Tenancy Deposit Missing between the change of Letting Agents

Jumblebumble

kaboo said:

Hi everyone,
I have been renting a house for the last 6 years. At the start it was with one Letting Agent (say agentX), but after 3 years in 2019 Landlord (LL) decided to change the letting agent to say agentY. It was not a smooth process as agentY drew up a totally new contract with a few new clauses that were questionable and wanted to force his contract on us. Thankfully, the LL saw some sense in our arguments we were able to meet somewhere in the middle. In general agentY seems to be quite a confrontationist and eager to pick arguments. I had started a thread here at the time and got some valuable suggestions to find a solution.  

Now the situation is that I have given a notice to end the tenancy because I have purchased a house for myself finally ( [:) ). Upon serving the notice I got to know that agentY never received our deposit from agentX. At the time of the change in Letting Agents, all the paperwork that we had seen and the forms we signed and LL signed had confirmed that our deposit from agenX (held under TDS) will be transferred to agentY (to be held under DPS). However now agentY says he never received it! So he is not responsible for it. AgentX should do the checking out inspection with the LL and they are responsible for it. Now LL is chasing down agentX.... 

So the deposit is sort of missing. Given the nature and attitude of agentY I am expecting arguments and debates, and knowing them they will try to shrug responsibility. I just dont want to lose my depsoit and also dont want massive delays in getting it back - dont have much money left with me after the purchase. I am very very opposite of a confrontationist and will avoid having arguments un-necessarily, but I also hate bullies with conviction. 

So all the experienced and knowledgeable people of MSE, in case situation becomes more complicated, what options do I have?
Many thanks

I just want to clear up some confusion as many posters on here post incorrect advice about the deposit schemes for some reason best known to themselves
At least one of the insured schemes allows the landlord to keep hole of the deposit themselves
It costs £20 odd per tenancy and is a one off payment
I have no idea why any sane landlord would not buy the insurance so the avoid the idiocy shown  here of agents pretending to have the deposit but not having it.
One  accurate bit is that you can  sue the  landlord for the return of the deposit as you are not concerned about what the agents did or did not do and have no reason to be engaging with any agents

kaboo

Thank you everyone, I understand the liability lies with the LL, I have not disputed that. I just narrated the whole story so you folks can give the best possible advice. If I go to court, I will sue the LL and not the agents. Cheers

kaboo

Ohhh wow... I just received check-out documents from the AgentY. He is asking for a hefty fees for the final inspection check out that he wants to deduct from the deposit. I thought any check out fees got banned under the Tenant Fees Act of 2019.

Ha, he is making this more and more interesting...

newsgroupmonkey_

Nup. Indeed they can't.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/922900/Tenant_Fees_Act_-_Tenant_Guidance.pdf

moneysavinghero

Agent Y sounds dodgy as hell. Refuse to pay. If they are asking for the payment on the check-out documents then you have evidence of them asking for a prohibited payment. I would forward this evidence onto trading standards. Nothing in it for you, but the agent could face a fine of up to £5,000 (up to £30,000 if they have done it before). This agent sounds like they need putting in their place.

ciderboy2009

OP - bear in mind that your deposit appears to have been unprotected since the change of agents.

This puts you in an extremely strong position.

I would contact the agent and tell them that, unless the full deposit is immediately returned to you then you will instigate proceedings in the County Court against the landlord for their failure to protect the deposit. 

I would keep this completely separate from the checkout fees argument.

kaboo

Thank you. I have very politely reminded him about the Housing Act 2004 and its further amendments as we as the Tenant Fees Act. Luckily he cc'ed in the Landlords in one of the emails recently, so now I include them in all the communications. Previously I only had their postal address.

Few more things got added. If the property is not cleaned to professional level (btw, I am absolutely ok to hire a professional to clean the place. I tried to suggest that we can clean it but its fine if LL wants professional cleaning) then they will arrange a contractor to clean. In addition to contractor's fees, agent wants to charge me £30+/hour for arranging a contractor and having to deal with them.

Then he wants to schedule viewings for prospective tenants. That is absolutely fine by me. I suggested can we do it on weekends, he said nope because he doesn't work on weekends. I offered - ok pick two days in the week and we can leave the house for 1-1.5 hours for viewings. He started arguing even without discussing with LL and started accusing me of restricting access and how it is in breach of the tenancy agreement. Suggests that we dont have to leave the house as infections are too low now and they will wear masks. And that no body wants to view houses on weekends, our request is totally unusual. Which is totally opposite to what we have been seeing in the neighborhood. Our street has lots of rented houses and many of the several houses that changed tenants agreed similar arrangements with the LLs. Even for us when we were viewing houses for purchase over the last 6 months, Saturday was the busiest day and sellers preferred block viewings always - because everyone is working from home. 
I have tried to very politely say that my wife and I work from home, we both have not had our jabs yet, moreover we have unfortunately lost several of our family members over the last year due to this stupid pandemic. So at the moment we are just very risk averse and not at all comfortable to be in a confined space with multiple strangers.

I think we have all the tools and arsenal to fight back and we will. But its just so exhausting. Instead of getting excited about our first house we are having to deal with this bully. Thank you all for your valuable advice, its comforting to know that we are in a strong position.

moneysavinghero

They cannot force you to have the house professionally cleaned (whether organised by yourself or the agent). All you need to do is make sure the property is as clean as it was when you moved in. If you want to get a pro cleaner to do this for you then fine, but if you are happy to do it yourself then that is fine too.

What does your contract say about viewings. Ultimatelty it is YOUR home and you decide who comes in it and when. You have the right to peaceful enjoyment of YOUR home. I think most people (those with jobs who can pay the rent anyway) would prefer to view on a weekend. Have you suggested that you would conduct the viewings at the weekend?

deannagone

I'd say its weekends or nothing.  You have a right to that.  They won't be able to enforce anything anyway, its just not worth the hassle (as long as they don't have keys to the house).  With a LA like this, I would not allow viewings whilst you aren't in the house.  The Indian variant is on the rise, so don't listen to him saying its not relevant right now.  The vaccination seems proof against it but I still wouldn't take the risk myself.

I assume you have a check in report, compare the state of the place now to the state then, and decide what cleaning you need to do and how.  'Professional' cleaning can't be defined.., so its a meaningless term.  This LA is just being difficult as you have said.

But as already said, you can and should be asking for your deposit back in full because it hasn't been protected.  Which will stop any damages coming out of it.  Perhaps discuss this with the LL personally?  Perhaps suggest communicating with the LL rather than the LA, as the LA is too difficult to deal with.  Maybe that will make the LL think twice about continuing to use this LA and it may well go easier for you?

kaboo

moneysavinghero said:

They cannot force you to have the house professionally cleaned (whether organised by yourself or the agent). All you need to do is make sure the property is as clean as it was when you moved in. If you want to get a pro cleaner to do this for you then fine, but if you are happy to do it yourself then that is fine too.

What does your contract say about viewings. Ultimatelty it is YOUR home and you decide who comes in it and when. You have the right to peaceful enjoyment of YOUR home. I think most people (those with jobs who can pay the rent anyway) would prefer to view on a weekend. Have you suggested that you would conduct the viewings at the weekend?

Yes I suggested weekends, then even offered to specify two days over the weekdays and we will step outside for 1-1.5 hours around the lunch time. 

Agreement says that we will agree to allow To Sell/Let signs to be put and to allow viewings. Which we are agreeing to, but its very impractical for our jobs to have to move our meetings and commitments on a days notice.