Refunding Holding Deposit with Incompetent Estate Agent?

IrabgePinyata

Hi,


I'm currently in the process of trying to rent a property.



Earlier this month I put a holding deposit down on a flat, and then passed referencing. There were a couple of additional things that I agreed with the estate agent and landlord (bills inclusive, the date of rent payment, the value of the security deposit etc). We set the move in date as tomorrow, and in spite of my emails I have only just today received my tenancy agreement.


Along with the tenancy agreement I received a bill, with instructions to pay prior to 24 hours before moving in. Given that I'm moving in in less than 24 hours this is a bit odd. The tenancy agreement itself contains essentially nothing that we agreed, and now the estate agent is not responding to my emails and phone calls. As of right now, then, it looks very likely that the tenancy agreement won't even be finished let alone signed by the time I am supposed to move in.



As the bill includes the wrong deposit amount and I am not yet ready to sign the tenancy agreement, I have not paid it (despite the fact that I couldn't have paid it 24 hours in advance anyway). At this point, given the prospect of having to put up with this estate agent further I am considering calling the whole thing off.


One sticking point is the holding deposit. In the original agreement for this, it was effectively stated that if any party broke the agreement then they would be liable for this - so if I broke the agreement they would keep it, if they broke it they would pay it back. I'm just worried that they might try to argue that I broke the agreement by not paying the bill in time and not signing the tenancy agreement and I would then lose out on having this returned.


I was wondering if anyone had any advice as to how to recover this deposit? The agreement that we came to in paper terms is entirely what I want, but this isn't in the tenancy agreement and won't be in time for the move in date.


Thank you.

muhandis

Assuming you are in England, read on...

Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, the rules for retaining the holding deposit have become much stricter than they used to be.

I had a similar situation recently with a young relative (and a first time renter) whom I was assisting to rent a property. Similar to your case, the LA went incommunicado after referencing and resurfaced a day prior to move-in with the TA by which time it was too late as we had assumed that the landlord was not happy with the results of the reference check.

Polite emails to return the holding deposit were ignored so my relative sent across a formal complaint as worded below, based somewhat on a template from the Shelter website -

2 days later, the lettings manager emails back to say that a refund is being processed.

So, in your place I would first lodge a formal complaint, adapting the above template.

---

We have taken all reasonable steps to progress this tenancy, paid a holding deposit when requested, applied for referencing using the xxxxxx link provided, completed all steps for referencing (which itself completed two weeks ago) and awaited a tenancy contract to be issued by <letting agent name> as indicated in your holding deposit letter.

Please return our holding deposit of £xxx that we paid on xxx as a holding deposit in relation to <property address>, which I believe has been unlawfully retained under the provisions of the Tenant Fees Act 2019.

I believe <Lettings Agent name> to have acted in such a way (by not taking the steps as per the holding deposit letter and not issuing a tenancy contract in a reasonable time-frame after completion of referencing) that it would be unreasonable to expect us to enter into a tenancy agreement with you.

If you consider that you have legitimate grounds to retain our holding deposit, please provide the reason in writing and any appropriate evidence to support your claim, as required by the Tenant Fees Act 2019.

If you do not return my holding deposit or fail to provide a satisfactory reason for retaining the deposit within the period required by the Tenant Fees Act 2019, I will pursue this matter via the relevant redress scheme that <letting agent name> is a member of - The Property Ombudsman.

More information about the Tenant Fees Act is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tenant-fees-act

Kindly ensure that all communication is sent in written form over email/post to avoid any misunderstandings when attempting to resolve any further disputes in this regard.

I look forward to hearing from <letting agent name soon>.

---

muhandis

They can put whatever they want in the agreement for the holding deposit, but it has to comply with the provisions around holding deposit in the Tenant Fees Act 2019 which outlines -

- the conditions under which the LA can retain a holding deposit

- the processes that need to be followed if the LA considers that they are allowed to retain the holding deposit.

It has also been made mandatory that LAs have to sign up to a redress scheme (the biggest one is The Property Ombudsman, you can check on their website if your LA is a member) which involves following a code of practice so if the LA brushes your complaint off, you can go to the TPO.

IrabgePinyata wrote: »

One sticking point is the holding deposit. In the original agreement for this, it was effectively stated that if any party broke the agreement then they would be liable for this - so if I broke the agreement they would keep it, if they broke it they would pay it back. I'm just worried that they might try to argue that I broke the agreement by not paying the bill in time and not signing the tenancy agreement and I would then lose out on having this returned.