Deposit Return and 10 day rule?

Peerzy

Evening all,

I've recently become a first time buyer and thus moved out of my rented flat. The deposit of £1350 was paid 2 years ago when I moved in and has (as far as I know) been stored in a deposit scheme. I left the flat in a very decent condition and feel that no deductions should be made.

My last day in the flat was Friday 7th Feb and a checkout was arranged for Saturday 8th Feb. I was not present for the checkout.

On Monday 10th Feb I received the following email from the agent (the property is managed by the landlady but the agent does rent collection);

Agent wrote:

The Inventory Company has completed the check-out for the property and I have enclosed a copy of the report in this email. A further copy has been sent to the landlord and they have confirmed that they will be making a claim from the deposit. I will update you once the Landlord lets me know the amount.

If you wish to make any representations as a result of this report, you must do so in writing. You are more than welcome to call with any queries, however if there is a dispute, the matter has to be referred to The Dispute Service and we must send all written correspondence we have to make sure that the TDS have evidence of all actions taken.

I phoned them up and spoke to them about this, they said they had no details of amounts of what the claim was being made for. They said the landlady had 10 working days to get further information over to me (via them) and they put a reminder down to call me and the landlady last Friday (21st - which would have been the 10th working day since I moved out).

I've not heard a peep from anybody since then, I have a working redirection on the post for the property and the agents know my email address and mobile number (as does the landlady as any issues just went straight through her during the tenancy).

I've looked in my latest rental contract and think the following two clauses apply to my case;

Contract wrote:

After the end of the tenancy no deductions shall be made from the deposit unless, or until, the reason
for the nature of the deductions have been notified in writing to the tenant. Such correspondence will
be sent, addressed to the tenant, to the single address required to be provided by the tenant under
clause 2.69 of this agreement or, in the absence of such an address, to the address of the premises
subject to this tenancy given at clause 1.7.

The above clause doesn't seem to give any timeframe.

Contract wrote:

The agent must tell the tenant within 10 working days of the end of the tenancy if they propose to
make any deductions from the Deposit.

4.12 If there is no dispute the agent will keep or repay the deposit, according to the agreed deductions and
the conditions of the tenancy agreement. Payment of the deposit or any balance of it will be made
within 10 working days of the landlord and the tenant agreeing the allocation of the deposit.

Where do I stand? As it's over 10 working days and I've not heard anything more I was going to email the agent and request the full amount day asap.

CreditCrunchie

The 10 day thing just means they have to give you notice within that time if there is to be a deduction. It will just go back and forth in the dps scheme then until you come to some 'arrangement' i.e. you agree to them taking your money (if indeed you have damaged the place), or they accept your alternative offer or refusal to pay based on proof that you didn't cause any damage.

Good luck!

SerialRenter

I would get on to the website of the company that's protecting your website and open the claim yourself, the agent will then have to reply within 10 days.

Peerzy

CreditCrunchie wrote: »

The 10 day thing just means they have to give you notice within that time if there is to be a deduction. It will just go back and forth in the dps scheme then until you come to some 'arrangement' i.e. you agree to them taking your money (if indeed you have damaged the place), or they accept your alternative offer or refusal to pay based on proof that you didn't cause any damage.

Good luck!

Would you consider the email I received as to be notice for a deduction (I'm not sure it is as they've not said how much is being deducted and what for)?

SerialRenter wrote: »

I would get on to the website of the company that's protecting your website and open the claim yourself, the agent will then have to reply within 10 days.

Why would I need to open a claim? Do I need to claim to get my money back?

My understanding is the LL has to make the claim with quotes / details within 10 working days - as that has not been done I should automatically receive the entire deposit back?

SerialRenter

Perhaps, but Agencies can be notoriously slow and will often take more than 10 days. By opening the claim yourself it'll speed things up a whole lot.

No reason not to tbh.

DRP

Peerzy wrote: »

Why would I need to open a claim? Do I need to claim to get my money back?

you're obviously concerned about the time this is taking so why *not* open a claim? it will speed things up

Do you know where your money is?

The deposit of £1350 was paid 2 years ago when I moved in and has (as far as I know) been stored in a deposit scheme.

Peerzy

DRP wrote: »

you're obviously concerned about the time this is taking so why *not* open a claim? it will speed things up

Do you know where your money is?

I'm more concerned about making sure I get 100% of it back rather than it taking an extra week or something. That is the reason why I've waited over 2 weeks before chasing up as I wanted to let any time period (10 working days / 14 days) elapse to now allow the LL to try and make a claim.

It is protected with TDS and I have to certificate and number.

SerialRenter

Depends how much you trust your letting agent really. As I said before, they're quite forgetful.

You could always phone them again and ask?

Peerzy

SerialRenter wrote: »

Depends how much you trust your letting agent really. As I said before, they're quite forgetful.

You could always phone them again and ask?

We had a number of issues with the agent, most of them centered around the inability to communicate and being forgetful!

I've emailed them today;

Email_to_Agent wrote:

Afternoon [Agent],

As 10 working days have now passed since we vacated [Property Name] and no disputes have been received in writing by either myself or [Partner] can you please confirm when the full security deposit (£1350.00) will be returned to us as agreed in our contract?

Please can the deposit be paid into the following account;

[Bank Account Details]

Many thanks

I guess if I get no response I can open a dispute or call and speak to the lettings Partner (who I've had to deal with a number of times recently due to the agent being very poor).

CreditCrunchie

Yes I forgot to mention you can open a claim for it yourself. I'd definitely do this if you haven't already.

DRP

Peerzy wrote: »

We had a number of issues with the agent, most of them centered around the inability to communicate and being forgetful!

I've emailed them today;



I guess if I get no response I can open a dispute or call and speak to the lettings Partner (who I've had to deal with a number of times recently due to the agent being very poor).

i just wouldn't be emailing at this stage. It is very easy to fob off, forget or ignore an email.

What i'd do:

1. Ring them.
2. If not satisfied, claim from DPS.

At this stage there is no reason not to. In fact i'd probably do #2 before #1