Beginning this week: Bay Life, online and in print, investigates the lettings agent, Freeman Foreman, in Eastbourne. Is the company breaking the law in their requests for ‘good faith payments from prospective tenants in Pevensey Bay?—Bay Life, 13 August 2017
In a major investigation, we seek the opinions of the two MPs involved in the question, Huw Merriman MP for Pevensey Bay and Stephen Lloyd, MP for Eastbourne.
We ask the manager of Freeman Foreman in Eastbourne to explain the basis on which prospective tenants in Pevensey Bay are being asked for ‘good faith payments’ of beyond £500.
An informed property lettings adviser in Pevensey Bay told us, ‘to describe a payment from tenants as a good faith payment is obviously wrong, this is a service charge being applied and a request for a fee that should be described as such”.
In the case we tell at the story of a mother and son, both working full time, seeking accommodation in Pevensey Bay. A property in Pevensey Bay is identified as available for rent at £675pcm. According to the lettings agent the mother and son would have required £2,200 to move in.
When we looked at the figures it became clear that part of this payment was what was described as a ‘good faith payment’ from the tenant to the lettings agent.
With a crisis in Pevensey Bay and such desperate need for suitable accommodation in the village amongst working people, we ask the qustion, should ‘good faith payments be banned by law?
We give all sides the opportunity to tell their story and offer the case to the two MPs involved as a possible test case to take up as a Parliamentary question.
