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Tenancy Deposit Issues.
ExcitableBoy
Posts: 3 Newbie
Long story short, I've been in my flat for 9 months now. The whole experience has been an utter nightmare with all sorts of issues resulting from general incompetence and mismanagement on the part of the letting agent and landlord. Now that the vast majority of problems have been sorted, I've noticed that my flatmate and I were never informed of what became of our deposit. The deposit was roughly 2.5 months rent.
I have composed the following letter with a little help from friends, which I intend to send by RMSD on Tuesday. All names, locations and similar information have been redacted for obvious reasons. Am I overreacting here or should I be flushing these turds? I am taking the view that they have made the time I've spent living here an absolute misery and I feel I have no option but to treat them like a cowboy outfit, as that is what they seem intent on proving themselves to be.
Given that the deposit amounts would drive compensation over the £5,000 limit for a small claims track, out I SOL going down that route? Or has the limit been raised?
Any advice from people who have experience in dealing with John Wayne/Gary Cooper types would be much appreciated!
I have composed the following letter with a little help from friends, which I intend to send by RMSD on Tuesday. All names, locations and similar information have been redacted for obvious reasons. Am I overreacting here or should I be flushing these turds? I am taking the view that they have made the time I've spent living here an absolute misery and I feel I have no option but to treat them like a cowboy outfit, as that is what they seem intent on proving themselves to be.
Given that the deposit amounts would drive compensation over the £5,000 limit for a small claims track, out I SOL going down that route? Or has the limit been raised?
Date
RE: My Address
Dear Manager,
I am writing to serve you a complaint arising from, as far as I am aware, Letting Agent Ltd’s failure to adequately secure mine and Flatmate's Name's tenancy deposit in good time.1. The deposit (£X,XXX) was paid to Letting Agent Ltd by Flatmate's Name and myself in single payments of £X,XXX each by debit card, on XXth December 2011.
2. I have not received confirmation of which Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme the deposit has been registered under.
3. Having contacted three of the government approved Tenancy Deposit Protection Schemes (The Deposit Protection Service, My Deposit and The Dispute Service), all three have informed me that they have no record of either the deposit for or the property.
4. Not only has your colleague, Portfolio Manager, informed me that she has no record of the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme used, but she has been unable to contact the landlord to determine the whereabouts of the deposit at all. Our telephone conversations of XXth and XXth August refer.
With respect to the above, I am writing to you to request:1. The documentation and confirmation of the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme used, as set out by the Housing Act 2004.
2. Confirmation of who is currently holding the money, because at this late stage in our tenancy I am very concerned by your Property Manager’s inability to locate the money at all.
3. Compensation amounting to three times the amount of the deposit (£XX,XXX) for failing to fulfil your obligations under the Housing Act 2004 (which is to protect the deposit, and also to provide us with information about the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme used within 14 days of receiving the deposit).
It would be my preference to settle this matter outside of the small claims court. I look forward to your cooperation.
Please treat this as a formal letter before action. If I do not receive a written response from you within seven days of the date of this letter I will take the matter further. Unless I hear from you to the contrary, I will assume that the address to which I have sent this letter is also your address for any further proceedings.
Yours sincerely
Any advice from people who have experience in dealing with John Wayne/Gary Cooper types would be much appreciated!
0
Comments
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3x claim will both not be cheap in legal fees nor heard under small claims.
Suggest you remove details so agent doesn't realise what is going on - yet.
You appreciate your contract is with landlord not agent & you can take action against both?
How extraordinary to find an ignorant, stupid, cow-boy like agent, eh?
You are sure deposit (rather than deposit + rent) is 2.5 months? If so landlord/agent has been even more stupid & granted you extra rights.
This is England?0 -
theartfullodger wrote: »3x claim will both not be cheap in legal fees nor heard under small claims.
Suggest you remove details so agent doesn't realise what is going on - yet.
You appreciate your contract is with landlord not agent & you can take action against both?
How extraordinary to find an ignorant, stupid, cow-boy like agent, eh?
You are sure deposit (rather than deposit + rent) is 2.5 months? If so landlord/agent has been even more stupid & granted you extra rights.
This is England?
I'm positive that deposit was just deposit with no rent included. What extra rights has this granted me?
I'm not entirely sure where liability lies in this issue. The letting agency took my deposit (I still have the card receipts) but they're telling me it is the landlord's (property owner) responsibility to ensure that the deposit is secured. Now, does this mean my quarrel is with the landlord rather than the letting agent? My contract is with the letting agent and I have no information on the landlord at all, apart from their name.
Either way, when the assured shorthold tenancy agreement was signed, the law stated that both the deposit needed to be in a scheme within 14 days of payment I was to receive confirmation of this within 14 days of payment and the changes of April this year are not retrospective. Rather foolishly, I should have been more hot on this issue a while back, but with all the problems the letting agency has given me over the course of this tenancy, it slipped my mind as they made me fight them on absolutely everything that they should have been doing (repair work, damage when we moved in, etc etc).
For the sake of clarity, I cannot be sure as to whether or not the deposit is in a scheme. All indications show that it isn't, as per my original post. However, even if it is I never received confirmation of this. If it is just a case of the confirmation being lost in the ether, that's fine and I have no interest in chasing this up, but if my finances are at risk as a result, I will obviously want to make sure something gets done about it ASAFP.0 -
The agent took your deposit on behalf of the landlord, that's what being an agent means.
There should be an address on your tenancy agreement under the bit where it says :"for the serving of notices", so that's where you should send your letter.
Sending important mail like this should not be sent by RMSD, but by first class post. Send two copies from two different Post Offices retaining proof-of-postage for both. Signed-for mail can either be declined on the door-step or not collected, so would not persuade a court that it was definitely received.0 -
You need to think very carefully about what you wish to achieve here.
Do you wish to continue the tenancy after the end of the fixed term?
If you write to the landlord now (and yes, it is the LL with whom you
have a contract - the agent does exactly that - acts as an agent for the LL and it would be up to the LL to complain to the agent about their failure in this matter) then he/she may get shirty and protect the deposit and then issue a Section 21 to acquire possession at the end of the tenancy.
A Section 21 is not valid unless the deposit has been protected so you may wish to 'hang back' until you want to leave.
There is a good explanation here:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/paying_for_a_home/tenancy_deposits/tenancy_deposit_protection#decide_action
including a sample letter to write.
As B&T says do not send by recorded delivery. Plus keep copies of any paperowrk.0 -
I'd like to avoid ever dealing with them again. Even if they paid for me to continue renting with them I'd tell them where they could insert it.
At present I have just over 2 months tenancy left on the agreement, so I'm taking this as my cue to start returning the favour of making my life a hassle.0 -
ExcitableBoy wrote: »I'd like to avoid ever dealing with them again. Even if they paid for me to continue renting with them I'd tell them where they could insert it.
At present I have just over 2 months tenancy left on the agreement, so I'm taking this as my cue to start returning the favour of making my life a hassle.
REally - check how much that deposit was - your LL might be an uber-muppet : http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2010/06/28/why-can’t-tenancy-deposits-be-for-more-than-two-months-rent/0 -
And just be aware that the awarding of the 'between 1-3 times the deposit' is up to the court's discretion.
They will take into account the circumstances as to why the deposit was not protected and this includes the failure of the letting agent to do their job.
I cannot find any case law under the Localism Act but have read that the courts may be harsher on LLs who own multiple letting properties rather than the indivual who owns one.
I will see if I can find a link with opinion about this.0 -
pmlindyloo wrote: »A Section 21 is not valid unless the deposit has been protected so you may wish to 'hang back' until you want to leave.
I was under the impression that in these situations, the landlord must return the deposit, then take it back and protect it in order for a Section 21 to be valid?What matters most is how well you walk through the fire0 -
picklepick wrote: »I was under the impression that in these situations, the landlord must return the deposit, then take it back and protect it in order for a Section 21 to be valid?
You are correct. The law was amended this year.
Of course once the landlord has refunded the deposit, there is no way any sensible tenant will accept to pay a new one... Which basically means that the landlord must give up having any deposit before starting the s.21 process.0
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