Q: how long for refund of rental deposit?

DRP

isleofdogs wrote: »

Yes, it is 20:20 hindsight that we should have known to ask LL / agent for the certificate of rental deposit when we moved in the property more than 20 months ago. But, we were new to renting in the UK and naïve in trusting agent / LL. Now, we are paying the price for our stupidity - because the UK laws do nothing to protect us.

We are landlords in Australia, and our property managers deal with tenants' deposits as the laws are unambiguous.
We are becoming wiser (albeit late) in dealing with the rental deposit for the current house. We have emailed new agent & landlord already insisting that we must get the relevant docs.

The law is fairly unambiguous - it is just that you didn't know it!!

isleofdogs

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

what a strange situation, paying LL directly but agents handling deposit, something doesn't add up here, who did your inspections ?

LL wanted to save agent fees, so asked us to pay him directly each month. But, he said agent got the deposit sorted out for him. No one ever did the inspection. LL only came once after we moved in 5 months to show us how to use heater properly. Neighbours next door are good friends of LL, so they always say good things about us to LL - as we always kept house & garden in immaculate conditions. In fact, after 12 months we found another house cheaper and gave LL notice to move out, he reduced our rent to nearly the same amount we would be paying at the new place. Now, I know most LL would increase rent and not to reduce it! We are exceptional tenants.

Blackpool_Saver

isleofdogs wrote: »

LL wanted to save agent fees, so asked us to pay him directly each month. But, he said agent got the deposit sorted out for him. No one ever did the inspection. LL only came once after we moved in 5 months to show us how to use heater properly. Neighbours next door are good friends of LL, so they always say good things about us to LL - as we always kept house & garden in immaculate conditions. In fact, after 12 months we found another house cheaper and gave LL notice to move out, he reduced our rent to nearly the same amount we would be paying at the new place. Now, I know most LL would increase rent and not to reduce it! We are exceptional tenants.

Sounds like an introduction type service by the agents, view/prepare contract and inventory, take and place deposit....hmmm, well I would be raising merry hell with them and your LL

isleofdogs

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

Sounds like an introduction type service by the agents, view/prepare contract and inventory, take and place deposit....hmmm, well I would be raising merry hell with them and your LL

same arrangement is in place for current rental property. We will pay monthly rent directly into LLs bank account. But, I have assurance from agent that a certificate on our deposit will be sent to us within 30 days of us moving in - LL has been copied into email from agent. Lesson learned.

Blackpool_Saver

Good luck, I hope you get somewhere soon, I know how infuriating it is having to find the next deposit without getting the first one back

DRP

isleofdogs wrote: »

You have the whole true story. Agent has no one whom we can talk to about deposit - every time I phoned they said to email a particular email address call "head office". It is a faceless and voiceless org. They do not even have a street address for the so called head office. They only list 2 branches for letting - and no one there can help regarding the deposit!!!

LL said agent handling the deposit and we have to take the matter up with agent. We got along well with LL - as we paid him rent directly into his account. I will have to tell LL that we will sue him then, if we do not get our deposit back?

Is the LL saying he never received the deposit money despite the agent saying it would go to his account?

Although whichever is the case, it his still the LL responsibility to return it to you.

isleofdogs

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

Good luck, I hope you get somewhere soon, I know how infuriating it is having to find the next deposit without getting the first one back

Yes, our account went into overdraft last week (we had not much cash left in the account and put everything on credit cards - as we have been waiting for the return of the deposit to repay another account. Fortunately hubby got paid this week. each deposit was around £4K, or £8K for both. What was worse is that in the UK the rental deposit is 6 weeks rent, in Australia it is only 4 weeks rent.

isleofdogs

DRP wrote: »

Is the LL saying he never received the deposit money despite the agent saying it would go to his account?

Although whichever is the case, it his still the LL responsibility to return it to you.

LL did not say that he never received the money. When we rented the property, we paid the deposit plus first month rent directly into the agent's account and got a receipt for them.

DRP

isleofdogs wrote: »

LL did not say that he never received the money. When we rented the property, we paid the deposit plus first month rent directly into the agent's account and got a receipt for them.

Sorry I'm being obtuse, but does that mean:

The LL hasn't told you whether he did or didn't receive the money.
or
The LL has received the money.

Personally I would be pressurising the LL to return your money. Forget the agent, it isn't your problem.

In turn the LL can get the money from the agent (if he thinks he is owed it).

Caveat_Mortgagor

Regardless of whether you paid the deposit to LL or his agent, the LL is responsible for putting your deposit in a deposit protection scheme and he is also responsible for returning the deposit to you.

I suggest you threaten your LL with a claim for compensation of up to 3 times your deposit for failure to protect your deposit, failing to advise which scheme your deposit was lodged with and failing to advise you how to make a claim in the event of a dispute at the end of your tenancy.

We are moving out of our rented house in 2 months time, a week ago I gave a letter before action to our landlord and he has agreed to return our deposit and pay us £2500 compensation in order to avoid court action for exactly the same failures as your landlord.

However, it seems your deposit was much larger than ours, you may get a much bigger settlement. Quick question though. With such a big deposit, how much rent were you paying? I think the limit for the deposit protection scheme is £25k per annum.