Q: how long for refund of rental deposit?

isleofdogs

DRP wrote: »

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).

I will phone LL to tell him what I have found out from the forum. But, I think it was his first time as LL so he might not know. We rented his house while he was located by work to Scotland. And, work moved him back to London, so naturally he wanted to move back into his house. We don't think he was being unreasonable, and he might not know his responsibilities towards us as tenants.

isleofdogs

Caveat_Mortgagor wrote: »

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.

We were paying around £2,750 a month for 13 months, until we told LL we were going to move out and he reduced rent by £250 to almost match rent we would have paid if we moved. We decided to stay as his house was in a good location and we have known some good neighbours.

pmlindyloo

Caveat_Mortgagor wrote: »

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.[/QUOTE]


Good question and now the OP has confirmed that the rent is over £25000 pa so the deposit did not need to be protected.

So a case of waiting for the LA to 'cough up' or taking Small Claims court action.

Blackpool_Saver

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/paying_for_a_home/tenancy_deposits/deposit_protection_and_tenancy_deposit_schemes

tim123456789

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.
.

They do actually.

I'm afraid it's your naivety in assuming that they protected you in a particular way and your not checking what they actually did to protect you, that's your problem here.

I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but that's how it is

tim

isleofdogs

another update.

Things have not settled satisfactorily. Many emails and phone calls from us, landlord and relocation agent to the letting agent (MB). They completely ignored, not answering emails or phone calls. We have sent MB a letter before action with a copy to LL 2 days ago that if money not in our account today - being more than 20 "working days" since we moved out (on 12th July) - we are going to court for our rental deposit. No reply, nothing from MB. LL did reply and said he has phoned MB everyday and they did not return his phone calls. He said he would go to their office tomorrow to see what the .... is going on!

We have enough of this to-ing and fro-ing. It seems no regulatory body has any power to intervene or act. So, we have to go to court. Question for the forum is who should we take court action against: LL or MB (letting agent)? Can we sue both as joint defendant?

I know most of you have said I should go after LL, as he is ultimately responsible for our rental deposit but he has dealt nicely with us during our tenancy. I think MB is trying to take advantage of us being new to the rental market knowing they will get away with stealing tenant rental deposits.

I feel very jaded, as it has been an extremely harrowing experience - mentally and emotionally stressed as I have not expected that we have to go to court to recover what rightfully ours. I went to a legal centre (but did not get to see any legal adviser to confirm what I should do) but the admin person told me that it is the NORM for letting agents / landlords not returning rental deposits and tenants have to fight to get the money back! WHY? This should be a simple and straightforward process. Friends said letting agents are mostly dishonest, lack integrity and professional ethics. They do not have to be licensed or regulated by anyone.

Most agencies (shelter, property ombudsman [useless as they claim they only help buyers and sellers and not tenants], trading standards) have no power to act. They all say, "yes it is unfortunately too common in the UK for tenants not to get their rental deposits back, we cannot help you, and we will keep your case on file and if there are many complaints against a particular business we will use them for our campaign with the government."

Is there any website where we can name and shame these letting agencies to warn others against them?

I have read a number of articles in newspapers and BBC that complaints against letting agents have gone up each year. But, why the government is not doing anything about it? Rent is the single biggest expense for most people (we pay more than 60% of our net salary to rent). Why there is no protection for tenants?

Sorry, I am very upset, and have to vent ...

Werdnal

The landlord is ultimately responsible for protection of the deposit and its return at the end of the tenancy. If he contracts this out to a 3rd party on his behalf (the agent), he is still responsible for ensuring the deposit is correctly protected. Even in scenarios where the agents go bust and deposit disappears into the "ether", tenant still sues the LL, even if it is not the LL's fault!

The contract to handle the letting of this property is between the LL and the agent, so he is the only one who can sue the agent for non-compliance with the regs. The agent protects the deposit on his behalf, not yours, and you pay the deposit to the agent on his behalf, not yours, so you sue the LL, and he countersues the agent.

Send a "Letter Before Action" to the LL, stating that unless he obtains the deposit amount from the agents and returns it within 10 working days, you will launch a claim for its return, and take legal advice on the process to instigate a non-protection claim through the County Court.

Your LL may be the nicest person in the world, but you do not have a contract with the agent, he does, so you need to claim from him. Agent owes you nothing!

isleofdogs

Thanks, Werdnal. I just want to confirm that LL is the one we have to sue (and not his letting agent). I have downloaded the N1 form from the county court website, and will work on it this weekend. Monday will be the day I will lodge the form online.

We moved out on 12th July. First, agent said we had to wait 20 days for our rental deposit. Then, they said 20 working days. Last Friday LL said a senior person at MB told him money would be in our account that day - 20 working days have passed. No money, I have checked our account everyday. Now, MB will not reply to emails from us, from LL, and will not return calls by LL (he said he has phoned them everyday).

Hubby has sent a LBA to MB and LL 3 days ago. LL has replied that he has tried to contact MB, but nothing from MB. I will email LL today - enough time wasting, and we will sue him, and he has to countersue MB. Yes, you are right LL is a nice person, but he has failed us in his legal duties regarding our rental deposit.

Werdnal wrote: »

The landlord is ultimately responsible for protection of the deposit and its return at the end of the tenancy. If he contracts this out to a 3rd party on his behalf (the agent), he is still responsible for ensuring the deposit is correctly protected. Even in scenarios where the agents go bust and deposit disappears into the "ether", tenant still sues the LL, even if it is not the LL's fault!

The contract to handle the letting of this property is between the LL and the agent, so he is the only one who can sue the agent for non-compliance with the regs. The agent protects the deposit on his behalf, not yours, and you pay the deposit to the agent on his behalf, not yours, so you sue the LL, and he countersues the agent.

Send a "Letter Before Action" to the LL, stating that unless he obtains the deposit amount from the agents and returns it within 10 working days, you will launch a claim for its return, and take legal advice on the process to instigate a non-protection claim through the County Court.

Your LL may be the nicest person in the world, but you do not have a contract with the agent, he does, so you need to claim from him. Agent owes you nothing!

isleofdogs

Another update:

Finally LL proposed to pay us back our deposit in full from his own funds - if we did not take him to court - and he would recover the money from his agent. We agreed to his proposal, and he paid us last week - since we did not want to get into a legal battle, we just wanted our money back. LL continued to contact agent to pay us, and we agreed if agent paid us, we would pay the money over to LL. LL said he would sue agent. We said we would help LL if required in his court against agent. Agent sent us a cryptic email saying he would pay us - that was over a week ago and still no money!

A related question:

We have told current landlord about our problems with previous LL over the deposit. She was overseas at the time, and said on her return she would secure our deposit with a deposit scheme. She is now back, and I reminded her about this. She said most of her tenants have been happy to leave their deposits with her and she always paid them back. However, the law requires her to place our deposit with one of the 4 companies so she will do that if we wish! And, we will have to fight that company to get our money back after we move out!

Well, once bitten twice shy ...

I am going to insist that she lodges our deposit with an authorised company. Why would current LL said I would have to fight the company to get my money back ??? If the law requires her to do it, why is she reluctant to do it? :mad:

Also curious to know if anyone has problems with getting their deposit back from one of the 4 companies?

dimbo61

NO NO NO your New LL is an idiot and she is breaking the LAW if she does not register your deposit within 30 days of receiving the deposit from you.
She cannot evict you as she cannot serve a valid S21
You can sue her through the courts for up to 3X the deposit
When you do move out you contact which ever DPS scheme she has used and ask for your full deposit back.
They should pay this back within 10 working days
Only if the Landlord objects and wants to make deductions for damage/cleaning/repairs will it go to arbitration
Now it is then up to the Landlord to PROVE you have done the damage or the property is dirty ( allowing fair wear and tear)
If it was a new property with brand new white/cream carpets/walls and 6 months later you move out with your 4 kids and 6 dogs and the place is a bomb site with filthy carpets and damage on all the walls which the LL can prove with photos/video and a dual signed inventory then the LL has a strong case!!!!
If you have lived in the property for 4.5/5 years then the carpets/walls ( repainted) need to be replaced as considered old and worn out ( Unless top quality and 10 year guarantee!!)
Have you got a Gas safety certificate?