Can the Letting Agent Keep the Deposit?

Out,_Vile_Jelly

When this is sorted, please contact your daughter's university housing office to ensure this agency is named and shamed. Might also be worth alerting the student paper.

dibdabable

Thanks all.
Serialrenter are you saying we do both take them to court and apply through the linked site you've given.
My daughter has been on the site and is satisfied that the deposits weren't protected, they certainly never got any paperwork which is to be given within 30 days I think.

Also when making a small claim, do you put the amount you are owed or the amount you hope to be awarded. Do you state that you want to receive 3 times the amount or do you leave that to the Court?

SerialRenter

dibdabable wrote: »

Serialrenter are you saying we do both take them to court and apply through the linked site you've given.

If you're satisfied that the deposit was not protected then go straight for court action. The deposit protection scheme won't be able to help.

You may want to seek legal advice to bring this claim as it probably won't be assigned to the small claims track.

Other's will have to advise about the specifics of submitting the claim as i've never done it myself.

dibdabable

Just thought I'd add having sent off the small claims online, we got together all the evidence and paperwork we thought my daughter might need to complete the process. I happened to have a more thorough look at the Tenants Agreement. On looking at the signatures at the top of the page is the space for landlords signature and the bottom for the Tenants.I noticed that the Landlord didn't actually sign the agreement, the agreement was signed on the behalf of the landlord by the Letting Agents and they've also signed "in the presence of".

I find this rather odd, can't imagine the Landlord can be held liable for anything can he? The same person signs and witnesses their own signature. My daughters and the other tenants signatures were down the bottom, but she doesn't think the top part was filled in at that point, so they wouldn't have seen this irregularity and in all honesty probably wouldn't have thought anything of it really.

topdaddy_2

dibdabable wrote: »

Just thought I'd add having sent off the small claims online, we got together all the evidence and paperwork we thought my daughter might need to complete the process. I happened to have a more thorough look at the Tenants Agreement. On looking at the signatures at the top of the page is the space for landlords signature and the bottom for the Tenants.I noticed that the Landlord didn't actually sign the agreement, the agreement was signed on the behalf of the landlord by the Letting Agents and they've also signed "in the presence of".

I find this rather odd, can't imagine the Landlord can be held liable for anything can he? The same person signs and witnesses their own signature. My daughters and the other tenants signatures were down the bottom, but she doesn't think the top part was filled in at that point, so they wouldn't have seen this irregularity and in all honesty probably wouldn't have thought anything of it really.

the LL employed the LA as their agent to oversee this so yeah, they will be liable. Nowts changed.

RAS

Hi

You are over-thinking.

REGARDLESS of what is on the paper, Pixie has provided you with the correct information, assuming this tenancy is in England or Wales.

Pixie5740 wrote: »

The tenants have a contract with the landlord. The landlord has a contract with the letting agency. The tenants have no contract with the letting agency.

The landlord is always legally responsible for protecting the deposit regardless of whether or not they use an agent. If anyone ends up getting sued because the deposit hasn't been protected it'll ve the landlord.

As far as the law on deposits are concerned it is the LANDLORD who is legally responsible.

If the LL was unfortunate enough to have the agency go into administration whilst legally holding the deposit, it is the LANDLORD who has to re-pay the tenants.

If the original LL goes bust and a new LL buys the place, it is the new LANDLORD who has to re-pay the tenants.

What is the address for the serving of notices?

RAS

topdaddy wrote: »

the LL employed the LA as their agent to oversee this so yeah, they will be liable. Nowts changed.

What do you mean? Who is they?

dibdabable

RAS wrote: »

Hi

You are over-thinking.

REGARDLESS of what is on the paper, Pixie has provided you with the correct information, assuming this tenancy is in England or Wales.



As far as the law on deposits are concerned it is the LANDLORD who is legally responsible.

If the LL was unfortunate enough to have the agency go into administration whilst legally holding the deposit, it is the LANDLORD who has to re-pay the tenants.

If the original LL goes bust and a new LL buys the place, it is the new LANDLORD who has to re-pay the tenants.

What is the address for the serving of notices?

Thanks for this reminder and you're right I suppose I was over thinking things, it is actually a pretty straight forward situation really, but I think when it's your own situation you can sometimes not see the wood for the trees.

As for the Address do you mean what's the Landlords address?

Pixie5740

The tenancy agreement should contain an address for the serving of notices.

topdaddy_2

RAS wrote: »

What do you mean? Who is they?

Landlord, clearly:mad: