deposit protection certificate not received

Guest101

moneyspendexpert wrote: »

I can understand that you had appointed an agent to take care of the property rental, but surely you must have been given a copy of the tenancy agreement detailing the name of the tenant(s).

I would much rather avoid the courts but as you say, it is possible that the agent may not have protected the deposit and it would then be the LL that has to return the deposit, even though the deposit didn't reach the LL.

Correct, the LL hired the Agents, you didnt. The LL needs to sue them etc, nothing to do with the tenant.

Most LL would avoid court, as the costs will just go against them

G_M

CWSmith wrote: »

Slightly off topic, but ..............!

The Deposit Protection Scheme is flawed.
As a new and completely innocent landlady, I used a management agency to deal with the house I was letting out. They dealt with every aspect - I didn't know anything about the Scheme - I didn't even know the amount of the deposit, in fact, I didn't even know the names of the tenants! But as I said, I was innocent then!

Everything was fine for a while then out of the blue, the agency went bankrupt. My new (infinitely more efficient) agency immediately asked the first agency about the whereabouts of the deposit. Safe and sound, they said; the tenant has the certificate. New agency contacted the tenant and suggested they check - just to make sure. They said they would ...........! (They didn't!)

Three years later, they move out, and surprise, surprise - the deposit is nowhere to be found - the first agent had long since made off with it and he was nowhere to be found either, which left me liable.

As it is totally the landlord's responsibility, I think the rules should state that ONLY the landlord deals with the deposit - it should completely bypass the hands of any and all letting/management agents. I think that would make life a lot more straightforward for both landlords and tenants.

No. The 'flaw' in the process was your own, self-confessed, innocence. (I assume you mean 'ignorance' since by not protecting the deposit you, as LL, were in fact 'guilty'!)

Removing the option for landlords to use agents, for this and /or any other aspect of the letting business would be hugely inconvenient and probbly legally impossible (eg what if you as LL granted Power of attorny to your sister - could she not then protect the deposit for you eg if you were abroad, acting effectively as your agent?)

The deposit scheme was hugely flawed when first introduced, but was greatly improved by the Loaclism Act last year.

It still has flaws (eg the re-reistration on move from fixed term toperiodic tenancy), but the abilityof agents to .... well, act as the LL's agent (!) is not a flaw.

(in your case, as well as your innocence/ignorance, the problem was an unprofessional agent. Solution? Register & qualify agents. Don't ban them outof hand!)