Can a rental deposit be withheld on these grounds?

bye_bye_band_G

Hi, I'd be really grateful for some help with this one.
My daughter finished a student let in a houseshare with 6 others on 30th June, so about 11 weeks ago. The agency is with-holding repayment of the deposit till they come up with a letter from the gas/electric company to say that the bills have been paid up to date. Now, this isn't happening. It's one of the other girls (the one who was in charge of the energy bills during the tenancy) who's supposed to be chasing this up, and I'm not sure whether it's her own fault for not regularly hassling the energy company, or whether the energy company aren't producing the letter. The bills are up to date, that's not an issue. It's just that this seems to be out of my daughter's hands with little she can do about it. She's owed about £300 deposit.
My question is, - I seem to remember reading once, somewhere, that landlords/agents aren't within their rights to withhold deposits on these grounds of requiring a letter from the energy company. If this is the case then could my daughter just demand the return of her deposit anyway?
Thankyou for any advice.

BottomRung

I would say no as the gas/electric account would be registered to an individual rather than the adress. If it's not paid they will chase the person for the debt so it shouldn't affect the next tenants. Tell the agency that it's nothing to do with them or get he girl to chase the supplier for letter and send them a copy. Personally I wouldn't be supplying them with a copy of any personal mail, whether it's to do with my finances or anything else.

RAS

i assume this deposit is correctly regsitered in a Scheme?

Put in an immediate claim for repayment.

if the agency refuse to return it immediately, use the dispute process and the agency will lose.

They have no right to delay payment for this reason, at all.