Letting Agents Landlady & Deposits

I'm trying to help my Daughter get her deposit back from a Letting Agent/Landlady.

I know little about the legalities of this but something seems fishy.

Her tenancy came to its natural end and she didn't renew, instead gave notice and moved out. She has spoken to the letting agency whom she paid a £1350 deposit to requesting it's return, they have informed that the Landlady has the deposit and she needs to request from her, the letting agents gave my Daughter the Landladies name and mobile number "nothing else". So Daughter eventually got hold of Landlady whom told her that she had to have the whole house deep cleaned and repainted!! This is B*llocks, we cleaned the house ourselves. This was three weeks ago.

My Daughter doesn't like confrontation whereas I don't like injustice or unfairness and it's actually my money.

I want to help her I just can't fathom the legalities of it all, please could someone assist??

Its unfortunately a very common scam.

The only route would be small claims court -which these days means a money claim done online. It may frighten the landlord into paying, it may not -if it runs its course it would take months and unless you have photo evidence possibly hard to prove

The deposit should have been placed into one of the holding schemes, where neither party gets any of the money back until disputes are settled.

https://www.google.com/search?q=dep...0j69i57j0l4.7499j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I would say you have a case against the letting agent if your daughter paid the money to them as they obviously should do everything legally.

Who did she pay the deposit to? And how much is being withheld?

That's who she needs to approach for the deposit. And new laws say the deposits have to be held in a separate account. Before this, many agents used the deposits to run the business.

Whoever it is who owes the money, write a letter saying that the house was left on XX date in immaculate condition having been cleaned and with no damage and that you have photos to prove it.The metadata will show the time and date of the pictures. Give them a reasonable time to send your deposit back. Your action if you don't get it back depends on whether the deposit was held in a tenancy deposit scheme or not. Most are. If it isn't then you will have to lodge a claim with the small claims court to recover your money.

They cannot take money off you for reasonable wear and tear. Eg, a carpet that has worn over time or a few small marks on a wall.

EFLImpudence said:

The deposit should have been placed into one of the holding schemes, where neither party gets any of the money back until disputes are settled.

https://www.google.com/search?q=dep...0j69i57j0l4.7499j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I would say you have a case against the letting agent if your daughter paid the money to them as they obviously should do everything legally.

Click to expand...

She would have been able to claim 3 times the value of the deposit. But she is now an ex tenant, so this isn’t easy.

A letter before action will probably do the trick.

Templates here. https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/downloads_and_tools/sample_letters

Did your daughter get a response from the landlady in writing if she did, I would be straight around to the house in question and seeing if I could get pics of this supposed work.

Guarantee it hasn't been done and if you can get proof it hasn't it puts you in a much stronger position

It has been the law for a number of years that all letting deposits have to be deposited with an independent holding company. They will release the deposit once both parties agree that everything is to their satisfaction. I believe, though I may have been misinformed, that if there is a dispute then both parties have to be made aware of what the dispute is, and what action needs to be taken, before any remedial work is undertaken.
It seems to me that these procedures haven't been followed from the outset. The letting agency should have given you/your daughter written explanation as to where the deposit would be lodged and the terms and conditions for it's repayment. The landlady should also have been given a written T&C regarding the deposit and informed that in the matter of a dispute the facts have to be agreed before any work is carried out. The only exception to this is if delaying the works would pose a hazard, i.e. not doing the work would cause possible further damage to the property or members of the public. Examples of these are burst waterpipes/leaking roof etc and unauthorised construction work resulting in an unsafe structure.
I would write/email the letting agents informing them you are considering a claim against them for breach of contract because they failed to put your deposit in a secure scheme and they are trying to avoid their obligations by claiming you have to take the matter up with the landlady.
Look up on the internet the exact rules regarding deposits and quote these in your letter/email. It will show you have done your research and will not be fobbed off.
Let us know how you get on.
One last thing. Was the letting agent a national company or a small back street/family business? The big ones know the rules and will usually adhere to them.

If they haven't protected the deposit (and it sounds like they didn't), take them to small claim court and get 3 times the amount.
Very easy to do.
Start by requesting full refund of deposit within 14 days and let them know that they have breached the regulations by not protecting the deposit .
No matter who takes the money, the landlord is ultimately responsible for deposit protection.
With regards to cleaning bill, as they didn't do a check out inventory and inspection, it's tough luck.

I’m not sure if the following can still be relied upon but it covers the ability to claim 3x deposit once the tenant is no longer a tenant.

not good news...
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2011/604.html

You don't need to still be in the house to claim the 3x deposit.
You'll have the statutory 6 years to claim.
So get going.

Yep that loophole is closed. Ex tenant can claim. Under s214.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/34/section/214

Specifically
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/20/section/184

Finally the truth is outed after much arguing albeit this was a few weeks ago now.

I gave the money to my Daughter in cash "that was a mistake" she couldn't pay it into her own account as she was overdrawn. So she paid it into her friend's account whom she was renting with and getting along with at the time. FFS.

Daughter fell out with friend, friend upped and left and disappeared. My Daughter ended the tenancy agreement at the end of the tenancy term. Letting agents or whomever had the deposit paid it back into the account it was originally debited from.

Daughter has had brief telephone conversation with her ex friend whom has declared she's keeping the money.

My Wife was a friend of Daughters ex friend on FB, her account is closed, we know she has moved into a Caravan with her boyfriend we know she has left her job apart from that we know F'all.

Never going to see my money again.....

If you know her address etc you could take her to court but it may be throwing good money after bad.
The only consolation may be that she would end up with a very bad credit rating and, possibly, a criminal record for theft by fraudulent methods or something along those lines.

Oh dear. Sorry to hear that.

That's bad news. I'm sorry. I think it would be worth taking her to court. You probably won't get any money back, but it would make life difficult for her. I'm not a vindictive person but if she was a decent human being, she would have returned the money.