One rental property, two letting agents and and obscure company: Is this normal?

vbnm247

Hey guys,

Last year, due to circumstances beyond my control, I hastily jumped into a SHT agreement for a private flat.

I signed all the paper work, passed the credit check, paid the deposit and was told to contact them for the keys on the day the tenancy started.

All this was done through the agent we will call Porcupine Media.

On the day I went to pick up the keys I was told they were no longer dealing witht the tenancy and to cotnact a second Agent, we will call Jesus group, I was confused but figured it may be standard practice.

To add to this I pay my rent every month by standing order to, for arguments sake, Rickets Properties.

Sorry for the long story, but my concern is this: I have a contract with Porcupine, I have conducted all my dealings with Jesus, yet all my payments are going to rickets...

If my landlord causes problems with my deposit, who is responsible? I queried the deposit with Rickets and they say its between me and the landlord, thing is I have never been given his contact details.

Also, I never recieved anything in regards to the Deposit being registered with a deposit scheme... due to all of this I have a feeling my Landlord might be awkward with my deposit.

Any advice would be great

BitterAndTwisted

It doesn't matter who was acting as the landlord's agent at the time you paid the deposit. In all cases the final responsibility for returning your deposit is with the landlord as long as you received a receipt when you paid it.

Is the property in Scotland and therefore your deposit did not need to be registered with one of the three schemes?

vbnm247

Thanks a lot for the speedy response!

No it is in England. I have a receipt for the deposit with first month rent up front and the standard agent costs, all done through Porcupine.

So when I hand the keys in, I need to make sure I get contact details for the Landlord? At no point have I been given his details.

princeofpounds

Yes, the landlord could have a succession of 100 agents if they wanted. The landlord is responsible at all times, and your contract is with the landlord.

The complication could arise if one of the 'agencies' is not in fact an agent but sub-letting from the ultimate landlord, and has signed an agreement as a landlord itself.

bmar71n

it can be quite common, some landlords especially those with large portfolios may instruct one agent or firm of chartered surveyors (Jesus) to manage their entire portfolio and they will deal with rent collection maintenance etc, but do not do lettings so they will instruct a letting agent (Porcupine) to let the property on their behalf.

BitterAndTwisted

The first thing you should do is to interrogate all three deposit-protection scheme's websites and satisfy yourself whether the deposit has been properly protected or not. That's DPS, TBS and MyDeposits. Do it immediately.

If it hasn't been registered you do have a number of options while you still occupy the property and none of them include losing your deposit. One of the benefits is that your landlord can't formally gain possession if they want to evict you except for non-payment of the rent.

The second thing to do is to pay four quid and get the landlord's address from the Land Registry site. Also, the landlord's details should be on the tenancy agreement under the bit where it says "for the serving of notices" or similar.

vbnm247

Thanks a lot for the responses. I am sure it will all go smoothly, just the 3 different names made me think it sounded a bit shady

bmar71n: Yeah I think thats exactly what has happened, Jesus group are a lot smaller than porcupine so they probably asked them to handle this let.

bitterandtwisted: I will follow that advice and get the details. Under the serving of notices I tihnk it just shows his surname. I dont want to take further action, only if he starts being funny about hte deposit, cos frankly that flat is now in better condition t han when I rented it.

That makes me feel a bit better, thanks to both of you

BitterAndTwisted

Sort out the issue of protection of the deposit now. If it's not protected you could take the landlord to court for non-protection and courts have been known to award the tenant a hefty penalty. This can only happen while the tenant is still in situ.

Or, of course, you could decide that waiting to see whether the landlord will return your deposit or not is too risky and just withhold the last month's rent in lieu

vbnm247

Hmm, so once the tenancy ends and the deposit was never secured I have no recourse? I only ask as I was thinking I could bring this up if he does become awkward.

I did consider holding the last months rent but didn't think I would be allowed to this. I have been a good Tennant and didn't really want to end it on a sour note.