End of Tenancy nightmare

ezzers991

I recently purchased my first house and moved out of a rental that I shared with two friends.

I ended up moving into my own home earlier than planned and vacated the shared rental 3 weeks prior to the end of our fixed-term (12 months) contract (end date 23/7/24) but have paid all bills and rent up to that date.

My two friends wanted to stay in the property and we have a friend who is taking my place in the property. I reluctantly had to pay £50 myself for the lettings agents to carry out a 'change of lender' form and write a new tenancy agreement. 

I am the lead tenant for this house share so all rental payments and bills go through me. Despite giving the letting agents plenty of notice that I would leave at the end of the contract, they have only sorted all of this since the 19th of July and were in no hurry to get anything completed.
Our rent payment leaves my account on the 21st, so that it is always in their account for the 24th. Today, the August instalment left MY account despite me asking them to change the direct debit and them assuring me no money would be taken from my account. This has forced my account into an emergency overdraft, which I need to pay off before midnight to avoid fees and my friends seem in no hurry to pay this. The letting agents also refuse to refund and say I need to get it off the others - despite this being their error.

I have also had to 'give up' my deposit on the property and have been told to 'ask the new tenant to pay you out'.

I am now in a position where I am having to chase friends for a total of £2000 very close to a looming and extortionate first mortgage payment to cover July and August.

Rant over  - my questions are:

1. Do I have a right to my share of the deposit?
2. Are the letting agents allowed to refuse to refund the rent to MY account and make me chase others for money?
3. What can I do?

Thank you in advance!

MeteredOut

If money was taken out of your account via DD when no money should have been taken out, ask your bank to claim that bank via the Direct Debit Guarantee scheme.

Make it the lettings agency problem, not yours.

In hindsight, you should have cancelled your DD as soon as you were settled with the lettings agency.

Nothing you do to resolve this should change your right to any deposit.

anselld

Are you sure it is Direct Debit and not Standing Order?  As above, if DD then claim it back via the DD guarantee.  If SO then it is entirely down to you.

It is reasonably normal in a tenancy assignment to recieve the deposit from the incoming tenant.  There is no right to receive a share from the protection scheme unless the tenancy has ended.

saajan_12

You've agreed to structuring this as a tenancy variation rather than termination and new tenancy so that makes a big difference: 
1) Deposit - they are correct, the original deposit remains unchanged and its up to the outgoing / incoming tenants to transfer between themselves, agreeing any damages done so far, as everything would be assessed at the end when everyone moves out. 
2) Rent - its usually up to the tenants to ensure rent is paid, including setting up and cancelling BACS transfers / standing orders. This case is peculiar due to the direct debit - on one hand with a payment due and made, the agent's position isn't unreasonable.. equally under DD guarantee you could dispute it via your bank, and the agent would go back to the position of chasing the current tenants (not you) for the resulting unpaid rent. If they faced any fees, then ultimately it would be up to a judge, I don't think its clear cut. 
3) Chase your ex-co-tenants for the rent.. you do have a clear cut agreement with them that they would pay the rent from x date. Also close all accounts and terminate the DDs for other bills, ongoing rent, etc. 

propertyrental

If the original tenancy was clearly ended (and a new one in new names created), ideally in writing, then

* the deposit should have been returned in full via the scheme and a new deposit taken in new names

* a check-out inspection should have been done, and any proposed deductions should have been agreed/disputed in the normal way

* all set-up docs re-issued to new tenants (EPC, Gas, Gov leaflet, Right to rent check, new inventory etc etc)

* any rent erroneously paid by you covering the period of the new tenancy (to which you were not a party), should be returned irrespective of why it was taken/paid

If the tenancy was not ended, but a new tenant took over the place of yourself as a departing (joint) tenant then

* a Deed of Assignment should have been Executed, signed (with witnesses) by the LL (or agent), and all remaining, departing, and new tenants

* the Deed should specify that the new T was paying the outgoing T their share of the deposit

* the new T was taking on all rights and liabilities (including arrears, damage etc) of the outgoing T

https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/5728567/Deed of Assignment - Reposit.pdf

MeteredOut

It seems there's two questions the OP needs to answer

- Was the tenancy clearly ended?
- Were payments taken by DD or SO?