Deposit not being returned by Letting Agency

Rawz

Hi,

I rented a house with 6 others in Cardiff from 07/08 - 07/09, through a student letting agency. The contract was an Assured short hold tenancy agreement. Now 4 months sinced we all moved out, we still haven't received our deposits back. In the contract it states the deposit will be registered with the tenancy deposit scheme. After weeks of phone calls to the Agency, where we were constantly getting excuses as to why the deposit was late being returned to us, mostly trivial administation procedures that I would have thought would take a couple of weeks not 4 months.

Basically yesterday one of my ex-housemates finally got hold of the manager who 'Is strongly considering giving none of the 7 tenants their deposit back because of separate outstanding rent issues with some of the tenants'. We all know we have paid our rent, there is nothing outstanding, apart from late fee's which is another issue. So this boils down to either the fact they have huge administration problems and can't keep records of whats paid to them, or the manager is withholding the deposit for as long as he can for whatever reason. I am yet to be in contact with him, I am promised he will phone me tomorrow so I can question him directly on the issue, but I doubt that will come to fruition. Right now I need advice if he does ring me I know exactly what to say.

We checked to see which tenancy deposit scheme we are covered in, eventually getting the answer as mydeposits.co.uk after getting the reference number. I phoned them up today, and received the answer that only 2 out of the 7 tenants are registered with them at the property, neither of whom are me, each for much larger an amount than the £240 we each paid for the deposit. That means I cannot go through mydeposits to dispute my deposit to get it back.

I don't really know where all this leaves me, I have the contract still and reading it doesn't give me a lot of information on how the bond is covered or paid back. Any advice on where I stand would be great, I know I really need to speak to the Agency manager which I will hopefully do soon, but I have no idea what he'll say to me or if he'll answer my questions.

Jowo_2

When a tenant has a legal dispute, quite often the agency is a total irrelevance and they must seek civil redress with the landlord. Agencies represent but do not replace landlords, they merely serve them. Tenants have a direct legal relationship with the landlord.

Do you have the address of the landlord? If not, request this from the agency as they are obliged to supply it within 21 days of a written request.
Was it a joint tenancy or did you have individual agreements? My understanding is that a single AST can't have more than 5 tenants. In a joint AST, tenants are jointly and severally liable, therefore if some of the tenants defaulted in paying the rent, all tenants are responsible for the shortfall.

By the mention of the 2 tenants, do you mean they were nominated as the lead tenants, therefore, the 2 tenants represent the other 5 tenants?

Rawz

I do have the address of my landlord, but no contact number etc.

I presume it is a Joint tenancy agreement, as all of us are included to sign for it, and the rent is stated as the total amount.

I thought that the deposit could not be held for outstanding rent issues??

Jowo wrote:

By the mention of the 2 tenants, do you mean they were nominated as the lead tenants, therefore, the 2 tenants represent the other 5 tenants?

I meant that one of the tenants was put down as the lead tenant, the other as a normal tenant. I understand this should have been the lead plus the 6 others as tenants, but only 1 is present on the certificate, confirmed by mydeposits.co.uk

Colincbayley

You can't have 7 people on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy and for it still to be valid.

As an AST the document you all signed is worthless.
Also, as it falls outside of an AST there is no need for the agent/landlord to protect the deposit.

However, saying that you do still have a contract ( as in a formal contract between any two parties )
Post your question on www.landlordzone.com/forums and ask Jeffrey for the full in's and out's of what you need to do. ( He really does know his stuff! )

Jowo_2

I'm not familiar with the specifics of that scheme to be honest.

Get the lead tenants to raise a dispute with DPS. What does their website say about retention of deposits for rent arrears? What does your AST say about rent arrears/deposit?

It's fairly common for a deposit to be used for rent arrears. In fact, if the arrears and damage is greater than the deposit, a landlord can take the tenants to court for the difference.

Ask the agency for a breakdown of the deductions, in terms of which tenants owe how much rent.

Are they claiming that there was damage to the property and if so, was there a signed inventory in place?

The Shelter website should have some info on how to deal with the return of a protected deposit and how an AST for 5+ tenants should legitimately operate.

Rawz

There is no information on mydeposits website, I will get one of the registered tenants to start a dispute on their site. There was no claim for damage, but obviously I haven't had the chance to speak to the manager directly to question him exactly why he wants to keep the deposit. The problem is he could just change his story when he phones me up or use another excuse.

I wouldn't have thought everything is above board considering in 4 months they haven't even bothered notifying any of the 7 tenants of outstanding rent/fee's etc, or of any damage to the property. It's only after we ring them every day to get an answer, but they still don't seem willing to actually resolve the issue. I think there may be some personal reasons between the manager and our former household from problems during the year regarding the relationship between the Agency and the Landlord.

Basically they had some sort of dispute so the landord came to our house demanding we stop paying the letting agency and pay her directly because she accused the LA of not paying her. Then soon after (un-announced with no notice several time) the LA manager came round telling us not to listen to the landlord and keep paying the Agency. They even got to the point where the LA Manager came to the property again, I wouldn't let him in because I told him he needs to give us notice and not keep turning up on our doorstep, so I listened to his 'sob-story' of how him and the Landlord had an ongoing dispute over a personal loan, and then the landlord turned up to visit one of her properties next door and they had a full blown argument on the doorstep in foreign so I had no idea what they were talking about. Needless to say, this caused disruption in the payment of rent of which I have been given substantial late fee's for, and maybe be the cause of some of the rent arrears. It also left the relationship between the LA manager and my household pretty bad because we didn't trust him and one of my fellow tenants had some sort of a confrontation with him due to a small matter, nothing physical just verbal because the LA had no sympathy for us after causing us a lot of aggravation during most tenants final year at university. I think this has led to a personal vendetta between the LA manager and the tenant, and he is now making it difficult for us.

Colincbayley

Do not forget your dispute is with the LANDLORD not the agent. The LA is just the appointed rep of the LL. If you have the landlords address write to him and demand the return of your deposit.

Fire_Fox

Why, after four months and given the problems during the tenancy, are you still dealing with this by telephone?? Write to the landlord and copy in the letting agent stating that you (all) want your deposit returning within fourteen days or you will be taking him to the small claims court. Send the letters recorded delivery. If there is outstanding rent, the letting agent may not be able to discuss that with other tenants under the data protection act. Did you all have one tenancy agreement or one each? Why can't the two tenants who are named on the protected deposit go through the disputes procedure?

Jowo_2

To be clear here, even though the LL and LA had a bust up, the tenancy is between yourself and the landlord.

The LL had contract with the LA to manage the property. The LL had a contract with Tenants.

Even when contracts are signed between tenants and a LA, they are in fact signed between tenant and LL (because of the extra contract that gives the LL authority to act on their behalf, this is the one that you don't see and don't need to care about).

This means that any legal action you take must be with the LL and any problems he is having with the LA is his problem to deal with.

Speak to Shelter. Or post a summary (brief!) on the rental forum at Landlordzone because some of their members are professional Letting agents and housing solicitors and have more experience of dealing with a problem of this complexity.