Overpaid Rent Refund

FizzS

I am just posting this in case anyone has some advice to help my situation.

I moved out of a rented flat on 31st March when the lease was ended.
The tenancy agreement says rent payments are taken on the 7th of every month, and I had a standing order set up for this.

Due to being busy setting up in my new place I didn't get around to checking my bank account to cancel the standing order until the evening on Sat 5th, but I figured there was still time to cancel it before the 7th so that's also why I didn't rush to cancel it. Anyway, when I looked at my account it showed that I sent a rent payment to the estate agent on the 1st April so, it was an overpayment.

I called them on Monday 7th to ask them to refund and they told me because they were in the process of merging with another company (or something like that) they couldn't access their accounts to refund me, and that they'd call me back. The person who spoke to me agreed that they owed the refund though.

I called again on Thu 10th because they hadn't called back yet and asked for a refund again. The person said that they had to ask some management people about the state of their accounts and where my money was.

I called again on Fri 11th to check their progress but was told the person dealing with it was out of the office that day.

I meant to call again on Monday 14th but I didn't have the time to, I plan on calling again today though.


I just get the feeling that I keep getting fobbed off here and they're not dealing with my request at all. I don't know how long it reasonably takes to sort out accounts when companies merge and what have you, but I feel like they just have done nothing about it since I let them know about the situation.

So, just asking how long you think is reasonable for them to process the refund, and also, do you think I should email/send a letter requesting the refund formally?


They also owe me the deposit back still, but as the tenancy agreement says they have 28 days or so to return that I haven't asked about it yet.

Thanks for reading.

Edit: There is nothing in the tenancy agreement that addresses overpayments.

Kynthia

Don't you think you should put this request in writing and make it official? Phone calls are a bit 'relaxed' for this amount of money and means you have no evidence of what was asked for and when, should you need it.

FizzS

Yeah if they still say they have account problems when I ask later today I will send a letter to formally request.

I just thought that it would have been faster if I called to let them know and they would have started processing it as soon as they were aware, but obviously that's not what happened.

I should have known better to think an estate agent would be able to do anything efficiently. :doh:

ging84

were you mistaken about your standing orders going out on the 7th or did the bank send it early?
if the bank processed it early i would take the matter up with them

marliepanda

ging84 wrote: »

were you mistaken about your standing orders going out on the 7th or did the bank send it early?
if the bank processed it early i would take the matter up with them

SO usually get requested a few working days in advance. Cancelling on the 5th would still have been too late, especially being a weekend.

As the 5/6 was the weekend, it was probably requested the first as that would allow it to go through in time.

FizzS

On my online banking it says cancelled standing orders will take up to 1 day?

Anyway, the date they took the money in the past has always been a little erratic being a few days after or before at times.

I called a second ago and was told the person dealing with it would call back as soon as she's out of a meeting so we'll see what happens next.

ItsyBitsySpider

I forgot to cancel the standing order and overpaid but I was refunded on the same day when I called the letting agents for a refund.

Pandilex

My bank I have a standing rent order for the 1st of the month and the bank sends it early such that it arrives on the 1st. So it's probably that.