Landlords trying to keep deposit!

ivan_the_not-so-terrible

Anyone know how long we should wait before initiating the single claim process?

It was a week on the DPS site showing as "awaiting agent / landlord response" when with the letting agent, and now a week showing the same now the landlords themselves are the holding party.

We moved out on the 7th of October and it feels like we'll never get our deposit back (which I desperately need!)

Ivan

tbs624

All the info you need is available on the DPS website - go and read thru the FAQs and the document library



Straight from the horse's mouth :



"The Single Claims Process is a method of repayment for use for a tenant if:-

1. the tenant has no current address for the agent/landlord; or the agent/landlord fails to respond to the tenant’s written notice asking whether the agent/landlord accepts that the tenant should be repaid some or all of the deposit within 14 calendar days of the end of the tenancy." ( my bolding)

You will need to complete a Statutory Declaration.

ivan_the_not-so-terrible

Well a lot has come to light since my last post.

It seems the letting agents are the ones who are playing games and telling untruths!

I was struggling to get to the bottom of what was going on and demanded the letting agents give me contact details for the LL's. They had not been keen to do this, but as I'd found out who the UK representative of the LL's was and had contacted him (who then contacted the letting agent). They had no choice and sent it. I then sent the LL's an email and their reply and our subsequent corrospondance has made things much clearer.

It seems the letting agents had mis-informed the LL's and us over several "issues"

The most important was that the letting agent had given me (verbal) permission to remove some old furniture left by the LL's without their permission. I had written that I had been given this permission on the comments section of our moving in inventory. Also we had taken on the tenancy on the basis that we could keep our dogs there (not indoors but outside in a shed) ... Again it seems the LL's hadn't given this permission though yet again the letting agents had (verbally). A lot of the problems came when the LL's had found out about the dogs and assumed it was us that had bought them to the house without their permission. The letting agents all along have been saying that the LL's have been acting unreasonably when all along it was them. Now the .... has hit the fan, they are denying all! The LL's believe us but without written permission we still appear to be the ones in the wrong. The LL's are demandin £400 from the letting agents for their furniture, but they have just passed that to us. It also seems that though the letting agents told us they had handed control of the deposit (through the DPS) to the LL, that too was an untruth. We are now in dispute over the £400 as the letting agent has started the claim process on the DPS site. So whoever wins that case the letting agents get off scot free!!! Either we loose the £400 from our deposit or the LL's loose the money they want for their furniture!

Here's my last email from the LL's with names removed for obvious reasons ...

Hi Ivan

Thanks for your mail and I can understand your frustration as this X company is adept at bringing this on.

We completely believe you-please don't worry on that score-but as my wife said you must be seething to have your good name brought into it-I would be exactly the same-you have my empathy.

Even from this far away we have suspected duplicity from X as their communication always was late, incomplete or not always believable.

It's not surprising that she denies it to the hilt -that type never own up to things even when in a corner.

To be honest this sort of behaviour is one of the reasons why I wanted to emigrate as there seems an acceptance of shoddy business in the UK.

Good luck with dealing with X -we have found it near impossible-and we were assured that we would be well informed of everything when we emigrated.

Difficult to know how to proceed-we'll wait until you've had direct contact with them and take it from there.

Please rest assured that we think you are utterly trustworthy and that the issue rests with X -trying to prove that could be difficult however.

I wonder how many others have been infuriated by dealing with this company.

Good luck

If there are any experts out there with ideas of the best way to proceed I'd love to hear from you. I have lots of evidence, but the letting agents have been very careful that nothing was specifically in writing. It seems I have been very niave!

Ivan

ivan_the_not-so-terrible

Well I must be in a unique position as nobody else seems to have had such a thing. I guess all letting agencies are paragons of virtue?

Ivan