beware moorfoot estates

lanzogirl

jenni2777 wrote: »

hi neil
i have been to donnas house ,and she is claiming that brendan taylor fraundulantly put her name down as director,she has got the police involved and cid are investigating.as she isnt claiming responsibility.so no one is closing the bank account or informing tentants to stop paying money in.trading standards was down there yesterday to try to do something .the tenants havent lost out ,its the landlords .have you checked your tenants deposit?.im lucky as i sacked moorfoots back in april as they wasnt giving passing on the tenants rent.finally got my money but i had trouble getting the deposit. got the property onbudsman involved and they got back to me saying in was never placed into a scheme which i had invoices stating it was.anyway trading standards told me to take any letters to the accountants address in bath street.i have already left a letter for donna and in the office which was stamped,moorfoots owe me £545 of tenants deposit.brendon was scheming for 2 years and run off with the girl from the office with all the cash.they havent gone bust as alot of people were suspecting.there is a warrant out for his arrest ,but he will prob set up in spain and scam more people.

Hi Donna is right in what she is telling you, he conned her and she is as angry with him as us does he care naaaaaaaaaa.

jenni2777

has anyone heard anything else about whats happening ,or who else to contact reguarding lost deposits? ,

shelllassie

I was a tenant at Moorfoots and he has taken my deposit of 450 pounds. I have been through citizens advice and they told me to write a letter formally requesting my deposit back. the letter was returned by p.office as they are now out of the office. We spoke to one of the secretaries before they left and they said that he is still wandering around town trying to appraoch tenants for their money and it is not Donna's fault. He apparently used her name fraudulantely- i don't really care i just want my money!
I am checking companies house regularly to see if moorfoot has declared insolvency but nothing as yet. Can anyone suggest any other route- I am aware it is stupid to go to court yet until the administartors are in.
I also saw the article in the paper- surely more publicity needs to be done to bring this out in the open- he can't get away with it! I am willing to talk to anyone who has any suggestions.

Jowo_2

shelllassie wrote: »

I was a tenant at Moorfoots and he has taken my deposit of 450 pounds. I have been through citizens advice and they told me to write a letter formally requesting my deposit back. the letter was returned by p.office as they are now out of the office.

Verify this with Shelter or Citizens Advice but my understanding is that your landlord is responsible for returning your deposit, not the agency. It's a shame if they've also been stiffed by the agent but that's a matter for them to deal with separately through civil action. You could always cite them as co-defendents on a small claims court action if advised to do this by experts.

Basically, the agency are mere representatives of the landlord and everything you sign as a tenant with them is actually signed directly with the landlord (because there is usually a separate agreement between landlord and agent). The primary legal relationship always is between tenant and landlord - the agent are transparent windows through to them and are usually an irrelevance in any legal proceedings by tenants.

Demand the return of the deposit back from the landlord and let them know it's up to them to get it back from the agent.

Have you checked whether it should have been lodged in a tenancy deposit scheme and if so, was it? Details of TDS and how to take the landlord to court for the return of the deposit will be on the Shelter website. If the landlord should have protected it but did not, the tenant can request x3 the sum of the deposit as compensation. Unfortunately, the wording of this is quite poor and tenants don't always receive this sum if the landlord retrospectively protects it before it reaches court.

shelllassie

thanks for that I have just finished writing a letter to the landlord to see if I have any luck with that route! will let you know

Jowo_2

shelllassie wrote: »

thanks for that I have just finished writing a letter to the landlord to see if I have any luck with that route! will let you know

I'm expecting the landlord to be shocked and unaware that they are responsible for your loss and to resist your request that they repay your deposit. Not all landlords understand that the agency is legally an irrelevance and that tenants have any redress directly with themselves once their agent has mismanaged the property.

Verify now where you stand with Shelter and if the landlord does not cooperate, you must ratchet up the pressure by sending very quickly to them what is known as a 'letter before action' where you state quite simply to the landlord that if your deposit is not returned in full by x date, you will take court action.

Both the Shelter and HM Court websites should have sample templates for this brief letter - keep a copy. When x date lapses, if you haven't had your deposit back, you must sue them through the small claims court and hit them with the x3 penalty if the deposit was not lodged in a tenancy deposit scheme (once you've checked that it should have been but was not protected in any of the 3 schemes).

There are plenty of threads on Landlordzone forums on how to do this if you don't discover any threads here on how to deal with unprotected deposits.

Again, it's a shame that the landlord is being penalised but this kind of impact (agency absconding with the deposit) is something that a tenant does not have to suffer.

Good luck.

Angel212

So what are we going to do about fraudster Brendan Taylor, surely he shouldn't be allowed to get away scott free? The police are suposedley involved as are Wolverhampton Trading Standards but I think we need to speed up the process. This thief is working and living in Wolverhampton without remorse and without explaining himself to his clients, both landlords and tenants. If anyone knows his address please post or advise Trading Standards so that he can be questioned.

Owed_Trader

Brendan taylor is living at 153 Blackbrook Way, Fordhouses WV10 8TD and drinks in the Bentlands on a Friday night

shelllassie

i thought he had left the country!! surely the police must have been called already, by Donna and landlords/tenants?

jenni2777

does anyone have news yet of administrators coming in .i cant believe nothing is being done anout this .