Is This Legal? UPDATE on page 3.

*qwerty*

Thats good to know thank you BitterAndTwisted.

The long story made short is, that we rented here 2 years ago through an EA. We never had any dealings with the landlord and didn't realise until our LA did a runner that the address on our contract was not actually that of our landlords but instead some crook who ran various agencies and did a runner with thousands of peoples money i.e their deposits. Ours was protected in TDS but of course because it is only an insurance based scheme we have been told that they will not give any money to us as technically they don't have it.

Anyway, in the meantime we had to find out who our LL was through environmental health as the previous LA had left us in a damp (newbuild) house with mould growing by the hour.

Since then, we have had a great relationship with our LL but as he lives quite far away he asked us to sign up with an agent (who he has already got properties with) so if any minor issues needed sorting then we could go through them. It was only then that the LA thought that there would be no point in trying to do an inventory as we were already moved in.

So in the short, we have no deposit to fall back on when we move out (although after all this confusion I am half expecting them to ask for one just to be petty!) and we still after 2 years live in a damp, smelly new build apartment which we pay a large amount of money for every month!

*qwerty*

princessamy86 wrote: »

...or that there's no gas safety certificate :eek:

LOL! There is one but it was originally late when we moved in (I had some bloke let himself in and apologise that he didn't know anyone was living here!) and then when these LAs took over they were a few weeks getting it done too.

I have learnt my lesson though and have written on the calendar when it is next due

princessamy86

*qwerty* wrote: »

LOL! There is one but it was originally late when we moved in (I had some bloke let himself in and apologise that he didn't know anyone was living here!) and then when these LAs took over they were a few weeks getting it done too.

I have learnt my lesson though and have written on the calendar when it is next due

Good to hear!

BitterAndTwisted

Flipping heck, your landlord is either having very bad luck with his choice of lousy agents or he's a ruddy fool.

I suppose that you know that it's a legal requirement for your deposit to have been protected and that regardless of who the money was actually paid to, even a shyster agent, it's your landlord's responsibility to have ensured that it was protected in one of the deposit-protection schemes. What's all this nonsense about insurance-based schemes? I'm not familiar with those but that doesn't mean that one doesn't exist.

princessamy86

Bitterandtwisted: I only found this out the other day actually with regards to the insurance based schemes. Apparently, the landlord has to declare the deposit to the scheme, but it remains in their bank account (this side of lettings is dealt with by another office). I was quite shocked tbh, I think it defeats the object of the scheme. The membership fees *I think* pay for a policy in the event of the deposit being, well, spent by the landlord I suppose.

*qwerty*

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Flipping heck, your landlord is either having very bad luck with his choice of lousy agents or he's a ruddy fool.

I suppose that you know that it's a legal requirement for your deposit to have been protected and that regardless of who the money was actually paid to, even a shyster agent, it's your landlord's responsibility to have ensured that it was protected in one of the deposit-protection schemes. What's all this nonsense about insurance-based schemes? I'm not familiar with those but that doesn't mean that one doesn't exist.

Hahaha he has quite a few properties but I think he tends to go for the cheapest he can get!

Both estate agents that we've been through with him have always been 'unprofessionally dressed" wether its been no suits (not a major issue), scruffy clothes that stink of smoke, hoodies or mini skirts with thigh high boots and tight vests tops with 4 boobs from an ill fitting bra :eek:

Gosh, no I didn't know that about the deposit!!!! His attitude was that he was sorry that we'd lost all that money and if we could help each other out to make sure that when it went through the liquidators that we'd both get a payout but of course we got nothing- In fact from what you've just said, we didn't even need to go to all those meetings and fill in hours of paperwork if it was down to the LL Our EA's now didn't let on that they knew anything about it either- They just put on our contract that it is lodged with the previous LA....

Wow, so could we really get our money back? We had to borrow 3 extra months worth of rent off family so we get this place as we apparently failed the credit checks so it would be REALLY lovely if we were able to give that money sometime in the near future! In fact a guarantee of getting that money back would prompt us to move from here for good!

*qwerty*

princessamy86 wrote: »

Bitterandtwisted: I only found this out the other day actually with regards to the insurance based schemes. Apparently, the landlord has to declare the deposit to the scheme, but it remains in their bank account (this side of lettings is dealt with by another office). I was quite shocked tbh, I think it defeats the object of the scheme. The membership fees *I think* pay for a policy in the event of the deposit being, well, spent by the landlord I suppose.

Sorry BitterAndTwisted I got carried away with my last post so forgot to explain I think princessamy has it right. It was not through our LL but our LA who had our deposit 'protected' so I'm not sure now if it would stand that we'd get any money back? I would love to think that LL's insurance covers things like this as we didn't exactly have choice over who the LA would be but he shrugged anything off.

princessamy86

I don't know if it's just deposits through lettings agents which work this way. I find it all very confusing! I do know that the final responsibility lies with the landlord though.

BitterAndTwisted

An agent is just that, an agent who acts for and on behalf of the landlord who appointed them. They never actually work on behalf of any tenants as they don't enter into any contracts with them. In law, the final responsibility alway rests with the landlord. I would be very surprised indeed if it was not the landlord who is ultimately responsible for your deposit. I mean, he was the idiot who entered into a contract with the shyster agent, not you, you didn't have any choice.

Enquiring minds need to know....

Oh, how I wish Clutton or Artful were on here right now

princessamy86

Definitely the landlord who is ultimately responsible, but yes would appreciate clarification on the whole thing from clutton and co!