I'll write more about this later on my personal blog, but I live in Dolphin Square, a place with a long, illustrious history. Now that I'm engaged, they've made it very clear that my fiancée cannot live with me (she has a cat) and I cannot live with her (I have a lease). They've patiently explained that I signed the papers and they can put my flat on the market along with several other flats they already are having trouble renting, but no, they are not willing to budge one inch. The little human touch about actually caring about people has been lost somewhere, but given my experience with Dolphin Square, this is no surprise.
Had this been simply a contractual matter, I might have just accepted that things like this happen in life and my fiancée and I will have to wait a while before we can live together. However, Dolphin Square is a shiny façade with precious little behind it (aside from, say, tiny issues like that pile of feces they left festering in a stairwell for several days or refusing to clean my flat before I moved in), so I effectively feel like the quality of living they've promised and the actual abysmal reality has left me robbed. The lease is the last straw. Hopefully I'll get a long, good rant going on my LJ and push it up near the top of Google.
I guess there's a pet clause or you'd just tell them to piss off?
Re:Wait, what?
Ovid on 2009-08-11T10:15:11
Yes, there is a pet clause. I was told this morning by one person working there that they've seen cats in windows. Apparently they're not keen on enforcing the pet clause
... except perhaps for people stupid enough to ask permission. Re:Wait, what?
elpenguin on 2009-08-11T10:25:02
I'm awfully reminded of this humorous exchange.
If you have problems with their management, look at your contract. Faeces in the stairwell is quite a different matter and they're legally obligated to provide a safe environment for you to live in.
As for the cat, just get on with it. Evidently they don't patrol checking for them if other people have them. Worst case scenario they demand you get rid of it (and then while you're back at square one, you got a few months out of it, possibly until the end of your lease?) If you're really lucky, they'll call breach of contract and you get out of your lease early.
I hope you have documented incidents such as the feces and the lack of cleaning. Continue to document any similar things which occur. In many countries, if they fail to live up to their obligations, you are justified in ending the contract early. I'm not sure if this would be the case in the UK, given how much the country likes to get exemptions from EU protections, but you might consider looking into the matter.
Also look at what the maximum legal penalty is for breaking the contract--it may not be as much as they've written in the contract. I find that landlords and employers often like to stick clauses which can't be enforced into contracts, assuming that nobody knows the actual law or can be bothered to investigate it. (In the Netherlands this position is especially silly, given that almost everyone has insurance which entitles them to legal representation.) Visit the legal aid society as well, once you've found something out, so that you're prepared if the landlord decides to fight you.
Re:check your legal options
Ovid on 2009-08-11T10:39:35
The feces incident happened before I moved in, but it's documented in the tenant newsletter which every flat receives. As for the lack of cleaning, I've got a huge list from the inspection and my brother and I both witnessed the letting agent explaining that they wouldn't clean it for us.
If things like faeces are common - then I think you might need a flickr feed...
Damn
Unfortunately every letting agency in the UK, and particularly London, can get away with being a bunch of useless/dishonest/generally unpleasant bastards.
The reason for this is that all the other letting agents are also a bunch of useless/dishonest/generally unpleasant bastards, so there's usually nothing to choose between them.
It would be nice to believe that a single competent, honest and pleasant agency could put all the others out of business, but if that were true then I imagine it would have happened by now. Clearly the market favours wankers.
What an inauspicious start to this new chapter of your life. I'm really sorry to hear about your rotten experience with Dolphin Square and their unreasonableness to come up with a more agreeable resolution to your change in circumstances.
The only thing I can suggest is to keep records and photographs of the incidents where the service they are providing you is less than satisfactory and look to terminating your contract with them earlier if they're not fulfilling their obligations.
--
Rosellyne Thompson
