Managing agents have gone out of business - where's my deposit?!

Surama

Hi there.

I live in a flat I've rented privately for four years, through a managing agent (the landlord lives in Ireland). Yesterday my next door neighbour, who knows the landlord/owner, knocked on my door and passed on an email from the owner saying the managing agents have gone out of business and can I please pay my rent directly to her!

I emailed the landlord to say hello, then tried to get hold of the agents (phone number not in service - it was ringing out last week), and did some digging at Companies House and they have indeed gone under. I was able to stop my standing order (I paid them directly every month), in time, which is lucky, but I have some questions and wondered if anyone could help me as I know there are some landlords and tenancy experts on this forum!

- I assume I'll need a new tenancy agreement directly with the landlord (unless she employs more managing agents?) Should I refuse to pay my rent until I have this? I'm very much inclined to pay this months' rent as she asks as a gesture of good faith but I really don't want to not have an active tenancy agreement as there are problems with the flat (see below).

- My deposit! This is £1560! It was held by the agents and I assume that as they did not notify either me or the owner of my property that they were going under (and probably not the owners or tenants of other properties they manage either), they aren't likely to just call me up and say "here's your money back". The inventory etc was all held by them too. What happens when I come to leave the property - can I ask the landlord directly for my deposit, even though she would never have seen it? Does she have a right to ask me for a new deposit?

- The boiler and the washing-machine in the flat aren't working at the moment. I had been trying to get hold of the agents to ask them to fix it but surprise surprise couldn't do so - now I know why! It's very hard to live without the washing machine (the boiler not so much as hot water is not affected), as I have three small children. Should I pay for someone to come and have a look at it and bill the landlord? She seems to be panicking completely (don't blame her!), so I don't really want to add to her problems by demanding a washing-machine repairman, but...

- Does the landlord still have to give me two months' notice if she decides she wants me to leave? I'm keen to stay as this place has been my children's home since they were born, plus the rent is now a bit of a bargain (it's been unchanged for the whole time I've lived here). The tenancy agreement says I get two months' notice - is this still current or is the whole thing void now the managing agents don't exist anymore? If she decides she wants new managing agents to deal with it, will they need to inspect the flat?

- Paying the landlord directly - she lives in Southern Ireland and presumably has a bank account there. Can I set up a direct debit? Does it count as an international transfer and will I be charged? Are cheques a better idea?

Sorry for the endless questions and thankyou so much to anyone who can help!

mightymouse

I assume I'll need a new tenancy agreement directly with the landlord

No your contract is with your landlord and has not changed.

Should I refuse to pay my rent until I have this

why if your rent is due, if no agent try for a discount say 10%

My deposit! This is £1560! It was held by the agents and I assume that as they did not notify either me or the owner of my property that they were going under

not your concern as it was 'held' by agent who is agent of landlord


I will stop there if you dont mind, back later if necessary but think others will add.

lynzpower

Mightymouse isnt completely correct here. I used to have a LL in southern ireland too, so Im quite well versed in this unfortiunately.

Basically, your LL lives "abroad" . under the law ( fairly sure its the housing act) there has to be somoene named as managing the property in the UK. this is in case of a) repairs & maintainence - somewhat difficult to do from overseas ( common sense says not that difficult from Ireland, but even so, the laws the law and you cant have one rule for one etc) and b) you need to have an address to serve court notices at , eg if you wanted to take your ll to court for any reason. ( return of deposit etc).

therefore your LL has no option but to apppoint another letting agent to manage the property. Its the law. the issue then transpires that the tenancy, without a UK manager is null & void. Now, no need to panic on this one, but I would discuss withholding the rent ( do discuss with the LL first) and say you will give the unpaid rent once the new LA is appointed.

You should not be transferring rent into an overseas account UNLESS THERE IS A UK PROPERTY MANAGER. If there is one appointed ( property manager, but doesnt collect rent) it is entirely "reasonable" under the law Id presume that the rent should be reduced to reflect the additional cost to you to transfer it internationally. However, she MAY have a UK ban account , not an irish one. I would speak to shelter on this point, but I suspect that the LL will choose a new LA who will collect the rent in the UK. certainly from a legal POV it makes more sense.

Second up, your deposit. I dont think she has any right to ask for another deposit from you, after all its not your fault the LA has folded is it! Do you have reciept for the deposit- sometimes found in the AST tenenacy doc. ( tiked box, signed etc)

I suspect that you/ and or your landlord needs to approach the official reciever for information as to how to become a creditor to the dissolving business. the deposit is really ( as you are still living there) the responsilibty of the LL to collect frm the OR. therefore, they ( and you too) should take some telephone advice from the Official Recievers office,. about how to get this back.

In terms of the inventory- was it done by the LA themselves? Or from a onventory company. i work for an independent inv company and obviously we have copies of the inventory stored at our office. Saying that your LL should have been given a copy of the inventory- were they? If the company has folded then im not sure if you could get hold of a copy of the inv under the data protection act ( or your LL could) worth speaking to the Information Commissioner about this one- they should be able to give guidance on if data is to be kept by anyone if the company has folded. I suspect not, but thats only an opinion, not a fact.

Without an inventory the fact remains that any deductions cannot be proven via court.

In terms of the washing machine ( and this happened to uis, while the LL was living in ireland) we told her that the WM was knackered and she simply decided instead of paying anyone to check it etc, that she would just order a new one from ( i tihnk) john lewis and they came out and fitted it adn took the old one away. If you could dig about- get some quotes from yellow pages and find out how much a call out/ repair/ parts could be - versus the cost of a new one. Negotiate with your LL on this one, for the sake of the hassle factor they could ( as my old LL did) jsut think stuff it for 150 you can buy a new one, and at least it will have gurantees and all that jazz. you could offer to pay for it too and withhold it from the rent to minimise hassle factor for the LL at this stressful time. Emailing links etc is useful plus gives a paper trail of conversations & agreements.

What is the effect of the broken boiler, if you still have hot water- eg what is broken about it?

I could be wrong of course on some of these, but I had a huge saga on this a few years ago, and took loads of advice on it at the time.
HTH, come back to me if you need more

Lynz
x

mightymouse

The inventory etc was all held by them too. What happens when I come to leave the property - can I ask the landlord directly for my deposit, even though she would never have seen it? Does she have a right to ask me for a new deposit?

Re Inventory that will be negotiated at the end of your lease as will return of your deposit and why would you need to provide another deposit'

The boiler and the washing-machine in the flat aren't working at the moment. I had been trying to get hold of the agents to ask them to fix it but surprise surprise couldn't do so - now I know why! It's very hard to live without the washing machine (the boiler not so much as hot water is not affected), as I have three small children. Should I pay for someone to come and have a look at it and bill the landlord? She seems to be panicking completely (don't blame her!), so I don't really want to add to her problems by demanding a washing-machine repairman, but...

With three children ask the landlord to sort any problems out straight away, I appreciate landlord cannot anticipate events but should be quite able to get on and deal with HER problems, she appointed agent.

Everything re your lease is unchanged and as your rent is unchanged suggest now that you do not ask for discount but keep information in mind re any future increase.

Most people have bank accounts into which dd can be paid.

lynzpower

Everything re your lease is unchanged and as your rent is unchanged suggest now that you do not ask for discount but keep information in mind re any future increase.

you are wrong. the lease is void under UK law, please see above for my explaination as to why this is the case.

tweep

Simular happened to my partner and I........

We was renting for three years and the LL turned up and said the estate agents was folding up and left a direct debit form and told us to go and get our deposit.
I went to get our deposit and they told me to call back in 5 days because the money was given by my partner with proof of his signiture to say I can pick it up, anyway the deposit amount was one month's rent £550. Within the 5 days the shop had closed so we decided to just keep the last month's rent when we move as it was obious they had hood winked me!

As we had only met the landlord once in three years we didnt want to rock the boat.

It was only last week we moved out, two years since we last spoke to the landlord (5 year stay) we witheld the last months rent hoping the landlord would crawl out of the woodwork as we do not know where he lives because since the estste agents closed he has moved address and we have no way to contact him to give notice We moved out a week ago!!!!

We never recieved any paper work when the estate agent closed either surely all he needed to do was ammend the dates yearly on the previous tenancy aggrements.

Tweep

doll_83

hey surama
im having similar problems from the advice i have got so far the LL is responsible for the deposit no matter what.
have a read of my problem im new to this but my thread is called landlady being unreasonable
hope u work sumthing out

Surama

Wow, thanks a lot, especially to lynzpower, I had worried that her living abroad would mean it was more hassle than she seemed to think and I guess that's the case

Some excellent advice so thankyou very much for that!

To answer your question, since you were so comprehensive with mine!

lynzpower wrote: »

What is the effect of the broken boiler, if you still have hot water- eg what is broken about it?

No central heating. I'm not sure how it works but the building's hot water is communal but the heating is on an individual-flat basis, or is for me anyway. Not such an issue in July (and the boiler's been tempramental since I moved in), but will be come October!

The only problem I can see with any of your suggestions is that the washing-machine is apparently a weird size (it's a built-in kitchen), but I'll worry about that once I've heard back from the landlord. Thankyou!

lynzpower

Is it a ex-council property you live in?

As they *may* be able to intervene with the heating problem if its run off a communal boiler? Sorry I cant be more help on this - do keep us informed of your progress, and if I can help more I will

Surama

lynzpower wrote: »

Is it a ex-council property you live in?

As they *may* be able to intervene with the heating problem if its run off a communal boiler? Sorry I cant be more help on this - do keep us informed of your progress, and if I can help more I will

No, it's a 1940s purpose-built mansion block sort of thing, I think it's always been privately owned. But I can live with no radiators for the summer!

clutton_2

Lynz gives excellent advice, and i just disagree with a couple of things. My opinion re the deposit is that legally the landlord is fully responsible for its return to you - (whether the letting agent still has it or not) - a tenant cannot be legally responsible for a landlords poor choice of agent, as ultimately the LL is responsible in law for compliance with the law. Re the tenancy, my view is that as long as rent continues to be paid i suspect that a judge would view it as an ongoing tenancy.