Help with TDS

[studentneedinghelp]

Can anyone give me some advice

I paid deposit on 10th Oct 07.
I am a student I moved into my student house on 17th Oct 07
I found out about the TDS and asked my agency which one I was with on March 1st. They said I was with a certain one, I left it to March 20th, sent them email saying I want the paperwork and I was willing to court. Then sent me letter shortly after, they signed me up to protection on March 21st. So they failed to notify me within 14th days, and they didnt protect me for 6 months. Can I claim, I am now concerned also that Im not going to get my depoist back in a timely fashion, they said its going take at least 28 days, but thats allowed because there big agency and have so many houses.

Any advice will be greatly appreaciated,

Tom

[billy_79]

They've protected your deposit now, so although they were very 'naughty', there's not really anything you can do about it - and you won't be out of pocket unless they have already tried to make some deductions from your deposit prior to protecting it?

It sounds as though this agency is trying to avoid protecting tenant's deposits, so if any of your friends are with them, get them to find out if their's has been protected. The other thing you could do is go to the local paper about it, ask them if they will run an article to alert other tenants about this agent...

incidentally, I have a feeling that it is the legal responsibility of the landlord, and not directly the agent, to protect your deposit. Although it could be argued that an agency is being negligent if they don't encourage the to landlord comply.

And they shouldn't take 28 days to refund your deposit - being a big agent is no defence at all. 10 to 14 days is a fair and reasonable amount of time.