What motivates agents to make wrongful deductions from a tenancy deposit, what is in it for them?

reheat

What motivates a rental agent to persist so hard in making deductions from a tenancy deposit, even when blatantly wrong and maybe even illegal? The agent doesn't get to keep any of the deposit, so what is their motivation? Do they maintain some sort of "successful deposit deductions" statistic they then use to encourage landlords to use their services? Or what?

I am currently about to help my daughter go to her deposit holder's dispute resolution service, regarding several claims on her deposit. The most blatant one is for replacing a seriously cracked bath panel, when exactly the same crack is clearly evident in the agency's own check in photo, a few days before my daughter's tenancy started! Yet even when I point this out to them as blatant betterment they still tried to insist my daughter did this!

A few other things too, which also highly dubious.

So I have now put together a comprehensive evidence file that will be used soon for the dispute resolution service. My daughter formally notified the agency nearly two weeks ago she will be doing this.

But what motivates an agent to do this, what is in it for them?

The agent's final comment was the she has never had to resort to dispute resolution before, but I suspect that simply means she has been able to wear vulnerable tenants down before they ever got to that point - it does take a degree of resilience and determination, at a time when a tenant likely has an awful lot of other things on their plate.

MeteredOut

To misquote the saying, if something can easily be explained by incompetence rather than malevolence, it is probably incompetence.

The landlord probably claimed your daughter broke the panel and they didn't even bother checking the photo.

Just challenge it as you say.

anselld

The Landlord probably get charged an extra fee for the Agent to represent in any dispute.

reheat

MeteredOut said:

To misquote the saying, if something can easily be explained by incompetence rather than malevolence, it is probably incompetence.

The landlord probably claimed your daughter broke the panel and they didn't even bother checking the photo.

Just challenge it as you say.

But I've already got it past that stage. I went back to the agent with their own detailed check in photo clearly showing the distinctively shaped crack in the panel, and then a week later they then came back with another more distant photo, where the crack was not obvious, saying it showed the panel was not cracked! I then went back with a blow up of the same photo, that then showed the same distinctive crack. The two check in photos, dated, were taken at the same time by the agency, and the agent could not have seen the one distant photo, without also seeing their own second more detailed photo. It's beyond incompetence.

flaneurs_lobster

reheat said:

What motivates a rental agent to persist so hard in making deductions from a tenancy deposit, even when blatantly wrong and maybe even illegal? The agent doesn't get to keep any of the deposit, so what is their motivation? Do they maintain some sort of "successful deposit deductions" statistic they then use to encourage landlords to use their services? Or what?

The Agent charges, typically, 15% of the rent to "manage" the property. The withholding of deposits is one (quantifiable) way to demonstrate to the owner just how hard they are working on their behalf.

reheat

flaneurs_lobster said:

The Agent charges, typically, 15% of the rent to "manage" the property. The withholding of deposits is one (quantifiable) way to demonstrate to the owner just how hard they are working on their behalf.

Even when what they are asking for is breaking the law! Such as asking payment to replace a damaged bath panel their own check in photos clearly prove had the same damage before the tenancy started. I suppose this does come down to a form of incompetency, in not understanding modern tenancy law.

WIAWSNB

It does seem like an obvious case, so very strange - beyond incompetence - for them to double down.
But, it should be an easy one for you - good luck with it.
I presume such agencies will have reviews as on Google? Once over, time for a beaut - a warning to potential future tenants. 

reheat

WIAWSNB said:

I presume such agencies will have reviews as on Google? Once over, time for a beaut - a warning to potential future tenants. 

One thing that concerns me with that. Although my daughter will not be using this agency again, in the future she will be reliant on the services of other rental agents in the area when she moves again. Might they have some informal blacklisting of "difficult" tenants, if things taken too far. We have indeed considered a Trust Pilot review or similar once the dispute is settled, and this agency fully deserves a full and frank review of this highly unprofessional behaviour. Also maybe a complaint to whatever professional body they belong to.

anselld

The deposit dispute process exists to resolve exactly this sort of issue.  No point making a bigger drama out of it.

reheat

anselld said:

The deposit dispute process exists to resolve exactly this sort of issue.  No point making a bigger drama out of it.

Nothing to do with drama. It's about how many other, more vulnerable tenants they may be getting away with this sort of abusive rubbish with. Dispute resolution does nothing to prevent them doing it again presumably. But like I say, not sure yet.

Albermarle

Maybe the landlord is a good client of the agent ( more than one property), and has been unhappy with the agent for some other reason. So the agent is trying to prove how good they are at representing the landlords interest.
Just a theory.