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

saajan_12

Could be any number of things
* Maybe they forgot to deduct for it from the prior tenants and are trying to cover tracks, get the money and pay for the repair before the LL notices. 
* Maybe they manage the repairs too and the LL won't question them if its covered by the deposit, so any extra collected is theirs through padded invoices. 
* Maybe they are trying to pacify an LL who is generally annoyed at the state of a property which can never be looked after as well as they would do. 

flaneurs_lobster

Since we are in full speculative flow

Maybe the Agency is staffed by vindictive psychopaths who get their jollies by imposing unreasonable sanctions when in a position of perceived power.

MeteredOut

flaneurs_lobster said:

Since we are in full speculative flow

Maybe the Agency is staffed by vindictive psychopaths who get their jollies by imposing unreasonable sanctions when in a position of perceived power.

Isn't that part of the job spec?

flaneurs_lobster

MeteredOut said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Since we are in full speculative flow

Maybe the Agency is staffed by vindictive psychopaths who get their jollies by imposing unreasonable sanctions when in a position of perceived power.

Isn't that part of the job spec?

If I were to base my answer on my (thankfully brief) experience of being a managed tenant then yes.

reheat

flaneurs_lobster said:

Maybe the Agency is staffed by vindictive psychopaths who get their jollies by imposing unreasonable sanctions when in a position of perceived power.

Joking aside, I do think there is an element of that. Had the distinct feeling they have been trying to wear us down so we give up in the end, so we at least get some money and end to it. Wouldn't be amazed if they run a little wager in the office who gets most deposit money back each month - something must be driving them to be trying it on with something that amounts to being illegal.

I suspect many tenants may be too hard strapped re cash flow, and too emotionally vulnerable, they would end up as one of this agent's "resolved without need for dispute resolution" cases, but nonetheless coming out much worse off than the law allows.

reheat

We have now raised an ADR with MyDeposits, and I'm a bit confused by the last 3 entries in the progress checklist that MyDeposits shows. Can anyone shed any light on what they actually mean.

anselld

Not sure the exact meanings but they are all very close to the submission date of 22/10 so presumably they are part of kicking off the process with the other side.  Given it is less than two weeks elapsed so far it is not likely to be reaching a resolution for at least a couple more weeks.

Robbo66

When a dispute is raised by either party the other one has the option to resolve outside the the actual adjudication process, so in effect two goes to resolve and if no resolution then its escalated to a claims handler to check if the dispute is valid. Once checked it will go to the adjudicator, also one thing to bear in mind once claim is agreed both parties will have around two weeks each to submit evidence, first the agent and then the tenant. The whole process can take up to 12 weeks to be finalised.

theartfullodger

Agent of course may not pass any deductions to the landlord. (You should see some of the deductions they've proposed for me as an evil capitalist landlord.)

IMHO many agents are greedy crooks.  Remember in England you can set up as a lettings agent with no qualifications, no training, no criminal records check.  

Other countries do this better ..

Best regards to all.

reheat

theartfullodger said:

Agent of course may not pass any deductions to the landlord. (You should see some of the deductions they've proposed for me as an evil capitalist landlord.)

IMHO many agents are greedy crooks.  Remember in England you can set up as a lettings agent with no qualifications, no training, no criminal records check.  

Other countries do this better ..

Best regards to all.

This agent certainly sends up a lot of red flags, but also seem thick as you know what! Claiming for a badly cracked bath panel, when their own check in photos show it was already with that same crack. Even then they came back showing a more distant check in photo saying, no, it was OK at check in, so I then sent them a blow up of that photo so they could in fact see the same crack. Said they had never had to go to dispute resolution before, which if true, I suspect just means a lot of vulnerable tenants (and maybe even vulnerable landlords) are getting worn down by their incessant gobbledegook BS and just caving in to it.

MyDeposits now has all this very clearly laid out evidence. I have been wondering if the agent is necessarily levelling with the landlord properly.