Agent paid into deposit scheme late - advice please.

Babbler

Hello all,

We have had a few problems with our agent that we rented our house through. Recently we spoke to the landlady and informed her that they did not do a reference on us (which we paid for) and havent given us details of the deposit scheme.

She obviously has been in touch with them as we had a letter sayng the deposit was placed in the scheme a few days ago. We have been in the house more than 1 month now.

Does anyone know if we have a case as they didnt meet the law and put the money in within 14 days? Besides that we think we have a case for paying for a service that was never performed.

Thanks all.

BlameTheGame

Im not too sure about the 14 day rule but my understanding is that as long as the agent/landlord puts your deposit in a scheme it is ok. If you have paid for reference checks and they havnt performed them then you are well within your rights to pursue them. I'd ask the landlady if you can deal with her directly from now on, some/most estate/letting agents are a complete waste of space.

Planner

You should get a refund for the reference if you have paid for it and they havent done it. You havent said how much you paid for this? I suspect the amount will reflect whether or not its worth arguing about.

If the deposit has now been protected and the details of it supplied to you, you dont have the right to make a claim even though it is a little late.

Babbler

The fee was £200. They dont want to manage us anymore anyway as they dont like us (we arent pushovers).

Planner

Babbler wrote: »

The fee was £200. They dont want to manage us anymore anyway as they dont like us (we arent pushovers).

But how nuch of that fee was for reference taking? Im assuming you dont mean they charged you the full £200 for just references?!

Babbler

They didnt break down the fee. In total we paid £400 of which £200 was referencing and holding fee.

Also - the AGENCY hasnt yet provided us with:

The details of the scheme administrator e.g. The Deposit Protection Service
Any information contained in a leaflet supplied by the scheme which explains how it operates
The procedures in relation to holding and repaying the deposit and the resolution of any dispute
The landlords details
The circumstances when all or part of the deposit may be retained by the landlord, by reference to the terms of the tenancy


We had a letter from the scheme itself but nothing from the agency other than the tenancy agreement and a letter that said it will be held in the scheme.

tbs624

How do you *know* that the LA did not undertake referencing? Referencing can include credit checks etc. You are entitled to see the result of any of these checks, so write to the LA (keeping a copy) and ask to see what information they hold on you.

IMO no LA or LL should be charging a tenant more than £75 max for these types of check ( & that includes the 3rd party credit referencing), so you should have asked for a breakdown of the charges to be given to you before you signed up.

In the same letter tell them that understand from the LL that they have now actually scheme registered your deposit, albeit xx days late, but that you still have not yet received the deposit scheme's prescribed information from them, contrary to the Housing Act 2004, S213. Give them 3 working days to provide it.

The fact that they scheme registered the deposit late (ie outside the supposed "14 day limit") means that they can defeat any action by you: provided that a deposit was scheme -registered or returned in full to the T at some point prior to a court hearing it seems that LLs can cover themselves. This obviously makes a mockery of having the 14 day limit in the first place: as I've said in other threads they should up the limit to 21 days for "slow" LLs then make the penalty that if they miss that very generous deadline (because the deposit can be registered online on the day of receipt) then the LL should not be able to serve a S21 at all for that tenancy. As the law stands at the moment they cannot serve a S21 until such time as they register the deposit, but once it is registered( albeit late) they can then serve a S21.

Bear in mind that, ultimately, it is *your LL's responsibility* to ensure that the tenancy deposit regs are complied with. Any LL who simply leaves it up their LA, and fails to check that the regs have been complied with, is a fool IMO.