Miss handling the deposit

Storm1_2

Hi All,

Our letting agent has failed to put our deposit into a scheme.

We started to rent the house back in July.

My understanding is that it is law to put our deposit money into a scheme.

How do I go about getting them to handle my deposit correctly?

I all so understand we can claim back the deposit and 3 x the amount because they have not done their job properly. Is this correct?

Many thanks

clutton_2

Have you checked all three schemes ? i assume you live in england or wales..?

Storm1_2

All check.

In England

BitterAndTwisted

Write to the landlord and the letting agent and ask them to confirm which deposit-protection scheme they have lodged it with. If they're not aware that there are penalties for not protecting it I would advise you not to tell them this immediately.

Either way, it's the landlord's responsibility as that is who your agreement is with. The agents act on the landlord's behalf at all times.

Don't imagine that you will definitely be able to get the three-times deposit as a penalty as it's not always awarded in court, even when it's been protected late. The best outcome is that it is lodged before your tenancy ends.

I hope you have a detailed inventory of the property and its contents for when you vacate at the end of the tenancy.

tbs624

I see you're in Northamptonshire so, yes, if this property was let under an AST then your LL should have scheme registered your deposit, and given you the prescribed info from the scheme

Check at TDS, mydeposits, DPS and get written confirmation, then write, as others have suggested. Keep a copy.

Unfortunately, LLs seems able to get away with late registration, either by registering the deposit (during the tenancy) on receipt of a letter from you querying thematter or returning the deposit in full (after the tenancy)

For you to be awarded the penalty payment of 3x the deposit the LL would have to be idiotic enough to not do anything about the deposit before a court hearing date.


Edit: you are entitled to have the name and address of your LL - write to the LA and they have 21 days from receipt of the letter in which to give you the info or a criminal offence would be committed. Yes, the LA acts on behalf of the LL but they can sometimes be slow at handing info on.

tbs624

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

.....Either way, it's the landlord's responsibility as that is who your agreement is with. The agents act on the landlord's behalf at all times...

Agree with rest of your post B&T but see also judgement in Draycott & Draycott v Hannells Lettings Ltd

"The matters in question were whether an agent can be liable under the regulations, and whether the landlord should still be liable to pay the penalty if they protect the deposit outside the 14 days but before the court hearing. The decision the Judge came to, in essence, was:
1. A agent will be liable under the regulations as well as the landlord, if it was the agent who was dealing with the deposit.
2. The award of three times the deposit sum is not payable if the landlord has satisfied the initial requirements of the tenancy deposit scheme being used." (My bolding)
Source

Painsmiths acted for the LA - their blog report is here

BitterAndTwisted

True, but I thought it would only serve to confuse the OP by bringing that up. Surely the whole point of answering these enquiries is to ensure that the deposit is actually protected rather than encouraging tenants to start spending that 3x deposit in their minds when there's little chance of them being awarded it?

In some cases it's entirely possible that the agents may have paid the deposit over to the landlord for them to arrange for it to be protected. Anticipating going to court when the situation could be resolved sensibly would be a far better outcome to my mind, interesting as these discussions might be

tbs624

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

True, but I thought it would only serve to confuse the OP by bringing that up. Surely the whole point of answering these enquiries is to ensure that the deposit is actually protected rather than encouraging tenants to start spending that 3x deposit in their minds when there's little chance of them being awarded it?

The "whole point of answering these enquiries" is surely to equip as many people as possible with correct information so that they can deal with their particular scenario with confidence. It's more confusing to state that only a LL is responsible for the return of a deposit when the judgement in a recent case suggests that in some circumstances it can be otherwise.

It's not about encouraging Ts to go hell for leather for the 3x penalty because as we both know it's not "a given"- see my previous post:)

tbs624 wrote: »

Unfortunately, LLs seems able to get away with late registration, either by registering the deposit (during the tenancy) on receipt of a letter from you querying thematter or returning the deposit in full (after the tenancy)

For you to be awarded the penalty payment of 3x the deposit the LL would have to be idiotic enough to not do anything about the deposit before a court hearing date.

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

In some cases it's entirely possible that the agents may have paid the deposit over to the landlord for them to arrange for it to be protected.

Of course it is: that's not however the same as saying that only LLs may be held responsible.

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Anticipating going to court when the situation could be resolved sensibly would be a far better outcome to my mind, interesting as these discussions might be

I think you have misunderstood - my quoting of the Hannells judgement was in direct response to your assertion that only a LL is responsible for the deposit: ie, this case says x and y , rather than me saying "you must proceed straight to court"

Totally agree that the best course is to get registration sorted:)