Help Needed! Letting Agent not Collect Full Deposit from Tenants

HappyRabbit

Hoping someone here can help me out of this nasty situation.

Basically, I rent my house using a Letting Agent and also paid for its full management service including very standard service like collecting deposit (at least one month) and protect the deposit.

On the day the tenants have moved in, I received an email from the agent saying the tenants have moved in and deposit has been collected and sent to DPS. Also, follow their advice, I purchased the rent protection insurance in case of any arrears.

However, six months later, the agent told me that the initial deposit wasn't collected in full (which should be 6 weeks' rent equivalent of rent). They handed over my house keys to the tenants with only 3 weeks' deposit. The explanation from the agent was "they show good faith and believe the tenants will pay the remaining fund soon and was helping me not have to waste weeks to find other tenants."

Now here comes the problem. The tenants are in arrears now (two missed payments) and I cannot use the insurance I purchased because there is a clause "one month rent worth of deposit must be collected and protected".

I am really frustrated. Can I actually sue the letting agent to pay for the missed payments?

Thanks.

theartfullodger

Regrettably I am unable to read the exact terms of your agreement with the agent. Could you kindly let us know what it says on the matters, please?

Issue s8 and LBA TODAY then small claims. How many months rent owing?

Was such deposit that was collected protected & PI served within 30 days of payment? Forget about getting any more deposit - probably breach protection laws.

Does tenancy state deposit May be used for rent? Can't read it from here.

HappyRabbit

The term about is the deposit on the agreement:

"The Deposit of £2,000 is paid by the Tenant to the Agent, xxxx Estate Agents".

"Deposit Protection: When opting for either service, we will obtain and forward to the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) a deposit from the tenant of at least one month rent to cover against unpaid rent or bills, dilapidations and any other costs or losses incurred as a result of any breach of the terms of the tenancy agreement by the tenant."

However, only £1000 was collected which is LESS THAN one month's rent, and sent to DPS on the first day when the tenancy starts.

In this case, is the agent responsible for the payments?

Yes, I am contacting solicitor to issue section 8. However, just want to check where the agent's responsibilities here? What can I do? If they collected the right amount of deposit, I can use the insurance i purchased and I can easily get paid by the insurance company from the missed payment and also I do not have to pay all the subsequence solicitor fee from the eviction process.

HappyRabbit

Any other comments please?

steampowered

If the letting agent didn't clear the half deposit with you first, I would think they will be in breach of contract and can be made liable.

However, you would be expected to mitigate your loss by pursuing the tenant and (if possible) the insurance company in the first instance.

HappyRabbit

steampowered wrote: »

If the letting agent didn't clear the half deposit with you first, I would think they will be in breach of contract and can be made liable.

However, you would be expected to mitigate your loss by pursuing the tenant and (if possible) the insurance company in the first instance.

Hi, the letting agent refuses to give us tenants contact details as they said they cannot give it to us before tenants agree. In this case, tenants are in arrears, and they refuse replying the letting agent completely.

Also, worth noting, the letting agent pretended that they have collected and protected full deposit for 6 months! And only tell me the fact when the tenants are in arrears.

I have purchased the insurance from day 1 and the letting agent is doing FULL MANAGEMENT for me, however, it becomes invalid because the letting agent failed to collect at least one month of deposit. This is a very standard term in the insurance policy.

So that's why I want to track down and understand if i can sue the letting agent to pay me first for the rent payments and then letting agent (become the actual debt owner) do whatever they can to collect rent/debt from the tenants. Hope this makes sense.

steampowered

Your contract (tenancy agreement) is presumably with the tenants, rather than with the agent, so you should pursue the tenants in the first instance.

It is nonsense that the agents are refusing to pass on contact details.

I would suggest sending the agent a formal 'letter before action' (PDF letter sent by email is fine) indicating that you are about to bring court proceedings to cover the arrears.

If the agent passes you the tenant's contact details, you will contact the tenant.

If the agent fails to do so, you will have no choice but to serve legal proceedings against the letting agent.

anselld

HappyRabbit wrote: »

Hi, the letting agent refuses to give us tenants contact details as they said they cannot give it to us before tenants agree.

This is not true. The data your agent has relates to *your* contract with the tenants. You have as much right to have it as they do.

I am not sure you chances of claiming against them but hopefully you have sacked them for starters.

Hopefully you will also serve notice on the Tenant that any future payment will be made directly to you (just in case they come good).

You may also wish to find out which of the approved redress schemes the agent are members of with a view to escalating any complaint.

G_M

From what you say, the agent has beached the terms of their contract with you. You an therefore su them for any losses you incur as a result.

You will need to specify exactly how much you have lost as a result of their breach.

If, at the end of the day, when the tennats vacate, you are out of pocket via rent arrears, and can show that

* had you held the full deposit, that extra amount of deposit would have ccovered you loss and/or

* had you been able to clim the loss back frm the insurance

then that is the loss you can claim.

How much is this solicitor going to charge you to issue a S8? Tat is not a cost you claim back. Issue the S8 yourself.

letting agent refuses to give us tenants contact details

Since the tenants seem to still be in occupation, their contact details will be at the address of the property you rent to them!

this also might help:

* Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?


As an aside, the lesson to learn here is to always check what your agent has/has not done for you. In this example, you should surely have checked how much deposit was protected at the time.

Jst as you should be checking that an up-to-date gas ceeificate is in force, and provided to the tenants, etc etc. Just because the agent is supposed to be managng this does not mean you can entirely forget about it and assume it is done.

G_M

anselld wrote: »

You may also wish to find out which of the approved redress schemes the agent are members of with a view to escalating any complaint.

Since 1st October 2014, the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 S83 requires letting agents in England to sign up to one of 3 schemes:

* The Property Ombudsman
* Ombudsman Services Property
* Property Redress Scheme

Cakeguts

How did you manage to choose such terrible agents? Were all the ones you went to look at like this?