Estate Agents have had my deposit for over a year

propertyrental

What address do you have for the landlord? By law, you had to be given an address (though could be c/o the agent) "for serving notices" on the landlord. Usually in your tenancy agreement.

Write a 'Letter Before Action' to the LL at that address plus send a copy to the agent.

Give the LL 10 days to return your deposit in full. If not received, you will make a claim in court for both the deposit itself and the 3 times penalty under the Housing Act 2004 (as amended) for failure to provide the Prescribed Information within 30 days of having paid it.

Mention that you will include the agent as co-defedant in your action.

Sorted.

SuseOrm

Its via the agent despite their contined claims they aren’t managing the property 

anselld

SuseOrm said:

Its via the agent despite their contined claims they aren’t managing the property 

Holding a deposit is not the same as managing a property and it really doesn't matter anyway, your dispute is with the Landlord.  The process is exactly as described by propertyrental.
There is a three month cutoff for insurance based deposit schemes, but that does not affect your rights to claim (or indeed your Landlord's) which last for six years via the Courts.

SuseOrm

No, I just really like to avoid court if possible.  However, the landlord is going to be a complete nightmare.  Hence, preferring to deal with the more reasonable Estate Agents.

Emily_Joy

@SuseOrm they are most likely to settle before even the small court is involved and it costs them lots of money. We have had a similar problem with a utility company that was withholding our funds that we overpayed via dd. After 6 months we got fed up waiting for our £700 back and sent a letter before action. The week after £700 were back to our account and a cheque for £50 as a compensation and lovely flowers arrived through the post. 

propertyrental

SuseOrm said:

No, I just really like to avoid court if possible.  However, the landlord is going to be a complete nightmare.  Hence, preferring to deal with the more reasonable Estate Agents.

No one is advising you to go to court. We are advising you to follow the correct process as if you might end up going to court.

That means
a) yes, ultimately, you'll be in position to do so if you so decide
b) but far more importantly it shows the LL, and agent, that you know your rights and are following that process

The LL/agent will almost certainly then back down and return your deposit so as to avoid court.

TripleH

@SuseOrm, best to get the letter sent as per @propertyrental, leave the arguing about who should have done what to the landlord and their agents.

Get together any correspondence that shows when you got all your paperwork including dates and keep it safe.

If this goes to court, the judge will only focus on facts in relation to the law, emotions and debate shouldn't come into it. As suggested, when you present your facts, the likelihood is you get your deposit back and they hope you don't push for more (they may argue the 'unpaid rent' offsets any penalty they need to pay).

I suspect a lot of letting agents rely on ignorance of regulations all round to get by.

propertyrental

TripleH said:

....

I suspect a lot of letting agents rely on ignorance of regulations all round to get by.

Their tenants' ignorance, or their own....? 

SuseOrm

The estate agents are claiming that as they have not heard from the landlord that they are able to release the funds they are not prepared to release the funds.  Is this correct?

steampowered

This is outrageous behaviour by the estate agent. 

I would write to the landlord at the address mentioned in your tenancy agreement (send a copy to the agent) asking for immediate return of the deposit.

Point out that they have held onto the deposit for a year and state that the deposit is not returned within 14 days, and that you were not provided with the prescribed information as required by law. If the deposit is not returned you will have to take court action and seek a court order requiring the landlord to:
- Return the deposit
- Pay a penalty of up to 3x for not returning the deposit
- Interest (unless your tenancy agreement specifies to the contrary, in a court case the landlord will have to pay interest at the rate of 8% per year)

Your tenancy agreement is with the landlord and not with the estate agent. So while the agent is correct to say that they need the landlord's authorisation to release the deposit, it's the EA's job to contact the landlord and its unacceptable for them to hold onto a deposit for a year. 

If the deposit was in fact paid to a tenancy deposit protection scheme, you could go ahead and ask for the scheme to refund your deposit (if the scheme allows you to do that - outrageously some schemes will now say you are too late to seek a refund through the scheme and must now go to court).