Help with deposit refusal

87_17

hi

this is a bit of a long one but need help urgently .

in 2012 we moved into a rental house and within a month of moving in a property firm, touchstone cps notified us that they had taken over the property from the landlord .


Received no new tenancy agreement as they accepted our tenancy agreement which we had included a scanned copy of the deposit being paid as we had only just moved into the property when we were notifed the property was being taken over.

After two years we were notified the house was being sold at auction in 2014 which was sold for 30k over the asking price

We then were notified by new owners to vacate the property this year which we did and were notified by them that they were more than happy for us to receive the full deposit back.


However this is where my issue is the new owners never received the deposit from Touchstone even thou have emails from them stating are we happy enough for our deposit to be released to the new owners and when we tried to chase it up with them they informed us that we had to chase it up with the original landlord who had been declared bankrupt as they state it was never recieved from the orginal estate agents we were dealing with even thou we provided receipts of paying them our deposit in full.

However this was the first time they had mentioned they didn't hold our deposit as we had scanned what we had paid and they accepted it as in their letter they had stated and when we had to scan our original tenancy agreement with them we explained that we had just moved into the property and hadn't received any tenancy deposit scheme certificate.

Where do I go from here to try and obtain the deposit back as it was roughly £500 as all I'm getting told from them is to go via the old landlord and the bankruptcy order ?

it hasnt helped the fact that since we were with the property firm we have had at least three different agents dealing with the property as some have left the business

I'm from northern Ireland as I know it depends where you are how you are protected / not protected

Pixie5740

As you're in Northern Ireland I'm not exactly sure how it works. It's a shame that Northern Ireland doesn't have a Shelter charity set up like Scotland or England and Wales (NI does have a charity called similar but it's not the same as the Shelter charities in rUK IYSWIM). I did manage to find the Housing Rights Service online though, it might be worth giving them a call to clarify the situation for you.

"Homelessness, social tenancies, renting privately

Call us on 028 9024 5640 between 09.30 and 13.30 Monday to Friday. Our reception staff will take your details and one of our advisers will call you back before 17.00 that day. You can also email us with your housing issue."

G_M

If this were England, I would say that you claim the deposit back from the current landlord (the 'new owners').

Whether they received it from the previous owners (Touchstone) is not your problem. That is matter between them.

The new owners are now the landlord, so they owe you (their tenant) the deposit. You request it from them in writing and if they refuse you go to court.

However, as you say NI, may be different.........