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What is the max amount of time an agency take to return a rental deposit?
DazedAndConfused1980
Posts: 17 Forumite
Quick question (I hope).
What is the longest time, following vacating a property, that a landlord or agency can take to return a deposit? Days? Weeks? Months?
To give some background, we vacated a property late-August (and were liable for it up until mid-September). Early October the agency got in touch to say the landlord wanted to deduct some money from the deposit for cleaning, but on the same day I sent back photographs of the flat in the state we left it (i.e. extremely clean).
It's now November, and tomorrow I think it'll be 8 weeks since the tenancy ended (on paper).
I called the agency last week, and they said that they are waiting on a response from the landlord. I asked if there was a deadline for this response, and their literal answer was "I don't have a date for you, because then you'll just call on that date if things haven't gone through"... Which seemed unprofessional to say the least.
When I called today, they said again that they are waiting on a response from the landlord and said something about there being a 90-day limit to raise a dispute, but I've never heard of anything like this.
Anyway, I suspect because it isn't an open-and-shut case (what with the landlord's costs and my photos) it's taking them a while to process things, so can anyone tell me if there is a legal requirement to which they must adhere?
What is the longest time, following vacating a property, that a landlord or agency can take to return a deposit? Days? Weeks? Months?
To give some background, we vacated a property late-August (and were liable for it up until mid-September). Early October the agency got in touch to say the landlord wanted to deduct some money from the deposit for cleaning, but on the same day I sent back photographs of the flat in the state we left it (i.e. extremely clean).
It's now November, and tomorrow I think it'll be 8 weeks since the tenancy ended (on paper).
I called the agency last week, and they said that they are waiting on a response from the landlord. I asked if there was a deadline for this response, and their literal answer was "I don't have a date for you, because then you'll just call on that date if things haven't gone through"... Which seemed unprofessional to say the least.
When I called today, they said again that they are waiting on a response from the landlord and said something about there being a 90-day limit to raise a dispute, but I've never heard of anything like this.
Anyway, I suspect because it isn't an open-and-shut case (what with the landlord's costs and my photos) it's taking them a while to process things, so can anyone tell me if there is a legal requirement to which they must adhere?
0
Comments
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https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection/overview says:
At the end of your tenancy
Your landlord must return your deposit within 10 days of you both agreeing how much you’ll get back.
If you’re in a dispute with your landlord, then your deposit will be protected in the TDP scheme until the issue is sorted out.
This page explains the TDP Dispute Resolution Service, which it would probably make sense for you to use now:
https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection/disputes-and-problems0 -
Contact your landlord directly as well.0
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Start a single claim with whichever scheme your deposit is registered with. That should gee the landlord into action because the clock will start ticking. If he doesn't respond to the scheme within a certain time frame then BINGO you'll get your full deposit back.
The letting agent can't give you a timescale because really it's outwith their control.0 -
Such a pity you didn't request the deposit back yourself through the scheme, they would then have had no choice to be act within the timescales. That is of course assuming they did protect your deposit!0
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Such a pity you didn't request the deposit back yourself through the scheme, they would then have had no choice to be act within the timescales. That is of course assuming they did protect your deposit!
Yeah, with my|deposits.
Just getting the documentation for that together right now to see what I have to do next.0
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