How long can a landlord hold overpaid rent?

Gavin83

eb646 said:

Slithery said:

tacpot12 said:

You could suggest to your landlord (when you get his details) that you will not go to the police to have them prosecuted if they refund your money, even though the police are likely to ignore your request.

It's only illegal for the landlord to withold their address. If the OP hasn't requested it using the correct legal channels then the LL has done nothing wrong.

We requested direct contact with the landlord and asked for an email or phone number but weren’t provided with either. We do have an address in the contract, but only a company name.

Is your landlord possibly a business? We had this in a previous rental, the flat was actually owned by a company not an individual. 

TripleH

Is it a limited company?

You can go on Companies House and find details about it quite easily.

Note that the addresses shown may not be the actual home address of the directors but a registered office address.

Thanks for confirming about the deposit with all else you said  I thought I'd ask in case they hadn't done that.

Do as suggested and ask in writing for the landlord's address. It might also be worth asking for return of the overpaid rent to the agents by x date (give say 7 working days as sounds reasonable to arrange a bank transfer). Be polite but keep your letter brief and to the point. Send by post but get proof of posting.

This will be useful for if you do have to take it further. Remove all emotion, justification etc.

canaldumidi

So you have the landlord's name (a company) on both the tenancy ageement and the deposit registration.

You also have an address 'for serving notices on the landlord" on the tenancy agreement.

So that is who/where to serve court papers.

You could also pay £3 to the land registry here to find the registered owner of the property (which might be an individual or a company).

saajan_12

Ignore the agent shenanigans, re waiting for the LL / another flat etc. 
Legally your claim is from the LL. As with any monies a person is not entitled to, it should be returned promptly. However there's no specific framework / timeframe / penalties set up for this like there is for deposits, which would be more common. 

Your recourse is to write a 'letter before action' asking for the money to be returned in 7-14 days, then file a court claim. If you get a judgement and they don't pay within 28 days, then the court starts to impose interest and you get costs if you need to recover. 
However I'd start with the letter as that will often spur action. 

eb646

RAS said:

Check both the Land Registry £3, and Companies House for the list of directors.

Use the .gov.uk sites not the advertised rip offs that charge 10-20 times more.

Thanks, I was able to find two director names for the company.

eb646

Slithery said:

eb646 said:

Slithery said:

tacpot12 said:

You could suggest to your landlord (when you get his details) that you will not go to the police to have them prosecuted if they refund your money, even though the police are likely to ignore your request.

It's only illegal for the landlord to withold their address. If the OP hasn't requested it using the correct legal channels then the LL has done nothing wrong.

We requested direct contact with the landlord and asked for an email or phone number but weren’t provided with either. We do have an address in the contract, but only a company name.

Did you make this request in writing? If so then the agents legally have to provide you with the LL's actual address.

Yes, we asked for it via email but the estate agents always respond to email questions via phone. They tend to always call my partner instead of me (when I’m the one emailing, although my partner is CC’d) to answer the emails and rarely ever responds to emails as emails. When my partner asked, the response was “we’ll get in touch with the landlord for you re: situation/question”

eb646

TripleH said:

Is it a limited company?

You can go on Companies House and find details about it quite easily.

Note that the addresses shown may not be the actual home address of the directors but a registered office address.

Thanks for confirming about the deposit with all else you said  I thought I'd ask in case they hadn't done that.

Do as suggested and ask in writing for the landlord's address. It might also be worth asking for return of the overpaid rent to the agents by x date (give say 7 working days as sounds reasonable to arrange a bank transfer). Be polite but keep your letter brief and to the point. Send by post but get proof of posting.

This will be useful for if you do have to take it further. Remove all emotion, justification etc.

Just got in contact with the estate agents today and they’re refunding our deposit today because they were holding it during the tenancy, but the overpaid rent is still being waited to be returned from the LL who they “are trying our best to get in contact with” which I can’t believe at all since there were deductions from our deposit from the LL

TripleH

If you haven't already, put your request for return of rent in writing (as per Saajan_12) and get proof of postage. I'd send a copy to the letting agents as well as soon as possible.

As an aside, there are a lot of alarm bells ringing about these letting agents, it could be me but I keep seeing red flags waving. I'd want shot of them ASAP.

Slithery

eb646 said:

Slithery said:

eb646 said:

Slithery said:

tacpot12 said:

You could suggest to your landlord (when you get his details) that you will not go to the police to have them prosecuted if they refund your money, even though the police are likely to ignore your request.

It's only illegal for the landlord to withold their address. If the OP hasn't requested it using the correct legal channels then the LL has done nothing wrong.

We requested direct contact with the landlord and asked for an email or phone number but weren’t provided with either. We do have an address in the contract, but only a company name.

Did you make this request in writing? If so then the agents legally have to provide you with the LL's actual address.

Yes, we asked for it via email but the estate agents always respond to email questions via phone. They tend to always call my partner instead of me (when I’m the one emailing, although my partner is CC’d) to answer the emails and rarely ever responds to emails as emails. When my partner asked, the response was “we’ll get in touch with the landlord for you re: situation/question”

Is email given as an acceptable method of communication in your tenancy agreement? For it to be a legal request it has to be in actual writing (letter, stamp, envelope etc).

canaldumidi

Slithery said:

eb646 said:

Slithery said:

eb646 said:

Slithery said:

tacpot12 said:

You could suggest to your landlord (when you get his details) that you will not go to the police to have them prosecuted if they refund your money, even though the police are likely to ignore your request.

It's only illegal for the landlord to withold their address. If the OP hasn't requested it using the correct legal channels then the LL has done nothing wrong.

We requested direct contact with the landlord and asked for an email or phone number but weren’t provided with either. We do have an address in the contract, but only a company name.

Did you make this request in writing? If so then the agents legally have to provide you with the LL's actual address.

Yes, we asked for it via email but the estate agents always respond to email questions via phone. They tend to always call my partner instead of me (when I’m the one emailing, although my partner is CC’d) to answer the emails and rarely ever responds to emails as emails. When my partner asked, the response was “we’ll get in touch with the landlord for you re: situation/question”

Is email given as an acceptable method of communication in your tenancy agreement? For it to be a legal request it has to be in actual writing (letter, stamp, envelope etc).

Just to add, the relevant leglislation is Landlord & Tenant Act 1985

1 Disclosure of landlord’s identity.

(1)If the tenant of premises occupied as a dwelling makes a written request for the landlord’s name and address to—

(a)any person who demands, or the last person who received, rent payable under the tenancy, or

(b)any other person for the time being acting as agent for the landlord, in relation to the tenancy,

that person shall supply the tenant with a written statement of the landlord’s name and address within the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which he receives the request.

(2)A person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with subsection (1) commits a summary offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.