Mirror, mirror on the wall

The Mirror has published a further story about the fraudulent activities of Robin Larkins and The Real World Rental Company. Now at least we have a face to the name.

It is sad to note that these activities are still continuing, and the same lies are spewed forth:

"We've satisfied most outstanding issues," he insisted (Larkins that is, not Ian from the court).

"At the end of the day, we are agents. If owners say to us to withhold a deposit or forward it to them, that's what we do.

"With about 30 people on short-term leases a week that's 1,500 a year. These issues are a very small percentage."

Rent with confidence?

When you rent a property through Holiday-Rentals you are given the option of signing up to a free service, called "Rent with confidence". Sounds good, eh? Actually it means very little indeed, as I have found to my cost. There are a number of others who have suffered the same fate.

I was interested to read that the review I wrote on the property at 63A Harcourt Terrace in London, was followed by another negative review, which had the familiar ring about it - the renter hadn't had his/her deposit refunded.

I pointed this out to Holiday Rentals, who continue to believe that Robin Larkins and The Real World Rental Company are highly reliable, despite repeatedly being advised that they continue this fraud.

Here are the reviews. Anyway, this property is now no longer listed through Holiday-Rentals, but whether that's because Larkins has been unable to get any takers, or whether Holiday Rentals have now finally realised that his fraudulent activities are widespread, and their continuation of allowing him to advertise could be in breach of the Fraud Act, is not clear.

Well, not crystal clear. They seem to have adopted the non-response attitude of their cohort, and they are still advertising some of his properties. I'm not sure why, but you can draw you own conclusions.

I was sad to hear from another victim of the fraud that she too had not received her refund on yet another Holiday-Rentals/Robin Larkins/The Real World Rental Company property. More details to follow.

And yet another victim has written on this site describing their scam.

And on and on...

Who did you rent through?

I was surprised to learn from one of my commentators that whereas I had thought Holiday-Rentals had no liability for those of us who rented through them, he suggested otherwise:

dfwm said...
I am sorry to hear it, (but not surprised) [that you have been ripped off]. I have heard nothing from Holiday-Rentals since they advised they were "looking into [my] concerns" on 18 December, and they still appear to be advertising RWRC and Larkins' properties, so again, one really has to question their motives and involvement. It is after all based on their reputation that many of us have rented properties from Larkins. But as they have no responsibility, and no liability, they have no interest in whether customers are ripped off either. Best to avoid them too in my opinion. If you wish to contact me directly, please feel free to do so, and I can give you more details about my endeavours, which may assist you in yours.
January 20, 2009 10:35 PM

Anonymous said...
I'm actually not convinced that Holidays Rentals have no liability or responsibility. If they are well aware of alleged fraud of Robin Larkins and potential loss to their client, then they must have a fiduciary duty (that exists in any agent / principal relationship) to disclose that information. Furthermore, I also wouldn't rule out the implications under the Fraud Act of 2006 - Section 3 (Failure to Disclose Information). Officers of the company are tied to the offence under Section 12 (Liability of Company Officers for Offences of Company). Maximum penalty - 10 years in jail. In practice, I suspect the fraud squad would think their time is probably best spent investigating Mr Larkins directly, but Section 12 will at least give his cohorts something to think about presumably.
January 21, 2009 11:21 AM

dfwm said...
That's very interesting re Holiday-Rentals. I chased them again on 20 Jan (Sandy Kirk), but he has not responded.....

What planet are they on?

When my troubles first began with Robin Larkins and The Real World Rental Company, I thought at least I might be able to find some assistance from Holiday-Rentals, whose website I used to find Larkins and his company.

In the first instance, and after feeling somewhat worried by their unprofessional behaviour, I tried to seek reassurance from Holiday-Rentals that The Real World Rental Company was bona fide. I had completed the Rental Guarantee service offered by Holiday-Rentals, but I wanted some reassurance about what this actually meant, and so - as suggested from their "Rent with Confidence" registration email, I made further inquiries. This guarantee promises that they will respond within 24 hours. 24 hours on which planet? It's now over 3 months, and there has been no response.

Subsequently, after my rental had completed and my several requests to Robin Larkins and The Real World Rental Company for the return of my deposit amounted to nothing, I contacted Holiday-Rentals again.

I had a conversation with Sonia Diadhiou and explained the problems I had been having. She asked me to send her an email with all the details of my complaint, which I immediately did. She then rang Robin Larkins and based on a "reassurance" from him, replied to me that he would be repaying my deposit that week, (herewith the reply, dated 8 November:)

Thank you for your email.

I contacted Robin Larkins and he has been arranging your deposit with the owner. He is Ok as from my team leader because Holiday-rentals has used him before to rent out his properties.

He will be in touch next week.

In turn I wrote immediately back to Holiday-Rentals:


Thank you for your reply.

I am somewhat unclear what "he has been arranging your deposit with the owner" actually means. I have been told by both him (on 28 October) and his wife on 4 November that the money was being paid on those dates. It has not been. I was advised by Emma (their staff) that Rachel Larkins is the owner; She also said at our check out that the deposit would be refunded within 7-10 days. We left on 13 October. Their Licence Agreement states that the deposit will be refunded usually within 10 days. These deadlines have long passed

You will note from the websites I forwarded to you that others have been waiting more than 6 months for the return of their deposit, so I am eager to learn why his reassurances to you should mean anything. Can you advise?

Also, you state that your team leader is OK with Larkins because Holiday-Rentals has used his company before. Does this mean that Holiday-Rentals is "OK" with Larkins defrauding customers? Please advise, as obviously this is important in the likely legal proceedings that I will have to take, because unfortunately I have no faith in any assurances given by Larkins or his staff.

I look forward to hearing from you soonest.

Unfortunately Holiday-Rentals declined to respond. So on 12 December I obtained the name and contact details of the head of customer services, Sandy Kirk and asked him to please follow up. After no reply, I followed up again on 18 December and he has replied as follows:

...we are looking into your concerns, this agent has been with us for nearly 3 years without any complaints so far, and we are looking into yours. We have an internal company policy on complaints and will deal with this situation according to those policies.

I responded with this:

I note your comments regarding Larkins and The Real World Rental Company. I am truly surprised that the incidences that I highlighted to your colleague over one month ago produced no response whatsoever from Holiday-Rentals. It's not just my own complaint, (of non refund of my deposit), but there are many other customers who have been similarly defrauded, the details of which I have provided to you. Whether or not you have had a three year relationship with Larkins, you need to seriously question your vetting procedures for companies that advertise through your portal. It may be that I am the first customer to report these issues to you, but I doubt it.

I then went on to (again) provide them with the details of a customer who rented through their website, and who has waited 9 months to receive her deposit back.

So I ask you - what planet are they on?