The Honest Agent: Q & A

Hey all,

I'm an estate agent and have been working in the business for over six years and have recently noticed the large amount of questions in relation to moving on this board. If anyone has any questions with regards to the way sales or lettings work, or if they have any worries about their agency, please don't hesitate to reply!

If anyone prefers to discuss anything in a more private forum, please feel free to PM with your questions/concerns.

I am not working for profit or on anyone's behalf here - just trying to be helpful with advice from an industry professional.

Oh goody! Just what I need!

I am moving out of my rented house shortly, and my landlord has been a real terror this whole tenancy, not wanting to take care of repairs, etc. Our letting agency has had to pay for essential repairs that he was unwilling to do, and arrange monthly payment plans with him. Every time this has involved a long wait without something essential for us.

To me this says he may be strapped for cash and try to hold on to our deposit. Does the agency hold the deposit or the landlord? Would it be wrong not to pay the last months rent? The deposit is one and a half month's rent. If he does hold the deposit, how long can he legally keep it?

Any advice appreciated, thanks a bunch.

Caligirl, if you are in England and paid your deposit on or after 6 April 2007, the deposit should be held in a tenancy deposit scheme and an independent arbitrator will decide in the event of a dispute. Otherwise, tehcnically it is the landlord who is liable, whether the agent holds it or not.  The agent acts on the landlord's behalf and will only return what he agrees to.

(hope I haven't stepped on pianohouse's toes by answering...)

Thanks for that, Britwife.
I'm in England so this applies, but that's no good for me as we started our tenancy in before April 07. I'm really worried that he will hang onto our deposit, particularly as we're buying a house and could really use the cash. Not that we've damaged the place, we're good tenants and we've never had a problem with getting back a deposit in the past, but this guy really takes the cake. He's so incredibly unprofessional.

If he withholds it, you can pursue a small claim in the county court. In fact, you can probably do it through their online system.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp

Make sure you document everything and take photos when you have moved all your gear out and cleaned the place up.  Was an inventory provided when you moved in?

Thanks for the link. Yes' there was an inventory of everything, down to the acient and nasty toilet brushes. We've kept all of his things safely in the shed so there shouldn't be a problem with any of that. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.

Sounds like you've got everything in order then, should you need it.

You beat me to it Britwife! 

You're absoutely right. Caligurl, the only other way you may have out of this mess is that if your agency is managing the flat (which it sounds like they are) they should hold the deposit and if they have passed it onto the landlord, this is illegal. If the agency have paid to carry out repairs in the flat, they are probably managing it. If however, their contract with the landlord is on a 'Let Only' basis, and the LL refuses to pay back the deposit, then you will have to raise the case as a small claim with a county court.
Also, if the agency have passed the deposit onto the LL and they are the managing agents, you can report them to whichever board they are regulated by. Below is a list of comapanies that regulate them.

ARLA- Association of residential lettings agents.
OEA- Ombudsman for estate agents
OFT- Office of fair trading

Hope this is of help!  Keep me posted as to what happens. 

We are in a similar mess with our previous landlady. 

Caligirl, did you sign a contract with the landlord/agency after April 07?  even if it's the same terms as before, but just renewing the contract, the landlord HAD to have registered the deposit.

I have a question about our landlady though...

she did no inventory whatsoever, the house was a mess when we moved in and she has still not carried out a proper inspection, with us present as we requested upon vacating.  We did a walk through with her on the day we handed over the keys and she had nothing to bring up then but suddenly a few weeks later, gave us a preliminary tally for £2500 in damages.  Mostly for replacing the antiquated wallpaper in the living room and hallways as the glue loosened and it had come away from the wall in places. 

We refuted all of her claims in the tally, according to the law and she has not responded.  I think we send her one more letter telling her that if she doesn't pay up, we take her to court. 

They carried out no repairs while we lived there, claiming they couldn't afford to at the minute.

My personal favourite...  they are charging us Rent plus interest for the month in between when we vacated and the end of the contract.  We vacated early AT THEIR REQUEST. They were reclaiming the property for their own use.

so if she did no inventory to begin with, what claims can she possibly have?

When we had a problem getting our deposit back from our first landlord, we simply filled out the Small Claims paperwork and sent him a copy, stating the papers would be filed if we didn't get our money back by X date.

We got a cheque two days after posting the paperwork to him.

so if she did no inventory to begin with, what claims can she possibly have?

That will be up to the judge to decide, but should go in your favour.

Oh excellent news! The letting agent is managing the property, so that looks good. We also signed a further lease in July 07, so they should definitely have the deposit in a safe place?

The agent is reasonable, so it should be OK if they are the ones involved. I am concerned that the landlord will personally come to check out the house when we move, as he will be a jerk, guaranteed. I think the consensus is to pay rent as usual and then take photos on the handover in case of problems. The only thing I can think they will call us on is the ridiculous white carpet that is installed on the stairs, which is no longer exactly white, and the garden, where the dog has made a little path from running around (it's a  figure of eight!). We'll be cleaning the carpet before we go but ther's not a lot I can do about the garden, as he still runs around out there. 

Good luck Mrs Pink, it seems like your landlady is related to my landlord!

When we had a problem getting our deposit back from our first landlord, we simply filled out the Small Claims paperwork and sent him a copy, stating the papers would be filed if we didn't get our money back by X date.

We got a cheque two days after posting the paperwork to him.

That's encouraging. Hopefully it will all go really smoothly and we won't have to get that far, but if we did I'm sure our guy would be super embarrassed to receive court paperwork. He's so pompous.

I have a quick (and probably silly) question...

Is it normal for someone from the agency to just pop in in the middle of the day?  We had arranged for someone to come in to deal with the mice (ew!), and a week after the traps were set, we had a surprise visit.  I saw in my lease that we are not responsible for the cost if it's not our fault, but that was never addressed, and I couldn't help but wonder if the unscheduled visit had anything to do with checking for cleanliness (and therefore fault for luring the mice)...

I was rearranging my cupboards the the time and had things all over the counter top 

Good luck Mrs Pink, it seems like your landlady is related to my landlord!

Oh I think they breed them that way here! 

I would definitely check with the leasing agent about the deposit because by law, as soon as you signed in July, it will have had to be registered. 

I know we had to sign something acknowledging the registration for our new place but I think that came from the agent. 

BTW, not all agents and landlords are bad, our new landlords, well let me just say, there will be a special place in heaven for them.  If there is even an inkling that something is not perfect, they send someone out! 

And the agent, he's an angel.  They have done everything by the book (and by now we know the book inside and out) since we started our association. 

Funny, when you have a landlord that actually cares about their property, the tennant (us) seems to care more about it too.  Imagine that?

I have a quick (and probably silly) question...

Is it normal for someone from the agency to just pop in in the middle of the day?  We had arranged for someone to come in to deal with the mice (ew!), and a week after the traps were set, we had a surprise visit.  I saw in my lease that we are not responsible for the cost if it's not our fault, but that was never addressed, and I couldn't help but wonder if the unscheduled visit had anything to do with checking for cleanliness (and therefore fault for luring the mice)...

I was rearranging my cupboards the the time and had things all over the counter top 

No, no, no no.  Surprise visits are a no no. They must give you notice that they will be coming by.  That is definitely a no no.  You did not have to let him in, nor should you have.