Tax

There is a simple but long explanation for this... when you decided you wanted Foxtons to market your property, the gave you certain forms to fill out and sign, this includes Name, Adress, Contact Details, Bank Details and Residence.

Sometimes it happens that a LL assumes that everybody in Foxtons knows who he/she is because they have more than one property. WRONG....

For every single property you own, you should complete these forms, specially these sections

• Contact details: If you fail to write down your contact address or you use the property being let as your contact address, you will be taxed as Overseas, even if you live next door to Foxtons. Remember to write down a landline number as well.

• Bank Details: If you don't want to receive a cheque on your name, don't forget to fill out these space, and if you forgot to fill out your contact details it will be sent to the property being let. Other issues arise when the owner is a professional LL and has several properties and several bank accounts, as these space is left out blank, rental monies can be sent to the wrong account, or to avoid clawbacks it will be sent by cheque.

• Residence: If your residence, contact address, telephone number or Bank details are Overseas, you will be taxed. If you're a first time LL, it is the duty of the negotiator, valuer or lettings manager to request your NRL (ex-FICO) excemption certificate. If they haven't done this, do fax yours as soon as possible to the lettings manager in order to have your retained Tax released. One other thing, if this is a multiple owner property you need to provide a copy for each one of the LL's, as failure to do so will incur on the LL that hasn't got the excemption being taxed.

If you're willing to get a reimbursement of your overdraft interest and it's worth the calls you're going to make, do contact the head of Managed or Non Managed properties or escalate it to their director, unfortunately I can't write down names or emails. As for the apologies..... Good Luck!!

I have just been stiffed by these unspeakable people for an 'administration fee' of £115 for withholding tax because I live offshore.  The only problem is, the Inland Revenue have cleared me to receive rent without deduction for the past many years and Foxtons themselves were paying me gross for the last 3.  When I got a new tenant they decided they had lost or never receive the necessary authorisation.  What did they do?  Email or phone me?  No, just slap a charge on and wait for me to find out, which took a while as they stopped sending me statements but did not tell me how to log on.

 Now they refuse to refund this.

Good customer service?  Or theft?