Am I just better accepting deposit has gone?

tranmereforever

Hello all,

Bit of a complex one, moved into property on March 2008 and paid deposit to lettings agent. All going fine until six months ago when landlord gets repossesed - turns out that he is involved in a fraud case ( see link below)

Anyway have been asked by the managing agents handline the repossesion to check deposit etc so went back to orginal managing agents who told me that they " gave the deposit to the landlord at his request, in fact he requested all the deposits were made directly to him "

I have now been informed that it is likely that the deposit was not protected by the landlord and is now lost

Should I just leave the deposit as lost?, I still live in and really like the property, would I be able to ask for free rent to the equivilant value of the deposit etc, any advice would be greatly appreciated

http://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/news/Finance-firm-at-centre-of.5067766.jp

poppysarah

You got a receipt for that deposit?

silvercar

If the property has been repossessed then your landlord is now the lender.

You would claim for the return of the deposit from your ex-landlord. If he is bankrupt at that time, then you would be an unsecured creditor. If he is not bankrupt then you could claim it from him when you leave the property. The condition of the property would be irrelevent as the landlord is no longer connected with the property.

Geenie

What is it with these LA's handing over deposits to LL's without knowing that it was going directly to a secure place?! :mad:

I'm afraid I would persue the LA over this, as you went through them in good faith to do the right thing, and they clearly haven't. Report them to whatever organisation deals with their trade. They are passing the buck I think, and should be held to task for not making sure the regulations were followed. If you were dealing directly with them not the LL, they should have made sure your deposit was secure.

tranmereforever

Thanks you all for your responses, yes we did get a reciept at the time ( which we still have ) unfortuantly they are adamant it is not there problem as they passed it onto the LL. I think its terrible that we paid them the money and they passed it onto the LL with no checking of what he was going to do with it

What worries me even more is that they said to me

"mr ... ( LL name ) requested all the deposits back to him for all his properties, we are very sorry"

Seems like im not going to be the only one either unfortuantly

carlsberggal

By law a deposit/bond has to be held in a Tenanacy Deposit Scheme, so the onus should be only the agents acting for the landlord to ensure that this is done. See what organisation they belong to such as ARLA and complained to that body

Blacksheep1979

did you get a signed receipt from the agents for the deposit? If so you could argue that they have signed saying they are holding the deposit, if they then chose to give it to the landlord it's their problem.