Letting agent went bust with our deposit

in_need_ofhelp

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

My boyfriend and I have been renting our house since January 2012 through a letting agent in our town. We were never completely happy with their service but this was who the landlord was with so we just had to put up with them. We received a phonecall from another letting agent a few months ago to inform us our previous letting agent had went bankrupt and they were our new letting agent as appointed by the landlord.

Now the problem is that the previous letting agent went bankrupt with our deposit (they hadn't paid it into a deposit scheme as at the time we took the tenancy they weren't in force in Scotland yet). I got advice from Shelter Scotland who have said it is the landlords responsibility to pay us back the deposit as it was them that had the contract with the letting agent not us, that our contract was with the landlord. The new letting agents acted as a go between with ourselves and the landlord regarding the deposit discussons but I haven't heard a thing now for about 6 weeks so presume the landlord is just ignoring it. We have been advised we can take the landlord to a small calims court for up to 3 x times the deposit amount (although we just want what we are owed). The problem is we still live in the property and don't want to move so are scared/reluctant to cause problems.

We recieved a letter from the old letting agents liquidators this morning asking to fill out a form for claiming 'our debt owed by their clients'. I've been told we would be lucky to receive anything from this.

My question is do we fill out the form and send it back or do we take the landlord to court for our deposit? And if we do this do we do it now or leave it until we are moving out??

Sorry for the long winded story and hope it makes sense!!!

BitterAndTwisted

The letting-agent going into liquidation has nothing to do with you.

What would I do? WRITE to the landlord, copying in the new agent and ask when your deposit will be protected. If the landlord decides to wash his hands of it all I'd be considering withholding the last month's rent when you decide to move on.

princeofpounds

Ignore the letting agent. It's nothing to do with them. The deposit was taken by your LL (with the letting agent merely being an agent for him as the name suggests), and the responsibility for its protection and return lies with the LL.

I am not sure of the precise Scottish regulations, but if you were English the advice would be:

If you are still in the property and want to stay, you do not need to do anything. You can sue your LL for the deposit and penalty later.

The advantage you have is that the LL cannot terminate the tenancy without protecting the deposit (except for a few special situations mainly revolving around you not paying rent or the property falling over!), so your position is pretty secure even if your deposit is not.

You might get a bit more worried if you had reason to believe that the LL might go bust or otherwise not be able to pay any court judgment against them.

But as pointed out you can protect yourself against this by not paying final rent if it is ultimately necessary.

Now I underline again Scotland might be different. But the point is that you probably have time to consider your options.

molerat

Scotland is pretty much the same as England http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/privaterent/government/SGTD1

So as others have said contact the LL and ask the relevant questions about when he is going to put the deposit into one of the schemes ?

Landlord's legal duties

The legal duties on landlords who receive a tenancy deposit are:

• to pay deposits to an approved tenancy deposit scheme
• to provide the tenant with key information about the tenancy and deposit

What happens if a landlord uses a letting agent?

As the person who requires a deposit to be taken, the duties in relation to tenancy deposits rest with the landlord.
If a landlord uses a letting agent, it will be in their interests to check that the agent acts in accordance with the regulations.
Any sanctions imposed by a sheriff for non-compliance with the regulations, will apply to the landlord.

It is the landlord who has been stiffed and not you. What date did you pay the deposit ? In any case the backstop is 15th May. If the deposit is not protected by then go for the jugular

in_need_ofhelp

We paid the deposit on 26th january 2012 and have a receipt to prove it.

Thanks for the advice we will get in contact with the landlord today

molerat

In which case the deposit should have been registered by 13th Nov 2012 so the LL is in breech of the regulations.

9. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH TENANCY DEPOSIT REGULATIONS

What happens if the deposit is not submitted to a scheme and/or information provided?

You may apply to a sheriff court for sanctions against your landlord for non-compliance with the regulations. If the sheriff is satisfied that your landlord has failed to comply they must order the landlord to pay you up to three times the amount of the deposit. They may also order that the deposit is submitted to an approved scheme or the missing information provided.
The sheriff will have discretion to take the individual circumstances of each application into account when deciding the amount of financial penalty that should apply.