Hi Yulia. Thanks for your feedback. Prior to the viewing you made an enquiry asking if the landlord was OK with one child of school age. We contacted the landlord and he accepted that a child should be OK, thus a viewing to the property was organised. We explained to you that you would be the first people seeing the property, and that was nobody else in front of you at the time. You attended the property with you partner, your school age child and a baby. You made an application which included some conditions requested by you, including the removal of some furniture and decoration. The landlord was not available over the phone thus we communicated your offer and conditions to him by email. We explained to you that as soon as we heard from the landlord we would come back to you. As per our Agency Agreement with the landlord, we kept advertising the property until we received further instructions from the him. On Tuesday 21st September we chased the landlord to confirm if he was happy with the application that you had made. We, as much as you, wanted the application to be accepted by the landlord. We spoke to him over the phone, but he was not sure about accepting your application due to the conditions that you had requested. Thus the landlord asked us to wait for a day or two and keep the property on the market whilst he could make a decision. We spoke to you on the same day and explained to you that the landlord was still considering your application. On the morning of Wednesday 22nd September we received another application for the same property, with an offer of 12-month rent paid up-front and no conditions. As the agent of the landlord and in accordance to The Letting Code of Practice (Scotland), the Code of Practice of ARLA Propertymark (professional body that we belong to), and Law of Agency we were obliged to pass on any offers made to the landlord until a tenancy had been executed (i.e. the point of the tenancy agreement being signed and dated, which happens after the referencing process has been completed). The landlord accepted the second offer straightaway. For clarification, neither we nor the landlord had 'approved' or accepted your offer at any point. As professional letting agents we will never take a deposit from an applicant until the landlord has accepted an application with conditions, at least verbally. Your application was still at the incipient phase of just being communicated to the landlord, and thus there was no agreement in place. If you wish to bring this matter to an independent redress system to make sure that the matter has been dealt with correctly you can refer to The Property Ombudsman, a body that we are member of and adhere to. If you prefer to discuss this matter directly with me, please contact me on my direct line 01224-974140 and I will listen to your concerns. Yours sincerely, Eduardo Prato, Director, Martin & Co Aberdeen.