My Landlord, Letting Agent and the TDS

[Enfieldian]

Hello all.

This is more of a hypothetical situation at the moment than anything else.

I moved in to a property at the beginning of February last year.

The Agents marketing the property were poor, to say the least, i.e not returning ny calls, late or not showing up for viewings etc...

When I signed the contract it was in the Agent's office and they gave the landlord's address as care of themselves and signed on his behalf, although they then said that he was managing the property himself and rent would be paid directly to im.

The deposit and first month's rent was paid to them (along with their "fee" which they did little or nothing to earn) and I moved in (after waiting half the day for keys...!)

I realised over the weekend that I had heard nothing from them with regard to the deposit and where it was being held so emailed them and got a very curt response of "contact your landlord, he deals with it"

There have been no problems with the landlord as yet, as nothing has gone wrong, but of course it has only been six months, but I had a visit from the last tenant who came to collect his post who told me that the LL hads held money back from his deposit which was pre TDS date, for things like carpet cleaning and "repairs"... Of course the carpets were not cleaned and no repairs were done before I moved in!

In addition a copy of the inventory that I was promised never arrived and as time goes on you tend to discover the odd thing here and there that you think will be attributed to you at a later date if you are not careful.

Without coming on to the LL too strong as he has not actually done anything wrong to me yet, what would you recommend as the best course of action?

In addition I do not have the LL's address as the agent signed on his behalf, but surely if he is managing the flat I should have this. Currently all I have is a mobile number for him.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[old_andrew2007]

bump

[Enfieldian]

Another thought struck me...

If the deposit is originally transferred to the agent, what is their responsibility.

Must they transfer it into a TDS before it it is transferred to the LL or can they send it straight to the LL?

This TDS thing is very confusing......

[MrShed]

So just to clarify, you have currently received no notification of your deposit being held in a scheme?

Currently, you should write to your letting agent and request the name and address of the landlord formally. They are obliged to give this information(as per the LTA) if you submit WHILE YOU ARE A TENANT.

Failing that, I would currently do nothing, as it will probably lead to eviction, safe in the knowledge that the landlord can legally make no deductions when you leave, and you may be able to sue for 3x deposit as compensation at this point.