Please help re flat deposit

clutton_2

EL - wait for the court to ask you for new info/or wait for them to tell you she has not responded If she does not respond this puts her in even deeper trouble than before. This must be so frustrating for you having to wait for all these slow court procedures, but, you are doing the honest thing here, you are playing it exactly right thru the legal system, and she is not -= this will defo go in your favour with the Judge.

i would hold fire myself on the Argus till you decide on these two other legal options as you mentioned earlier today. You dont want to be accused of prejudicing the case with one-sided publicity right at the last minute.

Re downloading titles, they are often 10 weeks behind the actual sales date - you could try phoning your appropriate land registry - i have always found them to be extraordinarily helpful to members of the public - and explain your situation and why you need the info sooner rather than later - you never know you might get a shining knight in shining armour on the phone !!

franklee

Eager learner,

Well done for getting this far.

A few comments:

1. There are two ways an agent can hold the deposit, "stakeholder" or "agent for the landlord". Your tenancy agreement will say which it is. If it's "agent for the landlord" then I think what you've said about the deposit is correct.

2. Unfair terms in the agreement. You can complain about these to the Office of Fair trading. There is a big document giving guidelines to unfair terms in tenancy agreements on the OFT site and often mentioned here. It may help to tell the agent you will be doing this and point out the guidelines to them. The OFT will take this up and if the agent then continues with unfair terms it can lead to a criminal offence.

3. The landladies new address given to you by the agent. I agree you need to be wary if it's for real. I'd ask the agency what proof of address they obtained from the landlady. I think they are obliged to ask for proof of address. If they won't answer this then that's something to ask if you go to court, explaining to the court the runaround you've been given over the address even though the agency are still doing business with the landlady so they should know where she is. If you had some proof the landlady claims not to live at this new address in time for the court appearance then you could show the agent up. The proof could be a returned registered letter or give the address to the court and see if she denies living there when the next action is taken.

4. The (fraudulent) receipt for the decorating. This came from the same address as the original "care of" address for the landlady and you suspected it was her friend. Who gave you the receipt? If it was the agent then they should not have accepted it coming form the landladies own "care of" address. Something to press them on if you go to court. The inland revenue need to know about the receipt too. Whether there is a decorating business or not the tax man will want to check that the income from the decorating has been declared.

Good luck, I hope you keep going!

musey

https://www.taxevasionhotline.co.uk/

Report tax dodgers here.

prudryden

musey wrote:

https://www.taxevasionhotline.co.uk/

Report tax dodgers here.

Nice one!!!:T

clutton_2

revenge is best eaten VERY hot !!!!

EagerLearner

Thanks all - Furndire has just PM'd me to say he has e-mailed the editor of the Argus so you never know, maybe something will come of it.

I will call the landregistry - I guess there must be one for the Haywards Heath area? I imagined it to be just one big dark office somewhere in middle earth for the whole country he he...

Just as a log for myself and anyone new who reads this thread:

- We were due the deposit back in early July - we called the landlady and the agent during this month - they claimed to be awaiting invoices and receipts which we only got on 15th August, despite the fact she had rennovated and LET the flat in late June/early July.

- Receipt for decorating came from same address as the address we held for the landlady (given to us by the letting agent as her c/o address, showing her close relationship with the decorator who we met several times and did most of the rennovating work at the property when we left)

- In the last 2 weeks of August and 1st week September we sent one letter per week via special Delivery to the landlady (at the c/o address we had been given ) asking for our deposit back and stating we disagreed with her charge of nearly £700 when we had done nothing wrong to the property apart from living in it and minor wear and tear over 2 years. We stated we would be forced to take court action if she did not respond and we gave set dates to respond by. We received no response and all letters were returned unopened as 'not called for'.

- If she had moved, the letters would have been redirected, 'not called for' seemed strange and as if she or her decorating friend were ignoring the Special Delivery letters because they were from us.

- We called the letting agent about this who said they knew nothing about any other address and that one was the only one on file. They then asked us to not contact them as they had too many other properties to manage and that we were no longer clients and we should contact the landlady direct. My husband tried but to no avail and we knew that phone calls would leave no trail.

- In September we were therefore forced to start court proceedings, but knowing the previous address we'd been given seemed incorrect we researched the internet and downloaded deeds for 2 of her properties, which gave us her real address - where she had lived for several years (confirmed by the electoral roll).

- We commenced court proceedings with the new 'real' address.

- The court process started. The court paperwork sent to the landlady by them was later returned to the court unopened, despite this new address being her real address.

- The letting agent then wrote to us in October stating the landlady had contacted them and she wished to resolve the situation amicably. We did not respond as we knew she would use this as a delaying tactic.

- The court awarded in our favour in November. As such we wrote to the letting agent asking for our deposit back, either from them or from the landlady. They responded, stating they had given her back the deposit on 15th August and also that she has moved address.

This is where we are to date and we know that she has as of yet not returned the documents to the court that show the court awarded in our favour.

A court date has been set against the letting agent for 13th December, our complaint against them being that we feel they acted unprofessionally by giving her back the monies which were being disputed and not telling us they had done so until 2 months later. They have also been unwilling to act as a go-between, forcing us to attempt to deal with her even though she was not responding to our requests for a mutual agreement and showed no professionalism whatsoever.

EagerLearner

musey wrote:

https://www.taxevasionhotline.co.uk/

Report tax dodgers here.

Done :T :T :T

glitterygert

nice one, she really is a dodgy person and deserves everything she gets

prudryden

el -

Very nicely summarised. It's must be difficult for new viewers to go thru 729 posts to understand what is going on.

musey

EagerLearner wrote:

Done :T :T :T

Hope you've also done it for the decorater perso.:rotfl: