Smart Deposit Scheme Issues

b1505

I posted a few weeks ago about some charges after leaving a student rental property and after weeks of negotiations we're still being made to pay them.
We were part of FCC Paragons smart deposit scheme and their terms and conditions with the landlord states "Prior to a dispute under the claim incident, you have provided your tenant with a closing dilapidation inventory signed by a suitably qualified inventory clerk;".
We raised this issue with FCC Paragon as nothing had been sent to us apart from a list of proposed dilapidations until I emailed the letting agent (who was acting for the landlord) regarding some of the charges and was sent the closing dilapidation inventory. This was after a dispute had been opened and I was the only one (out of 6) to receive this, not even the lead tenant had received it. FCC Paragon had been negotiating with the letting agent for nearly 2 weeks and yesterday all of us, and our guarantors, received emails from the letting agents with this closing dilapidations on (over 5 weeks since we moved out from the property). Today I have received an email from FCC Paragon stating that we all had a copy of it now and then pointing out part of the agreement we signed with them (You have signed and accepted the legally binding declaration stating that should there be any monies owing to the landlord at the time you vacate the property you are obliged to pay, whether this be in respect of DILAPIDATIONS or unpaid rent) and saying they request that we pay immediately.
Another issue we had was that we were informed that check out was on a certain date so we all made arrangements to be at the property for that date (people booking days off work and rearranging appointments) only to be informed a week before by an inventory company that it had changed to a different date which nobody could attend. They are saying that we were all aware of the checkout date and had the opportunity to be there, but obviously as we had been informed of a different date too close to the original date we couldn't attend.

Sorry for the long thing but my question is that can they legally do this? The letting agent has clearly broken the terms and conditions with FCC Paragon yet we're still being chased for the money?

Any help would be appreciated

G_M

Where is the deposit registered?

Raise a dispute.

b1505

G_M wrote: »

Where is the deposit registered?

Raise a dispute.

We paid a smart deposit (£150 + £250 referencing fees) to FCC Paragon which we thought covered us yet it seems we pay FCC Paragon £400 each for them to be able to chase us for more money. Not sure if anybody else has had any experience with this but it seems like a bit of a con really.

Techead53

Hi, I am with you on this one. I think this is one big con. I have posted on an earlier thread. I am challenging FCC Paragon as it seems that their processes are never followed. We had copies of receipts sent to us that reportedly had been spent against so called dilapidation. Only one out of the five was geniuine, one was clearly made up using word and a computer and the one for £180 was for cleaning was from a company that didn't exists. I agreed to 1/5th share of general cost £52.00 but disputed all other cost. I am still waiting for them to reply. Stay with it as I feel there are people committing fraud or attempting to obtain monies by deception.