This morning, when London Wallet tracked down and revealed the name of the Dulwich letting agency caught up in the media storm surrounding Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ unlicensed rental property, Harvey & Wheeler declined to comment.
However, this evening a statement has been released by Gareth Martin, head of the firm which confirms that the firm failed to follow through on an offer to apply for the licence.
The statement effectively exonerates Reeves from blame.
“We alert all our clients to the need for a licence. In an effort to be helpful our previous property manager offered to apply for a licence on these clients’ behalf, as shown in the correspondence.
“That property manager suddenly resigned on the Friday before the tenancy began on the following Monday.
“Unfortunately, the lack of application was not picked up by us as we do not normally apply for licences on behalf of our clients; the onus is on them to apply.
“We have apologised to the owners for this oversight.
“At the time the tenancy began, all the relevant certificates were in place and if the licence had been applied for, we have no doubt it would have been granted.
“Our clients would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for. Although it is not our responsibility to apply, we did offer to help with this.
“We deeply regret the issue caused to our clients as they would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for.”
EYE NEWSFLASH: Revealed! The letting agency believed to be at the centre of Rachel Reeves’ unlicensed home debacle
