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Hovis-
I'm afraid so. Massive overkill on our part but simply reflects the level of confidence we had on the matter and the fact we wanted to shit them up a bit. The principal of the matter had us so furious that we were happy to pay through the nose to make an example of them so went with a solicitor with a few high profile defeats of estate agents. I guess we were lucky that we got that money back.
It also didn't take many hours. Small change compared to the cost of the tenancy agreement they were trying to hold us to.
I just remembered. There was an extra step. They initially agreed to tear up the tenancy agreement but then tried to hold us for paying a year's worth of the management fee on the property "as a favour".
Stonehedge
/csb warning
I got legal with Foxtons in 2013 as a tenant after they were extremely dishonest and unreliable over a property that I rented. They were managing it for a expat and on moving in day I discovered that it was smeared with dog shit and piss. They told the landlord that we were lying and that it had been "professionally cleaned" (he was in SA so couldn't check) and then demanded twelve months of rent after we refused to move in. The landlord was told that we faked our financial references and were trying to wriggle out because we had no money.
It looked like it was heading to court but then the lettings manager at that particular branch accidentally forwarded me an email of a conversation between Foxtons staff discussing how they were going to lie to cover their tracks and dupe the landlord. Once I passed that on to my solicitor, they backed off without a word, paid compensation and my legal costs. At that point I was glad that I had used a £1k per hour solicitor.
Utter cunts.