Leases and deposits... .

David333

At the beginning of February I spoke to a letting agent about moving into a shared flat where a couple of people are currently staying. I went in to see them, filled in their application form, gave them references, copies of my passport, etc and they said they'd get back to me. The letting agent then e-mailed me the lease and an invoice for £660 (£250 first month's rent, £350 [one month's rent plus £100] deposit, plus £60 letting agent 'fees'). Anyway, I did some online banking at which point they e-mailed to say 'thanks, when can you sign lease?'. I moved in at the beginning of the month, tried e-mailing them for the first week to arrange a time to sign the lease but they didn't get back to me. At the end of that week, the letting agent sent a 'notice to quit' to each of my housemates giving them until April 30th before they (and presumably me as well!) were evicted.

Anyway, I suppose there's nothing I can do regarding staying past that time (if the landlord wants the flat back, I cant stop him!), but now they are saying that I didn't pay them a deposit... . I'm not sure if they're trying to take me for a ride or are just incompetent. Does anyone have any advice...? Especially regarding the lease situation. I still haven't signed it, but does me sending them money (fees, deposit, rent) having seen the lease constitute an acceptance of it anyway...? Thanks...!

clutton_2

if you have not had a Section 21 notice to quit with your name on it - you do not have to go - the fact that you have paid rent and the deposit (which you can prove via on-line banking) means that you now have a tenancy with them and they cannot just throw you out.

in any case a LL needs to get a court order to get you out
stay put.

speedtwin

As the agent has accepted your money and let you have access he has granted a verble tenancy which as cutton says is quite legal (not advisable for a L/L but legal).

Now as they have taken a deposit have they protected it through one of the 3 schemes and given you the precribed info (details about what scheme the deposit is held in and what to do in the event of a dispute at the end of the tenancy etc). If either of those hasnt been done a section 21 cannot be used and the L/L would have to go down the section 8 route if poss.

Sit tight. They give agents a bad name (no comments pleas everyone else)

David333

They're actually claiming they haven't received my money but as my Internet banking says that they have it I suppose that they can't claim that. I thought that the new protection thing for deposits was only for longer term (beyond three month) tenancies. I've only been here a month now... .

I'm not sure what these section 21 and section 8 things are. My flatmates have been given a 'notice to quit'. They do intend to go because they're moving on anyway. I'm a little worried that if I sat tight then I'd be responsible for the rent for their rooms too... .