Deposit dispute crappy agency, cool landlord.

Greggars

Hi.
So this is a bit of a weird one. We have rented our home through an agency for 6 years now. The agency have always been the same old "do everything on the cheap after around 4 requests", but when we signed the latest agreement, we pointed out quite a few issues we needed fixing. After 6 months of emailing, phoning and actually going into their branch and being fobbed off, we were reaching boiling point. After venting to my neighbour, she said she was surprised that our landlord would do this and contacted him for us. Turns out he's a lovely bloke who didn't know anything about any of the issues as the agency hadn't mentioned any of it. He was angry as he's been paying them fees all this time for maintaining the property and they've not done anything. So, we have agreed to go direct through him and bin off the agency. Now, the issue is getting our deposit back. We don't need it back as tenants as we're not going anywhere, but my landlord needs it to ensure his property is kept well...not that we'd do anything. They are being their usual selves by not giving it to him, and they've also kept 400 of our last rent which was paid a day after the tenancy agreement with them ran out. I have a reciept which I signed on the day we moved in that shows a total amount of 1945 and underneath says non refundable. The deposit was 825. Then there was a months rent in advance 550, then their fees and an added amount to move our pets in too. We agreed that advance rent, fees and the pet thing was non refundable. I was happy with this but wasn't aware that I was signing my deposit away too. Can this little reciept work in their favour with them not giving the deposit back to our landlord? Would it be proof and can they use it to keep it? The receipt isn't itemised with the different amounts, just 1 amount total. They never put the deposit in any protection scheme but back then I didn't know much about it and never thought to question it. Any ideas? My landlord is getting a solicitor involved and wants proof of anything we paid them when I moved in but what if this proof stops us from getting the money back? Also, this agency is very shoddy and I very much doubt they would have a copy of the receipt themselves.

eddddy

Ignoring the receipt, what evidence do you have that the £825 was a deposit - and not a non-refundable fee?

For example...

• Do you have a copy of the property details saying that the deposit was £825?

• ... and/or a list of the non-refundable fees that you had to pay, which would show that the £825 wasn't part of them?

Let's say it went to court (which it probably won't), you would have to show that 'on the balance of probabilities' the £825 was a returnable deposit, rather than a non-refundable fee.

TBH, it seems very unlikely that there would be a non-refundable fee of £825 payable to the agent - so that probably strengthens your argument.

Pixie5740

Did you really have a tenancy agreement with the letting agency? Were they named as the landlord on the tenancy agreement?

Where is the deposit? Is it registered with one of the 3 schemes?

[Deleted User]

The OP said the deposit hasn't been put in a scheme.

Pixie5740

Good point. The non-protection of the deposit plus a signed receipt saying the money is non-refundable isn't looking good for the OP. The OP needs to clarify exactly who was named on the tenancy agreement as the landlord. If it was the owner who used a letting agent to manage the property rather than one of these guaranted rent schemes where the property is let to the letting agency and then they sublet it to the OP then it's down to the landlord to put his big boy pants on and sort out the deposit with the letting agent he chose.