Immediate Advice Required! Landlord not clear of repaying deposit!!

rdx0202 · 26th June 2007, 22:18

This may seem to be a long post... but just adding the details. Can someone please advise me as to what action I should take now?

We started initially with a 6 months contract through agent in Feb 2006 and then extended the contract for another 6 months in July 2006. During October 2006 the landlady informed us that she does not wish the agent to manage the property but as we are in a contract so we should still continue. :o We requested the agent to hold the deposit and not to pass the deposit to the landlady.

We were away for holiday in January and had informed our landlady of our absence but she posted a written request to empty the house by 14th Feb 2007 during our absence. We received request on 5th Feb and absolutely gobsmacked

as we had informed her that we would wish to continue our stay in the house. Spoke to the landlady, she said she wishes to sell the house and on mutual agreement we went for a month by month roll over.

During this period because of numerous house viewings it was difficult for us to stay with a kid for us as both of us are working and we had most viewings during evening and that too with less than 24 hrs notice. We tried to accomodate as many of them as possible but started hunting for a house and let the landlady know on 3rd May that we are searching for a house and will eventually empty the house not finalising the day of move.

Next week we updated her that we'll move out by 3rd June but she started saying that we need to pay till the end of payment month i.e. 14th June. We did not wish to get into any arguments hence after requesting couple of times we decided to pay the money till 14th but handover the house by 9th June as we were paying for the other house from 3rd June.

On 9th June the landlady came to the house and we went through the inventory list with her. All details other than the carpets cleaning were okayed by the landlady. She took possession of the keys and said that she has a chemical that she wishes to try on the carpet otherwise she may need to get the carpet cleaned.

We just told her to keep us informed of whatever she decides or the quote she gets for the carpet. After 2 weeks of continuous followup she said she's not got anyone for the job.

We found a professional cleaner who quoted £50 for the job. We passed on his details to the landlady so that she can get time fixed on Friday the 22nd June. We did not hear anything back from her. On 26th June we called her back to find out and left a voicemail, she called back to say that she's asked someone to come at the flat today to estimate.

We called back at 6:00 pm today to find out that she's asked another person to do the job at £80 and giving us reasons that this person is from a reputed company and has got recommendations and that his schedule matches hers.

We argued that we coud get it done cheaper and that too of the same quality from professional cleaner and now she's giving all sort of reasons to get the job done at a higher price and also saying that she'll inform the agent only when the job is completed. I'm not sure that she'll inform the agent or not.

She's not ready to meet so that we can get the clearance letter from her. We're already going to complete 1 month since we've vacated the house and this is getting on our nerves. We are a bit soft and hence do not wish to get into arguments. The agent is also not helpful and says that they will go by the landlady's words only.

Please, Please, Please suggest what we can do.

Nightmare4banks · 27th June 2007, 03:25

rdx 0202,after reading your post and in my view:

1.Keep the agent out of the equation as any disputes of this nature can only be resolved with the owner.

2.Give the landlady say 2 weeks and do not contact her daily to deal with the matter and if all fails send a pre-action letter to sue.Then wait up to 1 month and if there is no joy - SUE! It is as simple as that.

3.Hopefully you will not need to sue.However,if you do we will help you all the way.

I hope you find this information useful.

If you have any questions,just ask.

Keep us posted.

All the best!

rdx0202 · 27th June 2007, 06:54

Nightmare4banks, thanks for the suggestion.

Will let you know how it goes

Nightmare4banks · 27th June 2007, 19:47

rdx0202,

GOOD LUCK!

rowansgran · 28th June 2007, 15:29

Hello rdox, just enlighten me... you signed a contract with the agent? Yes? If as you say you signed another 6 month contract with the agent in 2006 your point of contact is with the agent office and absolutely nothing to do with the person who owns the building..Let me state this clear. YOUR CONTRACT IS WITH THE AGENT.THE OWNER OF THE PROPERTY HAS NO SAY...until the contract ends in..guess what?December!!!! 6 month contract from July till....December.
The fact that you accommOdated viewings has nothing to do with the contract.YOU facilitated the viewings.NO ONE HELD YOU DOWN.
As for the carpet cleaning...GET OVER IT. £30 difference in price? What the hell. Settle down in your new home with your wife and child and think yourself lucky that 30 quid is all you have to worry you.
I wish you all well
Kind regards.

Planner · 28th June 2007, 16:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by rowansgran

Hello rdox, just enlighten me... you signed a contract with the agent? Yes? If as you say you signed another 6 month contract with the agent in 2006 your point of contact is with the agent office and absolutely nothing to do with the person who owns the building..Let me state this clear. YOUR CONTRACT IS WITH THE AGENT.THE OWNER OF THE PROPERTY HAS NO SAY...until the contract ends in..guess what?December!!!! 6 month contract from July till....December.
The fact that you accommOdated viewings has nothing to do with the contract.YOU facilitated the viewings.NO ONE HELD YOU DOWN.
As for the carpet cleaning...GET OVER IT. £30 difference in price? What the hell. Settle down in your new home with your wife and child and think yourself lucky that 30 quid is all you have to worry you.
I wish you all well
Kind regards.

Could you be less wrong?

Contract is between agent and Land Lord and a seperate contract between Landlord and Tenant. The Tenant has NO CONTRACT WHAT SO EVER with the Agents. You state that the tenancy then ended in December? erm no it didnt, it lapsed in to a periodic.

I have noticed a couple of trollish posts from you. Dont post cause your giving wrong advice.

Joa · 28th June 2007, 22:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by rowansgran

YOUR CONTRACT IS WITH THE AGENT.THE OWNER OF THE PROPERTY HAS NO SAY...until the contract ends in..

Sweet Jesus. Precisely opposite.

Quote:

The fact that you accommOdated viewings has nothing to do with the contract.

have you seen the contract? If not, please do not shout at people because actually most contracts will contain a clause about allowing viewings in last weeks of the tenancy.

Very worrying indeed.

Nightmare4banks · 29th June 2007, 01:40

Hi all!

I would just like to add by saying:

1.All agreements are with the owners.The agents do the credit searches,referencing and vetting of tenants etc.Also the collection of the rent and evictions if istructed to do so by the owner.

2.Hiowever,in most cases the actions of the agents are the responsibility of the owners i.e.if an agent breached the quiet enjoyment of a tenant the owner would be liable.The only exception to this is if the agent for example physically assaulted a tenant the owner would not be liable in this particular case.

rdx0202 · 11th July 2007, 12:07

Hi All,

Just left the things with landlord for two weeks... No response.. Sent a letter specifying the details and requesting for deposit to be returned in the next 14 days. As I did not have the landlord's address got the same from the agent and sent a registered post copying another one to the agent. Although the letter has reached the agent, the landlords is not yet delivered.

What can I do now? I'm happy to clear off whatever she's asking for..

Please help

Rdx0202

rdx0202 · 11th July 2007, 12:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by rowansgran

Hello rdox, just enlighten me... you signed a contract with the agent? Yes? If as you say you signed another 6 month contract with the agent in 2006 your point of contact is with the agent office and absolutely nothing to do with the person who owns the building..Let me state this clear. YOUR CONTRACT IS WITH THE AGENT.THE OWNER OF THE PROPERTY HAS NO SAY...until the contract ends in..guess what?December!!!! 6 month contract from July till....December.
The fact that you accommOdated viewings has nothing to do with the contract.YOU facilitated the viewings.NO ONE HELD YOU DOWN.
As for the carpet cleaning...GET OVER IT. £30 difference in price? What the hell. Settle down in your new home with your wife and child and think yourself lucky that 30 quid is all you have to worry you.
I wish you all well
Kind regards.

Reply to rowansgran vbmenu_register("postmenu _955418", true); :

When I started renting the contract was done through the Agent.. but still the contract was between the landlord and myself, with the agent acting as a primary contact for the landlord. After 8 months the landlord wished to manage the letting herself and hence the contract continued for the next 4 months. After this 1 year period, we wished to continue as a monthly carry over and hence there is no contract now between ourselves and the landlord.. Hope its now much clear..

As far as the point of viewings is concerned, I don't mind for viewings and I'm aware that most viewings happen during end of tenancy, but the problem was that we did not ever get notice for even 24 hrs and with both of us working it was a big task to go home and clean first as we may be having a viewing just 1 hr later in the evening. What I meant to make a point was that even if we were so flexible, she's now being fussy to give us back what's legally ours.

demon_x_slash · 11th July 2007, 12:39

tbh I wouldn't bother replying to rowansgran's post up there - as stated, the majority of it is nonsense.

Quote:

Nightmare4Banks: 2.Give the landlady say 2 weeks and do not contact her daily to deal with the matter and if all fails send a pre-action letter to sue.Then wait up to 1 month and if there is no joy - SUE! It is as simple as that.

So read up on the Small Claims process (the bank FAQ in the bank section is a good guide for this) and post up your Letter Before Action before you send it off, so someone can check it over

Nightmare4banks · 12th July 2007, 00:32

Hi all!

rdx0202,I would just like to add:

I totally agree with demon here.

As this is the next step in seeing to get your deposit refunded back to you.

rdx0202 · 12th July 2007, 10:37

Thanks Demon, N4b... Will wait for another 2 weeks before sending the Letter Before Action. And post it here to get it checked.. Thanks ever so much..

rdx0202

rdx0202 · 19th July 2007, 23:26

Hi, Last week landlady called up to say that she's received the letter was was about to reply. The agent told her to confirm that all bills were paid.. and she wanted to confirm the same. As I pay by Direct Debit there was nothing to show other than the bill , but she required confirmation for utilities and council.. Specifically called up the utility companies to allow them to provide the information if the landlady calls them and gave her the land lady's number.. After a week, today called up to check if she's informed the agent and she says she does not have the time to call up the companies but has written emails and is waiting for their response..... Please advise what to do... I'm in a fix trying to help and provide all information but seems that she's trying to move away from responsibilities... I know i cannot force her to call but just producing the bills is no good for her (in her terms) as it does not prove that we've paid.... Please advise.

rdx0202 · 24th July 2007, 15:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdx0202

Hi, Last week landlady called up to say that she's received the letter was was about to reply. The agent told her to confirm that all bills were paid.. and she wanted to confirm the same. As I pay by Direct Debit there was nothing to show other than the bill , but she required confirmation for utilities and council.. Specifically called up the utility companies to allow them to provide the information if the landlady calls them and gave her the land lady's number.. After a week, today called up to check if she's informed the agent and she says she does not have the time to call up the companies but has written emails and is waiting for their response..... Please advise what to do... I'm in a fix trying to help and provide all information but seems that she's trying to move away from responsibilities... I know i cannot force her to call but just producing the bills is no good for her (in her terms) as it does not prove that we've paid.... Please advise.

Hi,

Can someone please help?? I've spoken to the Utility companies.. they cannot issue anything in written other than the last bill..

CAG Products - We think that these will help you to make your claim or Reclaim your Right These sales also help us to keep helping YOU and keeps this site free of third party adverts!

Small Claims Kit	Small Claims Court Guide New Edition	CallBurner - Skype CallRecorder Review	Last Will & Testament Kit	Fight a Motoring Ticket

Alternatively you could purchase a CAG email address here, or maybe you'd prefer our address labels here
UPDATE: Consumer Forums ConsumerWiki is now LIVE - click here: ConsumerWiki N.B. Please note - due to postage costs these products are only available in the U.K.