Tessa, from the landlord law blog, has posted this comment in relation to this thread: If a landlord can escape liability by simply handing over a cheque in the court waiting room, five minutes before the hearing, it makes the penalties look ridiculous. We urgently need a test case to go to the Court of Appeal so we all know where we stand. I'll second that!

A similar case has been reported on the Nearly Legal blog

SLC, have PM'd you

Update: I now have verbal confirmation that the agent has somewhat belatedly registered my deposit. I only hope they have also registered all the other deposits they are responsible for. I feel a complaint to their regulatory body coming on............

If you were able to afford the rent prior to becoming sick/unemployed, and had not been in receipt of HB for the previous 52 weeks then you may be able to request a delay in the rent restriction ie. they would have to pay benefit on your full rent for the first 13 weeks Welfare Rights Bulletin 202: The 'local housing allowance' rules Is there any reason you need a 3-bed place? Find a welfare rights advisor (CAB?) who may be able to advise you more fully on the benefits issue. There are time limits for making appeals, so sooner the better

Thank you for all your replies. Like DevilWearsPrimark I interpreted the legislation as enabling me to sue the agent rather than the landlord. The prescribed information they have supplied is sketchy/incomplete, although I imagine they would get away with that in court as at least they have supplied *something*. I understand they arrange a lot of tenancies in the area, yet they have very few deposits actually registered with the scheme of which they are members. What concerns me more than anything is that should this firm go bust, then I, and perhaps many more tenants, may lose their deposits. Also, the Agents failure to deal with the deposit properly has put the landlord in what could be a very difficult situation. I think I need to have a chat with the landlord.

Contact all three of them Who runs the tenancy deposit protection schemes? : Directgov - Tenancy Deposit

Even if the landlord has no knowledge of it? As far as I can gather the landlord has no previous experience of renting out a property and has put their faith in the agent who has failed to correctly register the deposit.

I now have confirmation from all three schemes that my deposit has not been registered with any of them by the agent acting on behalf of the landlord. I intend to make an application in the County Court, but what documents should I submit with the application? Do I need to submit a copy of my tenancy agreement at this stage? I assume I need to include the confirmations from the schemes that they have no record of the deposit. I will be claiming against the agent, not the landlord, as in this thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/residential-commercial-lettings/181073-complicated-tds-case-have.html

Deposit can be held by the landlady but she *must* register that she has it with TDS. You should have received a certificate of registration from your landlady confirming this. There is lots of information about the scheme at TDS -Home

Update :-/ As we were having trouble with the upstairs lights fusing everytime they were switched on we wrote to our landlord to report it and ask for the electrical wiring certificate. We then had a call from the agent-who-is-no-longer-the-agent arranging for some urgent repairs. Turns out the electrician had failed the property on a number of issues and would not issue the certificate until the repairs had been carried out. In the meantime, the agent has moved us in. Oh, and I don't think they've registered our deposit with TDS, but that's just something else to have to deal with. I kind of wish I'd never started this!

Thank you for your replies. I am beginning to feel a little less stressed now as my partner has been making progress with the landlord. Even though we haven't been able to move in there seems little point in withholding rent as it would obviously cause friction and I don't want any issues with the deposit when we leave. We've had someone out to look at the boiler which hasn't been serviced since the year dot, but he has said it is in good condition and is coming back to service it at the landlord's expense. At least now I know it isn't likely to blow up! I'm going to ask for the electrical cert, only because it is apparent the house hasn't been lived in/touched for some time and there *could* be an underlying safety issue. Not sure about the EPC yet, depends on how bolshy I feel next week...........I've never ever rented before so the whole thing has been a *huge* learning experience. I don't think the landlord has ever rented out before either so perhaps it is the same for them.

Seems an EPC *is* required. I found this on a local authority website Private tenants (and prospective tenants) From October 1st 2008, when you enquire about a property, or sign up to a tenancy, your landlord must make available (free of charge) a copy of the energy Performance certificate, usually just called an EPC. This will enable you to judge how energy efficient the property is, and how much it will cost to run. If your landlord does not provide this certificate, you should complain to Trading Standards, who will request the EPC, and can ultimately issue a penalty notice of £200 as well as enforcing provision of the EPC. There are alot of other issues which have arisen which makes me think that the landlord is not going to be particularly helpful if we have problems with the property.

My partner and I recently agreed to rent a property that had been on the market for some time and has not sold. Tenancy commenced 1 Nov 08. We were asked to attend the estate agency handling the letting on the morning of 1 Nov to sign the agreement and pick up the keys. Q1. Landlord's signature on agreement had not been witnessed. Agent rang office who dealt with landlord and was told it was ok and that our agent could witness (absent) landlord's signature. Is this right? Q2. We were asked to sign inventory/verify electric meter reading etc before going to the property. There were photographs but I felt uncomfortable in that I hadn't viewed the property myself to verify the condition. Is this right? Q3. We have not been given a copy of the electrical wiring cert or energy performance cert. Is the landlord legally required to provide these? Q4. When we arrived at the property later that day I found additional items to note in the condition which hadn't been recorded on agreement (cracks in ceiling etc). The built in oven was filthy. I have taken photographs. We have been unable to move in because there was no oil in the tank so we had no heating/hot water although most of our furniture is there. Oil has now been delivered but we now have to wait for boiler to be serviced. I feel uncomfortable about moving in before the boiler is done as the property has been empty for some time. Do we have any grounds to withhold part of next months rent because we have been unable to move in or do we just have to lump it? Finally both my partner and myself were under the impression that the property was being managed by the estate agents. We now find that is not the case and have to deal with the landlord direct. On that part I feel totally misled although in hindsight perhaps we should have clarified beforehand Thanks for reading