately, Pamela is in the firing line and can be held

responsible to the tenant for the return of the deposit,

possibly a fine of up to three times the financial amount of the deposit.

-Wow!

-Yes, it is a big wow.

Wow indeed! In Pamela's case that could mean a fine of over four grand. Ouch!

Just to add a little bit to that is the fact that as the rent

came in for quite a few months,

that wasn't passed on to the lady who owns the property.

The very basic part of an agent's job that's managing a tenancy which is to collect rent

and pass that on to their principal, the landlord.

Unsurprisingly, Pamela has every right to be concerned that she

hasn't received her rent.

This is NOT sounding good.

I think in the case here, of Pamela and probably an awful

lot of people who don't have a large portfolio, they automatically

assume that because they're using a letting agents,

and they supply this contract and receipts for the monies taken,

that they're covered but from what you're saying, they're not. They are in the firing line.

The landlord's the one who is going to end up with most of the problems if things go wrong.

Yes, that's absolutely right.

One of the issues is that letting agents are not regulated

as rigidly as perhaps they need to be.

The Office of Fair Trading has looked into this,

and there was a consultation paper published at the end of 2013,

which is currently being reviewed, to establish

what framework there should be by which letting agents are regulated.

And frankly, the sooner that happens, the better.

You know what, Tim? I couldn't agree more.

I tell you what came to light there for me,

which was a little bit surprising, is that if you use a letting

agency and they don't do their job properly, it's you - the landlord -

that can be left holding the baby and ending up in a lot of trouble.

So as far as Pamela's concerned - at the moment, she's on thin ice.

I'm determined to help Pamela get both the rent she's owed

and some answers about where her tenant's deposit is being held.

But a situation like this can be just as stressful for a tenant

as the landlord - as Emma and her fiance have discovered.

They moved out of a rental property in Portsmouth in 2013

having had a bad experience with their lettings agent.

We had put all our faith in them

and looking back, we should have researched them before signing on.

In 2011, the couple were looking for a house to rent

and found one they liked the look of through a local lettings company.

It was south-facing. Three bedrooms.

A nice big garden and a huge kind of garage

at the back of the garden where we could store everything as well.

The couple were smitten

and agreed to rent the house for an initial six months.

When we first signed the contract with the agency,

we paid our deposit upfront - we paid one month's deposit

and one month's rent at the same time, which we paid in cash.

That deposit was £830 and they left it to

their estate agents to place it in a Government-backed protection scheme.

When we signed the contract, it very clearly states

in the contract that it was going to be protected.

They moved in and spent two happy years

living at the property but in the summer of 2013,

they got their first indications all was not right.

We received a letter through the post, which had been hand-posted

by our landlord, who had said that we haven't been giving rent.

But as far as the couple were concerned,

they HAD paid their rent and on time.

So what was going on?

Upon HIS investigation he found that we were paying ours

every month on time - it was a problem with the estate agent.

When he then tried to get hold of the estate agent,

the estate agent wasn't answering his calls, wasn't able to be in contact.

This was a worrying situation for both Emma

and her landlord who were now

concerned about the whereabouts of the deposit and the rent.

Emma set about contacting the various deposit protection schemes.

One of them told us outright

that it wouldn't have being protected with them.

The others then told me on the phone initially that they had no

record of our deposit being protected with them, or had

it ever been protected for that property since we had lived there.

I then got e-mail confirmation of that.

It was very worrying news,

so Emma and her fiance decided to pay the agents a visit.

We then said, "Hi, we're the tenants.

"We've come because our deposit isn't protected." He then went,

"Oh, I've just recently taken over.

"I've got rid of some of my staff members.

"I'm just dealing with a backlog of paperwork.

"I'll contact you later to see about it", and then we never heard from him.

The landlord was having the same problem as he tried to chase

the rent he was owed.

He even made a complaint to the local police and several

weeks later, the firm did finally pay him the rent he was owed.

But they wouldn't tell him

which scheme the deposit was registered with.

By now, Emma's circumstances had changed.

I got a new job up here in Kent and my partner works up here

so we moved out

because we needed a new place near our old places of work.

They gave notice to both the agent and the landlord

and in September 2013 made preparations to leave.

When we moved out of the property,

we did the final check-out interview with the landlord.

One of the things they discussed was a problem the couple had

with the garage door.

The complaints about the garage door were fair.

The garage door was damaged, which I'd had to do one day,

trying to get out of the garage to get to work.

There had been problems with that garage door since we moved in.

Emma had already flagged these problems to the agent

but they hadn't fixed them

and with her car now stuck in the garage, she phoned them again.

I said, "I just need someone else to come and help me open the door.

"I'm on my own! I'm late for work."

They knew I was a nurse. They knew I was due on shift

and they didn't send anyone.

Emma used her car to push the door open

and caused further damage - which she was now liable for.

The landlord has since ended his contract with the agent

and did manage to get the £830 deposit back.

He tells us he is currently negotiating with the couple

over the cost of repairs to the damaged door.

Neither Emma nor her landlord should ever have been in this situation, though.

I feel like I'm owed an apology from the estate agent, as he let us down.

He could have done a lot more to run his business but he didn't

and we've had to go through the landlord rather than him,

which is the estate agent's problem, really.

It's the estate agent's job, not the landlord's job.

Thankfully, Emma's landlord seems very reasonable

and has told us he hopes to resolve the garage-door situation soon.

But what are a tenant's rights

when it comes to getting their deposits back?

If there's a small problem, the landlord can only seek

payment for that problem if it is the tenant's responsibility.

The landlord can't simply demand the whole of the deposit.

And this is one of the reasons why deposit protection schemes

are so important.

The idea behind the deposit protection scheme

is to safeguard deposits.

If the landlord refuses to pay part of the deposit,

or all of the deposit, and the deposit is in a scheme,

as it must be, then the tenant can take them to arbitration

through the deposit scheme

and the landlord will have to provide evidence

of exactly what it is that they are seeking to take the money for.

And what else can tenants do to protect themselves?

For tenants to avoid a dispute over the deposit, they should make

sure that there is a clear, detailed inventory, preferably with

photographs at the start of the tenancy, that there is a check-out

at the end - again, clear, detailed, recording everything,

and certainly for tenants,

keep records and photographs through the tenancy as well.

In Sussex, Pamela's tenant did exactly the right thing

when she highlighted a list of things that she wanted addressed.

Inside the house, these included a broken banister,

a faulty light switch and some plumbing issues.

There was a leak in one of the radiators,

so there were some small minor building works to be done inside,

but the major one was the outside

where she couldn't even use her garden.

Not least because her brick retaining wall's on the verge of collapse.

She could only use the patio area in the back

and they actually couldn't use the grass area at top

because it was just unsafe.

Kimber Estates were made aware of these issues in October, 2013.

But almost four months later, Wendy and her husband visited

the house and realised none of them had been sorted.

At that point they decided enough was enough.

So family decided that we would go down in the morning,

disengage Kimber Estates and do the work ourselves.

Wendy has now had all the work carried out on the property,

so it's time for another visit.

I'm now off to the property to meet the builder

and to go through the work that he's completed

and hopefully he'll show me around and show me what he's done.

Within 48 hours of ending Pamela's contract with Kimber Estates,

Wendy had found a builder called Rick,

and since then, work seems to have progressed quickly.

He's done the new fence panels in the garden and the brickwork

and he's done bits of maintenance required.

There are probably about five or six things on the list,

and they were quite straightforward,

and Rick just got on with them and just did them.

All Wendy needs to do now is to make sure she's happy with the work.

-Hi, Rick.

-Hello, Wendy, you all right?

The first thing we've done here is all these bricks were on

the floor when we started, we've put them back together.

Made the handrail through the top all as it was to match

the existing to make it safe.

There was no fencing there at all before.

-They've got dogs as well.

-Yes.

And I think the neighbours have got dogs as well.

So incidents where children going through an open fence there.

-Clearly that needed to be rectified.

-Yeah, looking good.

-Just trying to match it as best as we can...

-Well done.

-..and made it safe for everyone.

-That's brilliant. Well done.

-All good.

-Shall we look at the stuff inside?

-Yeah, let's go have a look.

-Perfect. Excellent.

In here, we sorted the taps out for the kitchen.

Sorted some minor electrical problems out with the lights.

The banister's been fixed.

Couple of other little minor cosmetic things.

Apart from that, it should be fit to go again.

Rick's also been able to arrange a safety check for the boiler.

Wendy, you have your gas safety certificate.

Oh, fantastic. Thank you very much.

How long did it actually take you to get all of it done?

Well, realistically, all it took was about three days.

We spend one day doing the garden work and the brickwork.

And anther day and a half just in the house tinkering around, really.

At the most, three days.

And the boiler certificate et cetera.

The property is now shipshape,

and for the time being Wendy and her husband

are planning to cut out any agents and manage it themselves.

So what will that mean from a maintenance point of view?

The best bit of advice is to stay in touch with your tenants.

Any problems that arise from them should come direct to you,

A constant communication stream.

And reactive maintenance, really.

I mean, theoretically, a property should run itself.

Have you got any tips or recommendations

that we should be doing on an annual basis?

You need to get your gas safety check done.

It's good practice to get an electrician round really

just to sort of come and give you a visual inspection of the property,

anything that's broken here or there.

Generally, just keep in touch with your tenants and talk

and, theoretically, everyone should be happy.

Well, that's certainly good advice and Wendy is one happy chappy.

I've had a look around the place and it's absolutely amazing.

From what the tenant has said to me, she's pleased, that makes me happy

and that's how it should be.

But all this hassle could have been avoided

if the work had been sorted by the managing agent.

Hopefully we'll hear back form Kimber Estates soon

and get some answers about where Pamela's rent

and the tenant's deposit are being held.

A free voucher! An exclusive offer! Ohh!

A great deal.

Isn't it amazing how we seem to sign up for these deals and offers

when quite often we don't actually remember doing so.

Delete.

Delete.

Delete.

Anna Coutts lives in a picturesque Lancashire town

where she runs both a toy shop and a tea room.

How nice.

With two businesses to look after, Anna, like millions of us,

loves the convenience of internet shopping.

I find that living in a rural location means that shopping online's

really useful, it's far less time consuming, it's quicker,

often it's a lot more choice than what we have available here.

But last year,

an experience of buying online left Anna feeling pig sick.

I was looking online to buy some footwear.

I was drawn to the Simply Be website because I Google searched boots or

footwear of some sort and it was just within the search engine results.

At Simply Be, you can dip into the ever changing world of fashion...

Simply Be is a catalogue shopping firm

and their glossy TV adverts promise enticing introductory offers.

Anna was keen to have a browse.

The first pop-up I saw on the Simply Be website just said,

"You're a new customer and you automatically qualify for a 10% discount,"

and I had to click the button that said, "Continue shopping."

Happy days.

Anna found what she was looking for, placed her order

and got back to work.

The goods arrived several days later and they were absolutely fine.

As far as I was concerned,

I had ordered the goods, I received them, I had paid for them,

and unless I was going to make a future purchase from them,

that was my involvement with them had come to an end.

If only life was that simple.

First time I noticed anything was a bit untoward was

when I was checking my bank statements in January

and I saw a payment had gone out to a company that

I had never heard of before for an amount that seemed a bit odd.

It was exactly £10, which was to me

either a subscription fee or a membership fee or a one-off payment.

What's going on?

The name of the company that had taken the money out was

shopperdisc.co.uk

Not a name I recognised or knew about

and not one I had recalled ever buying anything from.

Anna investigated further.

The first thing I did was I Googled shoppersdisc

and was directed to a website, again not one that I had ever seen,

or heard of before called Shopper Discounts And Rewards.

The site had quite a lot of text, I had quite a lot to take in,

but the general idea of it was that it was a discount club

that people subscribed to

and would be sent vouchers or offers to receive discounts

from a number of companies in the UK.

Shopper Discounts And Rewards is an online reward programme

where members pay £10 a month to access discounts

and cashback with over 650 popular retailers.

All very well, trouble is,

Anna didn't realise she had signed up with them.

Once I had seen the Shopper Discounts And Rewards website

and realised I didn't know who they were

or what they were selling to me,

I rang the bank and asked them how my details had been passed onto

this company and how they had access to take £10 a month from my account?

The bank weren't able to tell me how this purchase had been set up,

they just said that it was,

as a direct link from a purchase from a second company

and I ought to look into where I bought something in the past.

So she rang Shopper Discounts And Rewards

and spoke to a member of their team.

She said that their services were that of a membership scheme,

to discounts for, she said, up to 800 companies in the UK.

When I asked her how they'd come by my details, she said that it was

after my purchase in September, 2013 with Simply Be.

So when Anna had shopped for fancy footwear,

it seemed she'd got more than she'd bargained for.

The lady didn't really explain how I'd come to be signed up

to their subscription, only that she said I must have checked

a box to say that I wanted to be part of this particular scheme.

And when I pointed out to her that I had no memory of this and it wasn't

clear to me at all, she didn't seem to have any answers to that at all.

It turned out there was a banner on the website which Anna clicked,

mistakenly thinking it was part of Simply Be's offer.

But it actually took her

to Shopper Discounts and Rewards website

where she entered her card details.

I recall having to click something to say

that I wanted the 10% discount offer.

I recall it being a separate pop-up and I had to click to authorise

that I wanted that 10% offer, so of course I did.

What she didn't realise is that this offer from Simply Be

was nothing to do with the banner she would have later seen

from Shopper Discounts and Rewards.

Even though she hadn't intended to, she had signed up and the company

have said it would have been mentioned at least four times

on their enrolment page that she was signing up to a membership scheme.

I was aware at this point that Shopper Discounts and Rewards

had taken £10 on two consecutive months, January and December,

and it wasn't until the lady told me that actually they'd

taken four months' worth and had taken £40 from my account in total.

Annoyed that this had happened, Anna wanted to know

if there was anything that could be done.

I asked the lady for a refund and she explained that three payments

could be returned to me within ten days via my bank account.

But the fourth payment I would have to send off an application form

that I would receive from them.

As promised, Anna received her £30 refund

and the company have also told her they will refund the remaining £10.

But that's not her main concern.

This isn't about the money at all,

this is about the principle of the fact that a company had

signed me up to a scheme that I didn't want to part of,

didn't know anything about and certainly wouldn't have chosen to use.

But of course, without realising it, Anna had signed herself up

and it's been a tough lesson to learn.

In future, if I'm shopping online, I will be very, very careful

and very thorough about any offers that I accept.

It's left me very sceptical and very cynical,

and I think I will be sticking with the few internet shopping sites

that I've used in the past

and I won't be expanding and using any more.

We contacted Shopper Discounts and Rewards and they said,

"There is an initial 30-day free trial after which membership costs £10 a month.

"The only way to sign up is through a clear, three-step process.

"The monthly fee is clearly referenced

"throughout our communications including at the top of the page

"where people enter their credit or debit card details."

They also say, "Our banner should not be confused

"with other promotions the retailer may be running at the time,

"in this case, a 10% discount on the first order with Simply Be."

We also contacted Simply Be who told us that,

"Like many other online retailers,

"they allow discount firms to have pop-up banners on their websites."

"But they do not pass on customer data."

They think it "is clear to customers that they are signing up to

"a separate web loyalty scheme."

So, what can you do to avoid signing up to something without realising?

Well, if you're offered a great discount on a website,

check carefully whether there are any strings attached.

Take the time to read any terms and conditions so that you can click

with confidence. And if anything's not clear, give the company a call.

And check your bank statements regularly. If there are any payments

on there you don't recognise, investigate further!

So beware of what you're ticking, or not,

because you might end up with such a good deal after all!

Anti-ageing cream? Me?!

I've been contacted by two people having problems with letting agents.

On the landlord's side of things is Pamela, who should have been paid

more than £2,000 in rent from Kimber Estates

and also has no idea where they are holding her tenant's £1,350 deposit.

With Pamela suffering from a brain tumour, daughter-in-law Wendy

has been trying to get answers from the firm, but with little success.

And on the flip side is Emma, a tenant whose agent failed to tell

either her or her landlord what they'd done with her deposit.

When we found out our deposit wasn't protected, I was devastated.

Just to believe that we'd had it protected and it was there,

to find out that it wasn't, my heart sank.

With a story like this there are three elements to take into

consideration. There's the letting agent, the landlord and the tenant.

Now of course the letting agent is supposed to make life easier

for both landlord and tenant.

But for Pamela and Emma, that hasn't been the case.

We've made several attempts to contact Emma's Estate Agents

to ask them why they didn't register her £830 deposit.

But they have not responded to any of our e-mails or calls.

We have, however, spoken to Emma's landlord, who feels equally let down

by the agents he employed and has now ended his contract with them.

Pamela's agent, however, has been in touch.

We've had another e-mail from Kimber Estates

and it makes for pretty interesting reading.

Now they say they are deeply dissatisfied with the service

received by Pamela and Wendy. And also proposing a solution,

which is good news. They go on to say it was unusual for them

to take on the management of a property where the tenant was already in place.

And because of that, they bypassed some of their usual checks.

But - and trust me, it's a big but - they have confirmed

that the tenant's deposit was paid into their client account,

not into a DPS, a deposit protection scheme.

With the money in Kimber Estates' account and not in

a Government-backed scheme, the deposit is not properly protected.

But at least know we now know

and Wendy will be able to get the deposit registered.

And there's more news. So I've headed over to Sussex.

Morning. You must be Wendy.

And as luck would have it, I've arrived in time to meet Pamela.

Hello there. Nice to meet you.

-You've been out walking the dog, have you?

-Yes.

All right. I've been hearing about your problems with Kimber Estates.

Oh, right, yes.

You're lucky Wendy's been taking care of some of this for you, hasn't she?

Absolutely, yes.

That's what daughter-in-law's are for, isn't it?

-That's exactly right.

-Hey?

-Exactly right.

She's not very well-trained though, cos I haven't had a cup of tea yet.

-Oh!

-Sorry!

-I'll address that one later on!

-All right, OK.

-Lovely meeting you.

-Yes.

Pamela, all the best.

Cuppa or no cuppa, I'm keen to hear Wendy's take on the situation.

At what point did it start going wrong?

Well, I obviously can only pick up from where

I went to help Pamela with her affairs.

And I initially phoned them and said can you give me a copy

of the tenancy agreement, cos there was nothing on Pamela's files.

I wanted to know had the maintenance been done.

Apart from one visit to attempt to repair a broken fence panel,

it has seems that Kimber Estates didn't carry out the works

requested by the tenant

and in an e-mail to me they have explained why.

"In October, our management team were asked to deal with a series

"of minor repairs, but it took several weeks for the tenants

"to agree to an appointment time, around the end of November,

"for a tradesperson to visit the property."

Pamela's tenant doesn't agree and feels she was the one chasing them.

But either way, no-one disputes the work wasn't done.

Kimber Estates have also said that from late December,

their management team were flat out dealing with properties

damaged by storms.

"While this does not excuse the trouble experienced by Mrs Elliott,

"it does explain why we simply have not had the manpower

"to handle everything to our usual standard."

Whatever the reasons, Wendy and her husband

have already ended their contract with Kimber Estates.

What are you going to do about managing the property now?

We're going to manage ourselves.

-if you want a job doing properly, do it yourself.

-Absolutely.

There's now just one rather important thing left to address.

The whereabouts of £2,700 in rent, minus fees,

and a deposit, which Kimber Estate have already confirmed

wasn't paid into a registered scheme.

"And I will personally ensure that Mrs Elliott receives all the rent

"and deposit relating to the above property with all haste.

"I will also be refunding her management fee for the period."

It's great news for Wendy and Pamela, and even better,

it's a promise the company have already delivered on.

They have been in contact with you since, haven't they?

They came back and said we're paying you the money back.

And they have actually put the money back in the account.

I'm glad you got it back.

I'm sure without you, we would not. Well, not initially, anyway.

And are you happy?

Yes. Relieved, very, very relieved. And so is the tenant.

-OK. So it's all smiley faces.

-Yes. Absolutely.

Sounds to me like my work is done.

The weather's lovely, sunshine and the daffodils are out,

I'd love to stay longer, but I've got to go back to the smoke.

The big city! Thanks ever so much, Wendy.

-Oh, no, thank you. Thank you very much.

-My pleasure.

Kimber Estates have told us the rent and deposit

should have been handled by their front office,

but weren't because they took on the property when there was

already a tenant living there.

They add that they "..do hope Mrs Elliot has not been seriously

"inconvenienced and apologise for any stress that this may have

"caused her and her family."

I'm just glad we got it sorted for Pamela and Wendy.

Pamela is in a very fortunate position, because she's got

a lovely daughter-in-law like Wendy who realised there was a problem

and she stepped in to try and resolve the situation.

Now unfortunately, Wendy wasn't able to do so and called me in.

It should never have gone that far. Anyhow, I'm really proud

of the fact that I managed to sort it out, lock, stock and barrel.

And Wendy's pretty pleased too.

It's just taken all the pressure off.

We can concentrate on Pamela getting better now. Thank you, Dom.

Thank you so much!