We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: Hello Forumites! In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non-MoneySaving matters are not permitted per the Forum rules. While we understand that mentioning house prices may sometimes be relevant to a user's specific MoneySaving situation, we ask that you please avoid veering into broad, general debates about the market, the economy and politics, as these can unfortunately lead to abusive or hateful behaviour. Threads that are found to have derailed into wider discussions may be removed. Users who repeatedly disregard this may have their Forum account banned. Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide
Deposit protection fail amongst things....
ebeebies
Posts: 3 Newbie
Hi there,
I'm new to this, so please be nice.
Right I'll cut a long story short........
I moved into a house in June 2011, this was me and three other people. When we moved in, we asked for things such as gas safety certificates and fire safety certificates from the letting agent, and were told they were in existence just 'lost'. Which as students we just accepted.
I also asked for deposit protection details from the letting agent as I believe this is law, this was also ignored, and nothing more was said.
When we first moved in, there was a burnt out socket and my dad noted this, asked the letting agent and landlord to change this, because it was dangerous as it was by the gas cooker, but nothing was done as the landlord said 'there was nothing wrong with it'.
Problems like this carried on, until a new owner bought the house, we weren't aware of this until the kitchen ceiling collapsed from a leak under the bathroom floor, and we phoned the old landlord to get him to come round and look at it, to be told that he no longer owned the house and wasn't sure who did, we then phoned the letting agent who said he would contact the new landlord, this took around a week, we kept phoning up and asking if the landlord had been in touch but got fobbed off each time. Finally the new landlord turned up and had the problem fixed, but because of the new ceiling, the fire alarm was disconnected, and never connected again, even though we also requested this to be done. I contacted environmental health because of the long wait we had with no bathroom, we had to use next doors toilet and shower in gyms, university etc.
We then went on to have a small fire in the kitchen during the night, thankfully my housemate smelt this as there was no alarm.
We had had enough of this landlord and letting agent so we decided to get out of the house and not renew the contract.
Two of us went on to receive our deposits back, but two didn't.
It wasn't through a deposit company, it was cash back in hand.
Two of us went onto move into another property, we had given the letting agent this address as we both wanted references off of him, how ever the two people who didn't get their deposits back disappeared. We were happy in our new house when we got a knock on the door from the police... our old letting agent had called the police and said we had stolen the microwave from this house... me and my housemate were arrested, the microwave seized and our house searched. When we were questioning separately in custody, I obviously stated that I owned the microwave and it was a joke xmas present for moving to uni!! We were bailed and my Nan had to post the microwave receipt to the police in order to get the charges dropped (as we are student nurses, we do not want a stupid microwave case hanging over us!!)
We then went on to find out, the reason the house was sold originally was because our previous landlord has been sent to prison for drug offences and storing drugs at properties he owned. The letting agent was a independent letting agent and turned out to be the previous landlords best mate!!
I have since heard of several other people that have been screwed over by this letting agent and this landlord, and to this day the letting agent is not storing deposits properly, nor complying with regulations, and frankly letting people live in dangerous houses. He is giving out false deposit company details (details that have been given out, have been checked, and turned out false, phone numbers don't work for these companies and emails bounced)
Even though I have my deposit back, and have moved out of the house last year, is there anything at all we can do collectively to get this man investigated in any way? I am not after money or compensation, merely do not want this man to be able to operate the way he does/did. I feel very sorry for anyone that has the misfortune to deal with this man, or pay this man any money.
I think I have remembered everything.
Most people just want to get away from him or are not aware of the law and just moan about it.
Can anyone advise me if I can do anything about him? I understand if not, just thought this may be a long shot.
Thanks for reading my long story cut short!!
I'm new to this, so please be nice.
Right I'll cut a long story short........
I moved into a house in June 2011, this was me and three other people. When we moved in, we asked for things such as gas safety certificates and fire safety certificates from the letting agent, and were told they were in existence just 'lost'. Which as students we just accepted.
I also asked for deposit protection details from the letting agent as I believe this is law, this was also ignored, and nothing more was said.
When we first moved in, there was a burnt out socket and my dad noted this, asked the letting agent and landlord to change this, because it was dangerous as it was by the gas cooker, but nothing was done as the landlord said 'there was nothing wrong with it'.
Problems like this carried on, until a new owner bought the house, we weren't aware of this until the kitchen ceiling collapsed from a leak under the bathroom floor, and we phoned the old landlord to get him to come round and look at it, to be told that he no longer owned the house and wasn't sure who did, we then phoned the letting agent who said he would contact the new landlord, this took around a week, we kept phoning up and asking if the landlord had been in touch but got fobbed off each time. Finally the new landlord turned up and had the problem fixed, but because of the new ceiling, the fire alarm was disconnected, and never connected again, even though we also requested this to be done. I contacted environmental health because of the long wait we had with no bathroom, we had to use next doors toilet and shower in gyms, university etc.
We then went on to have a small fire in the kitchen during the night, thankfully my housemate smelt this as there was no alarm.
We had had enough of this landlord and letting agent so we decided to get out of the house and not renew the contract.
Two of us went on to receive our deposits back, but two didn't.
It wasn't through a deposit company, it was cash back in hand.
Two of us went onto move into another property, we had given the letting agent this address as we both wanted references off of him, how ever the two people who didn't get their deposits back disappeared. We were happy in our new house when we got a knock on the door from the police... our old letting agent had called the police and said we had stolen the microwave from this house... me and my housemate were arrested, the microwave seized and our house searched. When we were questioning separately in custody, I obviously stated that I owned the microwave and it was a joke xmas present for moving to uni!! We were bailed and my Nan had to post the microwave receipt to the police in order to get the charges dropped (as we are student nurses, we do not want a stupid microwave case hanging over us!!)
We then went on to find out, the reason the house was sold originally was because our previous landlord has been sent to prison for drug offences and storing drugs at properties he owned. The letting agent was a independent letting agent and turned out to be the previous landlords best mate!!
I have since heard of several other people that have been screwed over by this letting agent and this landlord, and to this day the letting agent is not storing deposits properly, nor complying with regulations, and frankly letting people live in dangerous houses. He is giving out false deposit company details (details that have been given out, have been checked, and turned out false, phone numbers don't work for these companies and emails bounced)
Even though I have my deposit back, and have moved out of the house last year, is there anything at all we can do collectively to get this man investigated in any way? I am not after money or compensation, merely do not want this man to be able to operate the way he does/did. I feel very sorry for anyone that has the misfortune to deal with this man, or pay this man any money.
I think I have remembered everything.
Most people just want to get away from him or are not aware of the law and just moan about it.
Can anyone advise me if I can do anything about him? I understand if not, just thought this may be a long shot.
Thanks for reading my long story cut short!!
0
Comments
-
Try your local trading standards, strange though it sounds. They'll be the most likely people to have received complaints about the letting agency and the landlord.0
-
Welcome! It's worth running an advanced search, these issues come up regularly. Tenants are not contracted to the letting agent they are contracted to the landlord, so the buck stops with the landlord as regards deposits and safety. All issues with repair and maintenance should be reported to the landlord directly using the address at which to serve notices on the tenancy agreement.
Check with the council that the house should be/ is registered as a House in Multiple Occupancy, report to the Health and Safety Executive for missing safety certificates, let student accommodation at your hospital or place of study know about this landlord. Can report letting agent to Trading Standards or TV programmes like Watchdog or Rogue Traders.
Try to bullet point the case under the breaches of the legislation, the authorities don't need chapter and verse.Declutterbug-in-progress.⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️0 -
Thank you both for your replies, gives me another line to go down.
Sorry for the long story though!! 0 -
Perfectly understandable.., done the same thing myself in a bad landlord situation I posted on here lol!0
-
maybe make an anonymous call to HMRC see if he's dodging tax as well as everything else and make a complaint to the local council0
-
-
It does sound absolutely ridiculous about the whole landlord is a drug dealer thing, but didn't know until it was in the local paper!!
The letting agent getting us arrested for a microwave and the police actually arresting us and putting us in cells for 12 hours is a whole different issue!
To be honest, the whole situation is ridiculous, and everything that has happened, but just wanted to know if anything can be done.
Will be contacting local council though
trust my first post on here to be a stupid one....... 0 -
Its not a stupid post, honestly, it sounds like you've been through a very unpleasant experience.0
-
Seriously Fire Fox!! I know this is your standard line for every newbie - but it's not like we get a lot of 'my landlord the drug dealer had me arrested for stealing the microwave' stories!
And what exactly does the "drug dealer had me arrested for stealing the microwave" have to do with the 'House Buying, Renting & Selling' board? Therefore I assumed the OP was not expecting us to address those particular issues.
HMOs, deposit schemes, Environmental Health, HSE, reporting to the landlord using the address at which to serve notices crop up on a daily basis. Declutterbug-in-progress.⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️0 -
It does sound absolutely ridiculous about the whole landlord is a drug dealer thing, but didn't know until it was in the local paper!!
The letting agent getting us arrested for a microwave and the police actually arresting us and putting us in cells for 12 hours is a whole different issue!
To be honest, the whole situation is ridiculous, and everything that has happened, but just wanted to know if anything can be done.
Will be contacting local council though
trust my first post on here to be a stupid one.......
Your post wasn't stupid, it's lovely that you want to protect other tenants. :TDeclutterbug-in-progress.⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 354.3K Banking & Borrowing
- 254.4K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 455.4K Spending & Discounts
- 247.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 604K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 178.4K Life & Family
- 261.5K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards