Hi, first of all I hope this is the right section to ask my question, if this is not the case I'm really sorry.
I'm a French student who came to Sydney for a research internship. I found a room in a flatshare through Flatmates.com.au. The person who I'm in contact with is one of the owner or something like that, at least his full time job looks like renting rooms since he has many listings for many rooms. Here's my issue: before giving me access to room this guy (let's call him Ed) wants me to pay the equivalent of 6 weeks of renting, 4 of which are finders fees. Also he doesn't want me to give me access to the room until the money gets to his bank account, even if I provide him with a documentary evidence that the transfer has been made by my bank. My banker says that it should arrives in 1 week. The thing is Ed didn't make me sign anything, no contract about anything and I already paid him 1 week in cash out of the 6 weeks so he can hold the room for me. So I would like if this was legal ? Like should I pay him or not since I haven't signed anything? He is not being very responsive and nice so that's why I'm checking the legal technicalities of this. I wanted to contact LegalAdvice services but maybe it is an easy question to answer that's why I'm asking here first.
Thank you very much,
Olivier
I'm a French student who came to Sydney for a research internship. I found a room in a flatshare through Flatmates.com.au. The person who I'm in contact with is one of the owner or something like that, at least his full time job looks like renting rooms since he has many listings for many rooms. Here's my issue: before giving me access to room this guy (let's call him Ed) wants me to pay the equivalent of 6 weeks of renting, 4 of which are finders fees. Also he doesn't want me to give me access to the room until the money gets to his bank account, even if I provide him with a documentary evidence that the transfer has been made by my bank. My banker says that it should arrives in 1 week. The thing is Ed didn't make me sign anything, no contract about anything and I already paid him 1 week in cash out of the 6 weeks so he can hold the room for me. So I would like if this was legal ? Like should I pay him or not since I haven't signed anything? He is not being very responsive and nice so that's why I'm checking the legal technicalities of this. I wanted to contact LegalAdvice services but maybe it is an easy question to answer that's why I'm asking here first.
Thank you very much,
Olivier