Rent overpayment

littleemmie

Hi everyone,

We moved out of our rented property on 29 July and our deposit was returned to us shortly afterwards. However, we are owed a further £41.21 in overpayed rent. Towards the beginning of our tenancy (AST starting in Aug 2007) we paid the extra to change the rent payment date meaning that we have paid for a longer period of time than the tenancy was actually for. Initially the letting agent refused to acknowlege this but after a strongly worded letter requesting payment within 14 days, they have now admitted that this amount is owed to us. Two weeks ago they asked the landlady to forward this money onto us. We have heard nothing since.

So, my questions are:
1. Is there a time limit by which rent overpayment should be paid back to us by?
2. As we paid the letting agent to change the rent payment date, not the landlady directly, who should we be pursuing for the rent overpayment? I know essentially, any money would have gone to the landlady, but I have my doubts that this extra money was ever passed on to her (obviously I can't prove this).

Many thanks for your help

BitterAndTwisted

You've fired off a "strongly worded" letter for the sake of forty quid when you got your deposit paid back in full? In the big scheme of things this could be seen as ungracious and cheese-paring in the extreme.

littleemmie

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

You've fired off a "strongly worded" letter for the sake of forty quid when you got your deposit paid back in full? In the big scheme of things this could be seen as ungracious and cheese-paring in the extreme.

It may seem like a small amount but it is our small amount that we are owed. We did not get the deposit back in full.

G_M

littleemmie wrote: »

So, my questions are:
1. Is there a time limit by which rent overpayment should be paid back to us by?
2. As we paid the letting agent to change the rent payment date, not the landlady directly, who should we be pursuing for the rent overpayment? I know essentially, any money would have gone to the landlady, but I have my doubts that this extra money was ever passed on to her (obviously I can't prove this).

Many thanks for your help

1. No. But assuming it is not contested it should be returned without delay.
2. Your contract is with the LL. The agent acts on her behalf.

Why don't you call the agent to remind them, see what they say and give them a couple of days to resolve, then write to the LL. Don't be aggressive, just factual. Enclose a copy of the agent's admission that rent was overpaid.

If you don't get the rent within a further, say, 7 days, go to the Small Claims Court.

littleemmie

Thank you for your help. I'll give the letting agent a call on Monday and see what they say.

I think my main concern is if the landlady disputes receiving the extra money, as I can only prove that we paid the letting agent, not that the money was passed onto the landlady. When I first queried when we would get the rent overpayment back, the landlady didn't know what we were talking about. I guess we will just have to cross that bridge when we come to it!

Thank you for your help.

casper_g

The agent is the landlord's agent. If you paid the agent it is as if you paid the landlord. If they didn't pass the money on, that's the landlord's problem - nobody forced them to employ a slightly incompetent agent!

theartfullodger

littleemmie wrote: »

It may seem like a small amount but it is our small amount that we are owed. We did not get the deposit back in full.

The deposit amount is usually easier to take action over: Did you dispute the deposit amount returned?? It was protected under deposit protection scheme???


Best wishes, hope it gets sorted..

Remember, as you know, agent is the agent of the landlord so on LL's side not yours..

littleemmie

casper_g wrote: »

The agent is the landlord's agent. If you paid the agent it is as if you paid the landlord. If they didn't pass the money on, that's the landlord's problem - nobody forced them to employ a slightly incompetent agent!

Thank you, this has helped make it a lot of sense now! I will contact the letting agent to see if they have heard from the landlady, and if I still haven't heard anything I will contact the Landlady directly.

littleemmie

theartfullodger wrote: »

The deposit amount is usually easier to take action over: Did you dispute the deposit amount returned?? It was protected under deposit protection scheme???


Best wishes, hope it gets sorted..

Remember, as you know, agent is the agent of the landlord so on LL's side not yours..

Thank you for your help. We didn't dispute the damage as such, (we did repair it but the landlady wasn't satisfied) but we weren't happy with the amount charged. The letting agent left us a message on our answerphone saying that she had released the deposit minus the amount for damages but by the time we could call her back she had already released the deposit and it was too late to challenge it. It was mentioned in our contract that the deposit would be held in a scheme but we did not receive confirmation of this.

BitterAndTwisted

That doesn't make any sense to me: it's my understanding that both parties have to agree to the amount of the deposit-deduction before any monies can be released by the schemes. That way, tenants have the opportunity to go to arbitration if they dispute a deduction. Odd.

tbs624

casper_g wrote: »

The agent is the landlord's agent. If you paid the agent it is as if you paid the landlord. If they didn't pass the money on, that's the landlord's problem - nobody forced them to employ a slightly incompetent agent!

Casper is right that the LA acts on behalf of the LL. However, in this scenario it depends on how the extra payment made by the OP was dealt with and what any relevant receipt says. If an LA charges a T a renewals fee, that renewals fee is not paid to the LL: it remains in the LAs possession. Was the extra 40ish quid paid specifically as extra rent or was it charged as some sort of "admin fee"?

OP - did you actually check for yourself that the tenancy deposit was scheme registered - mydeposits, DPS, TDS? Ts should never just take an LAs/LLs word on this one. Check it out within a month max of handing over your tenancy deposit.

The OP's description of how the LL dealt with the deposit does not sound right. A LL cannot unilaterally decide how much they will deduct for dilapidations - a written list must be given to the T and, as B&T says, the T should have the opportunity to contest.