I made an offer for a property (Lettings), which I was more than happy to pay 12 months upfront. Aaron was very nice and flexible with the contract at first. After showing interest and hoping to go ahead with the contract, I was asked to hold out specifically so they could gain more viewings and perhaps a better offer. When Aaron emailed back, I read that the offer was accepted, but the conditions were drastically different: I was told to pay 12 months upfront, with no break clause, no notice allowed, and the option for the landlady to keep all the money if I was to leave early ("it would then be down to the landlady’s discretion whether or not to give the remaining money back"); even finding a tenant replacement would not change this. Also, he claimed he "did not realize" I was paying upfront (highly unprofessional - not reading/taking your own clients' notes from viewings). When I called, Aaron was barely explaining anything; finally, he mentioned he would try and negotiate with the landlady as a special favour, trying to convince me that the above conditions were protecting me (?!). I am really not sure if this is due to unprofessionalism, lack of common sense, some twisted sales strategy or fraud being committed to an apparent easy target but I immediately withdrew my offer. After that, he replied with an FYI "the landlady would have given the money back if you left early" (as he expected me to have trusted her goodwill only) together with a copy-paste of a slogan "At Ashington Page we will always work in the best interest for both tenant and landlord / landlady". *All quotes from the emails. No doubt I will report this to the right organizations for further investigation.