Letting Agents trying screw me over with me :*(

Samrah

I have had enough problems with my letting agent and now I have left they have lied about damages and also accused me of stealing a sofa?

I have recordings of the flat from moving in and half way through my contract and then one before leaving.

I scrubbed and cleaned the flat with my parents and made sure it was perfect when I left and this is what they do.

I am i right in believing that they are obligated to give the the details of the company the deposit is legally held with?

I have done everything to try and keep this as simple as possible and now they are making up lies to hold onto the deposit!

What's the next point of action?

GAH

Ask the agent who the deposit was protected with?

If they are not fortcoming, contact all three schemes and find out for yourself.

Also was a professional inventory done on moving into the property.

For a deposit to be handed back, both LL and TT have to agree, so while it is easy to think it is all the agents fault, its more likely to be landlord.

If there is an amount of money in dispute, the rest of your deposit should go back to you, and if resolution cannot be found over remaining money then it will have to be resolved via whatever tenancy scheme is holidng.

newfoundglory

I think there are generally two schemes - insured and custodial.

This means the agent may in fact be holding your money if they have insured it (this was always the case when I was renting).

This is a common problem though - and I've had similar issues with some of the biggest agents in London - specifically in my case Foxtons and Aspire [i'm a fan of name and shame ]

Aspire were definitely the worst for me. The property was actually professionally inventoried before/after the tenancy by a third party (many pages, it was the most detailed inventory I have ever read in my life).

Down the state of taps, minor scratches on walls, clenliness etc. The check out inventory showed the house was in a better condition and cleaner compared to when we moved in - but Aspire still wanted money for "cleaning". I could sense they were easily intimidated, so that was the approach - It took me a few months to extract the money from them. You have to be quite nasty about it unfortunately, and become a bit of a debt recoverer. I called Aspire daily, and then said i'd email their managing director (got the address from a friend) - until the woman in the branch began avoiding me. Then they just paid up.

Foxtons were a different bag. I took a different approach with Foxtons, and threatened legal action and to begin charging them - 8% interest for the money owed, plus fees. They paid up straight away after a lengthly delay.

If you don't feel you can do this yourself, get someone to help you.

Yorkie1

newfoundglory wrote: »

I think there are generally two schemes - insured and custodial.

There may be two types of schemes, but there are - as G_M already posted - three actual deposit schemes:

DPS
TDS
Mydeposits.

rentergirl

You have to be strong and yes - it is 'illegal' to not have protected your deposit in one fo the approved schemes, with 3 months rent being the penalty. Send a strongly worded letter (recorded dleivery of course!) stating this, that you will not let this pass, that you in turn want your deposit and are trying for the 3 months if they do not say where it is. Moving out should be easy, and deposits are no longer extra income for owners. Good luck!

Werdnal

rentergirl wrote: »

You have to be strong and yes - it is 'illegal' to not have protected your deposit in one fo the approved schemes, with 3 months rent being the penalty. Send a strongly worded letter (recorded dleivery of course!) stating this, that you will not let this pass, that you in turn want your deposit and are trying for the 3 months if they do not say where it is. Moving out should be easy, and deposits are no longer extra income for owners. Good luck!

If the tenancy is over, the 3x deposit claim for non-protection is invalid. Should have claimed whilst still living there, and even then, it is not always enforced.

OP check the 3 schemes mentioned above - they all have websites so fairly easy to contact.

Did you have a signed inventory at the start? LA have to be able to prove before and after condition to verify that damage/repairs are caused by you. If there was nothing signed at the start, there is no starting point for them to work from. You may have to claim through courts for return of the deposit if it is not protected. Find out first if it is lodged in a scheme, as they will arbitrate between you and LA/LL. However, it is possible that the actual LL was given the deposit to protect, not the LA. Ultimately the LL is responsible for returning the deposit, and some LLs prefer to protect it themselves, rather than leave for the LA to mess up.

Yorkie1

rentergirl wrote: »

You have to be strong and yes - it is 'illegal' to not have protected your deposit in one fo the approved schemes, with 3 months rent being the penalty. Send a strongly worded letter (recorded dleivery of course!) stating this, that you will not let this pass, that you in turn want your deposit and are trying for the 3 months if they do not say where it is. Moving out should be easy, and deposits are no longer extra income for owners. Good luck!

1. It is not illegal to have failed to protect the deposit. It is a breach of civil law and not of criminal law.

2. Recorded delivery is not advised. The LL can refuse to sign and then there is no proof of service. Send any letter first class post from 2 separate post offices and retain certificate of posting.

3. The OP has already ended the tenancy. Since case law in, I think, 2010 the 3x penalty is not available after the end of the tenancy.