Can the Letting Agent Keep the Deposit?

manc2005

How you getting on with this?

Was the tenancy agreement an AST? If not, then the Landlord/Estate Agent did not have to protect it.

dibdabable

Just thought I'd bring this up to date. Just to answer the eprevious question, yes it is an AST.

So we applied to the Court, afterwhich we received papers where the Defendant gave his reasons for not knowing anything about the deposits, he said that he didn't have any dealings with this and the letting agent dealt with the deposits, he said it wasn't his responsibility. We then had to respond and in early Jan were sent papers asking if we wished to continue and that this was now a defended case.

We were sent form N180 which we filled in asking for the case to be forwarded and we didn't ask for mediation.We'd prefer to go to a face to face hearing. We had to and I believe the defendant also had to fill in the Directions Questionairre and send it in by the 26th of Jan, which we did by recorded delivery.
Today we received a letter which we find confusing obviously we'll ring on Monday but it basically says I think that defendant was sent form N149A,B or C but failed to send the Directions Questionairre by the date specified. It looks like we're being given a copy of what the defendant has received. The defendant is being given (I believe) a further 7 days to respond but not sure about this or the Court has or will order that their defence/counterclaim will be struck out and the claimant will be at liberty to enter judgment.

Any comments on this don't even know if I've read the letter correctly as not a language I understand. What does liberty to enter judgment mean?

The last bit says this order has been made without a hearing under the Courts case management powers under Procedures rules etc. The parties have the right to apply to have the Order set aside,varied or stayed. A party making such an application must file the application with the CCBC within 7 days. Presumably unless we want to change the claim we do nothing for the moment.

anselld

dibdabable wrote: »

the Defendant gave his reasons for not knowing anything about the deposits, he said that he didn't have any dealings with this and the letting agent dealt with the deposits, he said it wasn't his responsibility.

He will quite rightly get crucified for that statement if/when it finally gets to court. What a numpty!

Russe11

You should always be willing to use the mediation service, its free and shows you have tried every avenue to resolve the dispute before hearing.

should the other party agree to mediation then you will likely have the question , why did you not try and avoid wasting the courts time?

The landlord, if they are not as stupid as it seems, could claim they where willing to avoid it getting to hearing stage, by agreeing to mediation andin that case the judge could then see fit ti not award the hearing fees in the jdgement for example.

dibdabable wrote: »

Just thought I'd bring this up to date. Just to answer the eprevious question, yes it is an AST.

So we applied to the Court, afterwhich we received papers where the Defendant gave his reasons for not knowing anything about the deposits, he said that he didn't have any dealings with this and the letting agent dealt with the deposits, he said it wasn't his responsibility. We then had to respond and in early Jan were sent papers asking if we wished to continue and that this was now a defended case.

We were sent form N180 which we filled in asking for the case to be forwarded and we didn't ask for mediation.We'd prefer to go to a face to face hearing. We had to and I believe the defendant also had to fill in the Directions Questionairre and send it in by the 26th of Jan, which we did by recorded delivery.
Today we received a letter which we find confusing obviously we'll ring on Monday but it basically says I think that defendant was sent form N149A,B or C but failed to send the Directions Questionairre by the date specified. It looks like we're being given a copy of what the defendant has received. The defendant is being given (I believe) a further 7 days to respond but not sure about this or the Court has or will order that their defence/counterclaim will be struck out and the claimant will be at liberty to enter judgment.

Any comments on this don't even know if I've read the letter correctly as not a language I understand. What does liberty to enter judgment mean?

The last bit says this order has been made without a hearing under the Courts case management powers under Procedures rules etc. The parties have the right to apply to have the Order set aside,varied or stayed. A party making such an application must file the application with the CCBC within 7 days. Presumably unless we want to change the claim we do nothing for the moment.

dibdabable

Russe11 wrote: »

You should always be willing to use the mediation service, its free and shows you have tried every avenue to resolve the dispute before hearing.

should the other party agree to mediation then you will likely have the question , why did you not try and avoid wasting the courts time?

I see your point, but to be fair, the Landlord hasn't even responded when asked to by the Court, so I can't see why the Court would look favourably on them and unfavourably on my daughter just because he agrees with mediation. Given what the Landlord has said so far it's possible the mediation process wouldn't change his mind, so we'd be going to a Court hearing anyway. We are given the choice because that's exactly what my daughter has, a choice. We'd prefer having this case out in public, to see the landlord and answer questions directly and in a face to face setting we want to ensure not only the landlord but the letting agents are exposed. I don't believe we are wasting the Court's time. Why when we have spent a lot of time and gone to great lengths to give the landlord and letting agent time to respond to our numerous requests, should we not get recourse through the law in this way. The fact we have been the ones doing all the chasing, there comes a point when enough is enough. My daughter's been extremely patient and communicated with them politely and frequently to get this sorted out, but they chose to ignore her, well now she gets her day in Court, because they have wasted everyone's time. We feel we did try every avenue to negotiate with the Landlord and he's refused to accept any responsibility.

I think it's actually important that the Landlord who has shirked all responsibility for protecting the Deposits by shifting the blame to the Letting Agents and the Letting Agents faces up to their responsibilities in a public way. They are denying owing any money so I don't see how mediation's going to change his mind. As far as the Landlord's concerned he has believed the letting agent's lies about my daughter receiving her money and he's chosen to relinquish all responsibility for having to do anything about the deposits.
I'm still convinced that the Landlord did expect that the Letting Agents to deal with and protect the deposits, but you only have to look up the reviews for this letting agent to see this is far from being an isolated case. Most of the reviews mirror our experiences almost exactly, so it's about time someone put a stop to it.

Russe11 wrote: »

The landlord, if they are not as stupid as it seems, could claim they where willing to avoid it getting to hearing stage, by agreeing to mediation andin that case the judge could then see fit ti not award the hearing fees in the jdgement for example.

And then again the judge might not see fit to do this, we don't really know any more than you do, what he'll decide. We made a decision based on our experiences of the Landlord and Letting Agent alike and after taking everything into account.

Russe11

Its only the landlord thats responsible for the deposit, nothing to do with the letting agency.

unless the letting agency leases the property from the landlord, then you are suing the wrong party.

dibdabable

Russe11 wrote: »

Its only the landlord thats responsible for the deposit, nothing to do with the letting agency.

unless the letting agency leases the property from the landlord, then you are suing the wrong party.

Yes we know it's the landlord, I only mentioned the Letting Agents because the Landlord asked them what had happened to the return of the deposits.

Anyway back to my original question hopefully someone may be able to advise what "entering judgment" means. Thanks

Pixie5740

I think that it is saying that the defendant has been given another 7 days to respond and if he doesn't then the claimant, you, can just ask the court to enter judgement as they have dismissed the counterclaim by the defendant.

Then again I could be wrong as I'm no legal beagle.

Voyager2002

Russe11 wrote: »

You should always be willing to use the mediation service, its free and shows you have tried every avenue to resolve the dispute before hearing.

should the other party agree to mediation then you will likely have the question , why did you not try and avoid wasting the courts time?

The landlord, if they are not as stupid as it seems, could claim they where willing to avoid it getting to hearing stage, by agreeing to mediation andin that case the judge could then see fit ti not award the hearing fees in the jdgement for example.

It will not make a great deal of difference...

I sued a kitchen fitter: I was willing to go to mediation but he was not. When we eventually got to court the judge asked him why he had not accepted the offer of mediation; he gave a brief and insubstantial explanation and the matter was not mentioned again. The judge decided...

Oh: the hearing will not be out in public. It will just be a small room with the parties to the dispute, and a woman or man in a suit who is the judge.

domcastro

You're all saying "it's nothing to do with the letting agency" but it is. They use insured schemes such as MyDeposits. My Agents were awful giving the deposit back to me (I'm the landlord). They deliberately didn't contact the tenants then told me I had to take them to small claims court to get the deposit back. They wanted to keep the deposit. I spoke to Mydeposits and wrote a strongly worded email to the agency saying they weren't following procedures. They then contacted tenant who said I could have it and then I got it back. The Agents were liars and thieves!! and they're a massive country wide [:)] company