Speaking as a landlord I really do wonder whether you're blaming the right people for a lack of a phone line...
I've had it happen with tenants of mine before, that even if there was an existing phone line it takes BT (God bless their incompetant souls) a period of time to activate it / reclaim the line if previous people have had it etc, sometimes this can take a month!! depending on when the last tenant cancels the subscription
So really, your sister was being pretty unprepared if she didn't even consult B.T to find out the situation - BT could confirm if there was an inactive or active line there, you could have booked a date with BT and asked the agent to pass this information on to the landlord. Your sister would have needed to have done this a few weeks in advance from the move-in date anyway. Written permission is something you should she should have asked for from the LANDLORD, not from the agent.
The Gas safety thing is something that's quite nightmarish, although it's the law that the landlord, NOT agent has to have this. The estate agent can book a Gas safety inspection at the landlords' request, but it's ultimately either its the landlords fault for booking it too close to your move-in date, or just plain bad luck that it was unsafe and you couldn't move in right away.
I've had it happen before where the certificate was fine the year before, however as its an annual thing, a year down the line a new part was needed in regards to the ventilation, and we had to move the contracts back by a week whilst this was resolved, thankfully my tenants were understanding that it was an unavoidable situation and we got everything pushed through as soon as possible.
Finally, I don't know what you mean by 'commission' that they charged her. Estate agents charge landlords commission, not tenants. Unless this is something new Foxtons are trying to do, in which case it is a bit crooked?? Bizarre.
Posts like this are irritating as 1) they divert attention from the dodgy things that *all* estate agents ARE responsible for and 2) are simply part of this 'blame culture' thats so rife in England nowadays, estate agents are always going to be fairly clueless - welcome to the real world, Foxtons responses are laughable but what would one expect from any estate agent in this situation.
Your sister should admit that she messed up by not taking things by the scruff of the neck, instead of trying the "injury lawyers for you" approach of "whats that? slipped on a wet floor?, why not sue the maintenance man!" idea.
Sad experience but..
Speaking as a landlord I really do wonder whether you're blaming the right people for a lack of a phone line...
I've had it happen with tenants of mine before, that even if there was an existing phone line it takes BT (God bless their incompetant souls) a period of time to activate it / reclaim the line if previous people have had it etc, sometimes this can take a month!! depending on when the last tenant cancels the subscription
So really, your sister was being pretty unprepared if she didn't even consult B.T to find out the situation - BT could confirm if there was an inactive or active line there, you could have booked a date with BT and asked the agent to pass this information on to the landlord. Your sister would have needed to have done this a few weeks in advance from the move-in date anyway. Written permission is something you should she should have asked for from the LANDLORD, not from the agent.
The Gas safety thing is something that's quite nightmarish, although it's the law that the landlord, NOT agent has to have this. The estate agent can book a Gas safety inspection at the landlords' request, but it's ultimately either its the landlords fault for booking it too close to your move-in date, or just plain bad luck that it was unsafe and you couldn't move in right away.
I've had it happen before where the certificate was fine the year before, however as its an annual thing, a year down the line a new part was needed in regards to the ventilation, and we had to move the contracts back by a week whilst this was resolved, thankfully my tenants were understanding that it was an unavoidable situation and we got everything pushed through as soon as possible.
Finally, I don't know what you mean by 'commission' that they charged her. Estate agents charge landlords commission, not tenants. Unless this is something new Foxtons are trying to do, in which case it is a bit crooked?? Bizarre.
Posts like this are irritating as 1) they divert attention from the dodgy things that *all* estate agents ARE responsible for and 2) are simply part of this 'blame culture' thats so rife in England nowadays, estate agents are always going to be fairly clueless - welcome to the real world, Foxtons responses are laughable but what would one expect from any estate agent in this situation.
Your sister should admit that she messed up by not taking things by the scruff of the neck, instead of trying the "injury lawyers for you" approach of "whats that? slipped on a wet floor?, why not sue the maintenance man!" idea.