[ej1987]

Before anybody decides to go through Interlet I thought I would describe the situation they placed us in. After a 2 and a half hour journey to London we arrived at Interlet where we signed up for just under £80. We had to give them information about the kind of properties we were looking for, we then got sent to places to view and after travelling across London found one to be out of our price range given and the other one being in our opinion dirty, Interlet told us they do not view the properties they send you to so they would not realise this. We were told to travel back again on the saturday and we would be able to see better properties, they weren't better in our opinion and after seeing one we were asked to wait till 445 when somebody would meet us at one of interlets own properties to show us around. After waiting around all this time we turned up at the house. Instead of letting us know early they waited till 445 to let us know no one was coming to the house to meet us and that the house was only for one person when we had come into Interlet as a couple and asked for a room for a couple, making the journey across London pointless and we could have left for home much earlier. We are no longer using Interlet and will go elsewhere as we believe their service to be poor and highly inadequate and a waste of time and money, for us.

[Bluey]

See the Gumtree stay safe tips when looking for accommodation.

http://www.gumtree.com/help/stay_safe#item73

We caution against paying upfront fees to accommodation finding services and do not let them advertise on Gumtree.

Contact the local trading standards department of the local council to see if they can recommend the best way to deal with this (this might be through the small claims court based on breach of contract).

If you see any ads from an agent that charges a fee to receive listings or before arranging viewings, then report it to Gumtree Admin.

This forum is stuffed full of critical posts about the handful of agencies in London that don't actually manage properties on behalf of landlords and charge tenants big fees just to supply accommodation lists that a tenant could have just found for free on the internet anyway.

If an agent is receiving hundreds of pounds every day in upfront 'admin' or 'registration' or 'appointment' fees, there's no incentive for them to provide any great service, is there?

They don't operate like other agencies that actually have properties on their books who have to hustle to get commission from landlords and match tenants to properties in order to make an income.

[happypole]

Sorry to hear that EJ1987. There's loads of posts on here about Interlet, they're pretty well known, watch out for flat1971 as well, they seem to be even more notorius oh and Central Flats that arent as well known but just as dodgy.
If it seems suspiciously cheap (i.e. only about 25 times the price of of a room outside London) it's probably a scam. I found an ad for a entire flat on Baker Street a few weeks ago that claimed to be going for £65 a week!!!