Landlord wont set up standing order...am i protected?

lanky_manky

Hi guys. I wonder if anyone can help. Myself and my girlfriend recently moved into a furnished flat...paid the deposit at the estate agents and also signed a standing order agreement for the money to come out of my account. After the first month we noticed no money had been taken out. I rang the bank who said they hadnt recieved a standing order. Speaking to the landlord he simply said send us a cheque for that month and we will send you another agreement. Didnt get that agreement and i keep rining the landlord to ask him to setup the standing order and i keep getting 'ill ring you back' ...but to no avail. Ive rang the estate agents (who need to work on their customer service), who simply said 'we sent the original documents..sometimes banks are useless'. So there you have it...for once the tennant is trying desperately to pay the rent but no one seems to want it!!

Question is, becuase this is making me nervy (especially with a large sum of money sitting in my account), am i protected? Or even, is there something which benefits me in this with regards to actually having to pay the rent?

Many thanks!

David

CLAPTON

Why dont you set up as standing order yourself with your bank?
Standing orders don't take money from your acccount (unlike Direct debits) but your bank sends them the money... all you need is their sort code and account number and a reference.

mlz1413

Normally you set up the standing order with your bank. Its normal practise for the LA or LL to give you a completed form with the details of which bank and the date and amount are filled out, but then you sign and give to your bank. I would assume if this standing order arrived in the post to the bank then the bank would need to check its your signature (and not a forged one) which could mean its 'lost' in the system.

Agree with Clapton just go into your bank fill in a new one and explain that another might exsist the bank will help you from there.

Premier_2

Ensure any standing order form you sign is notated as follows:

"This instruction cancels any previous order in favour of the beneficiary named in respect of the account number quoted"

By doing that, only the latest signed form received by the bank will be valid.


As others say, it's normally up to you to send the form to your bank as the LL can do nothing with it other than send it to your bank himself. Or you can just complete one in the bank, online, etc, but you will need the LLs bank account number & sort code.

TrickyDicky

I had the same problem when I moved in. The Agent's were rubbish. The standing order agreement didnt go through, so I rang the management company (not the agent we got the flat through) and they gave us bank details so we could set up our own standing order. Then a few months later a member from the management company came round all the flats (building, 10x flats, owned by same LL) giving everyone the correct details because the agent had given everyone the wrong detials. Suffice to say the MC were not happy with the agent.

The agent also made us fill in a suthern electric forms for DDs for the gas and electric, only to find out over a month later that the gas and electric were supplied by british gas and edf by way of post saying "We notice you've been using our electricity/gas, and we dont know who you are!".

Useless (on a side note the management company have been good).