As title says My letting agent took £100 off me for a credit check to move into my property. I have recently checked all 3 CRA files and nothing shows up on any that they have done any checking. Would a letting agency credit check show up anyways? Or have they just shafted me for £100? thanks

Two weeks ago I started work with an employment agency on an agreed rate of £10 per hour,this was agreed over the phone,so I did my weeks work,then into last week finished,I received my wageslip yesterday to find they have paid me £9.50 per hour and also charged me an admin charge of £20 pounds. No one their answering the phones on friday when i tried to call so i just emailed them asking about this,obviously no reply,where do I go from here regards their thievery??

Hi all! My letting agency refused on THREE occasions to answer me back when I enquired about the protection status of my bond. My old Landlord and I are currently battling in the courts for my last bond, and I would rather it not come down to that again! Now I'm thinking of writing a nicely worded email to the letting agency once more, only this time using a little LBA and telling them that they/the landlord is breaching the law. Now I know the landlord lives in Saudi Arabia, so I'm not sure if protecting the bond will be difficult or not... But hell it's the law isn't it! Anyway my main question was this; if they refuse AGAIN to answer my emails, how within my rights am I to withold the last months rent on the contract and just up and leave with that? I'm guessing not but I really don't fancy another court date Thanks guys!

I am getting concerned about what data a CRA holds against addresses. I have received two letters one from BUCHANAN CLARK & WELLS and another from DEBT MANAGERS LTD, They both start identical; “We are attempting to contact the above named person and our client’s recent investigations have resulted in your details being obtained from a credit reference agency. Your address has been provided by them due to a link with the data our client holds, as a possible new address for the person we are wishing to contact.” I have contacted my landlord who says the person they want lived here some 8 years ago and was evicted for non-payment of rent and destruction of property, after only 6 months. I am getting concerned about what the CRA holds on addresses, I thought they only held data on people’s credit and why are they linking to an address that is over 8 years old. Surely any DCA that is wanting this person must be aware any debt is statute barred or is there any way of finding out if she is still using my address?

I have come across this recent case Smeaton v Equifax, accessible for free on bailii. It has been decided that where a credit reference agency has not been complying with their continuing obligation of retaining accurate data, they will be in breach of the Data Protection Act, Section 13. Furthermore, if they have been negligently, by positive acts or omissions, showing wrong information about a data subject, the CRA's would be negligent and can be sued in negligence to reclaim any losses the data subject may have suffered. The CRA's have lost it to a litigant in person, and have now appealed it in the Court of Appeal, but it goes to show that if there are people who have suffered because of these people, you may be able to sue them. One point to note is about limitation. Cheers!! **Any information given here is not to be considered legal advice and should not be relied upon. Benbane Head does not accept any liability to the recipient or any third party for any loss suffered as a result of reliance on the information provided herein.**

Hi everybody, I am a 6-month pregnant woman with a 3-year-old toddler at home. In February this year I contacted a cleaning agency in order to have a cleaning lady help me out a little bit in the house once a week. The service was mediocre (furniture barely cleaned, dust in every corner) but at least it was a relief to have someone once a week give me a hand. What really annoyed me was the lack of punctuality of the cleaning ladies, when they were supposed to be at my place every Fri from 14-16 hs, they would arrive at 14h15, 14h20, even at 15h00 once, not that they did less time, they would always stayed the two hours that were needed, but everytime I needed to suit myself to be home and open the door for them, and if I had other things to do then I would be stuck at home waiting for them (that would not even give a phone call saying that they were late). I had already complained about this issue when one day the cleaning lady totally stood me up and I was supposed to go get an ultrasound scan which of course I was late for. Two weeks ago I thought that enough was enough, the cleaning lady arrived late and I had another medical appointment, so I did not wait. When she called me to ask me where I was cause she was ringing at my door and nobody was answering, I told her to go home, that I would contact the agency cause I was fed up. I emailed the person in charge asking her to cancel my contract with them immediately and I explained why. She did not even care to answer my email. I read the contract and I was supposed to send a certified letter announcing the cancelation of the contract and I did. Only then I got an answer from the agency saying that they had "left me a voice mail" (not true) saying that I should have warned them about my disatisfaction with their services (I did warn them) and that it was not the lady's fault that her train was late. Now they are asking me to pay a fine for finishing the contract without three month's notice and I am just so angry. My husband says that we should just pay the damn fee and get it over with but I want to write a complaint letter saying how unprofessional I find their answer of "if the train is late it is not her fault". Could anyone help me word this letter in the most categorical way? I want these people to feel bad, even if I have to pay their fine. I appreciate your help and advice. Mary.

Hi, I am new to this forum and I hope I got the right forum. I have a question about the deposit (which is made in TDS - Tenancy Deposit Scheme) - a substantial amount is in this service and from what I have read in forums the agency/landlord can not withhold money from the deposit in order to pay outstanding utility bills. However in our contract with the letting agency there is a point stating that the deposit could be well used to pay the outstanding bills. I am not quite sure if they have the right to do this? Aren't utility companies supposed to look for the money owed to them with me personally, not file claims against the landlord/agency for them to pay them off??? I want to dispute the amounts from United Utilities, for example, but I want to receive my deposit back after vacating the property. What would you advise?

Hi My partner left her previous employer around 6 months ago and she received a letter a couple of weeks ago from a Debt Collections Agency. It states that the overpayment of £178 was a "mistake" but the letter includes no details as to how this calculation has been made. It also said her previous employer had tried to contact her to resolve, but been unsuccessful, however she had received no previous correspondence from them. We wrote the DCA an email stating that we require confirmation of how the overpayment was calculated and that we were not willing to deal with them because it's a dispute between ex-employer and ex-employee. They have since sent a threatening legal action, but still have not provided any details about the overpayment. They have also added a £15 administration charge!! We would be very grateful for any advice you may be able to provide about what our rights are. 1) Do you have to deal with a debt collections agency when this is a dispute between an ex-employer and an ex-employee? What are our rights? 2) No details of how this overpayment was calculated have been provided by your previous employer or by the debt collections agency, so how do we know this is legitimate 3) Why should we have to pay an admin charge to a debt collections agency that we didn't want to deal with?! It's not like we asked them for their service, surely any moneys for their services should be paid by the employer?? Thanks Keith

Hi all, my husband and I would really appreciate your advice on the following problem. I'm really sorry about the length, I was just trying to be thorough: Prelude: We vacated our flat on the 16th of August, after living there for 3 years (our lease started August 17th 2007). The contract did not require professional cleaning so we cleaned it quite thoroughly ourselves. When we realized that we wouldn't be able to rent a carpet steamer and clean the carpets in time, I called the agency which said that if cleaning would be required it would set us back about a 100 pounds. The following day someone came to do the inventory and I as I was present I learned from her that the carpets probably would need to be done and cleaners might have to be called in to remove (a) some cobwebs (which were in the ceiling over the stairs and I simply couldn't get to them, not for lack of trying), and (b) some burnt on grub that we weren't able to get off the grillpan inside the oven - and something I would think may just be "fair wear and tear". Aside from these things the house was at least in as good a state as when we moved in, if not better. So we pretty much expected to hear from the LL about deducting at least the carpet cleaning, if not a little extra. Well, the 10 working days mentioned in our contract (and prescribed by our TDS) pass without us hearing anything from the LL or LA. So on 2. September I called the LA to see about our deposit, as they were the ones who had originally received the deposit for safekeeping. The lady I spoke to was quite rude and would not give me any information whatsoever, and much less advice on my position considering the "deadline" had passed. All she would say was that they needed permission from the landlord to release our deposit and they had nothing to do with it nor had any further information as the property was not managed by them. Following this exchange my husband called the LL, who was a bit taken aback by this and promised to contact the LA. After not hearing anything for a few more days and writing a couple of emails that went unanswered, we again called the LA and finally got the name of their property manager. He finally got back in touch with us today saying that the landlord wanted to make some deductions and that we had to deal directly with the LL as the agency did not manage the property. So today my husband called the LL again. Apparently the LL had also received a call today from the LA asking for the release of our deposit but that he was unable to do so due to a dispute he was having with them. According to him, he had given the LA explicit instructions not to do any work on the property until he had inspected it after our departure. Despite this the LA called in a cleaning company the same day as the inventory was done (i.e. on the 17th) and now there was an outstanding bill (which he had not yet received) for cleaning done on the carpets, kitchen and bathrooms. And as he did not know how much this had cost he could not yet let the deposit go. Now, our questions are as follow: (a) What are our rights regarding the fact that notice of deductions was not given within the contractual period of 10 working days? (b) Since the LA went against the express instructions of the LL and ordered the (largely unneccessary) cleaning of a property they do not manage, can the LL be considered to have incurred any costs at all? © Considering that the agency in question has been nothing but unhelpful and deceptive in their dealings with us despite their (I believe) legal duty to safeguard the interests of both parties, do we have grounds to make a formal complaint to ARLA? (d) Any other ideas on our best course of action in retrieving our deposit? We've always gotten along well with the LL so it would be a shame to stick him with an unfair bill, but having to aggressively chase after our money has caused us considerable trouble and financial hardship as we expected at least most of our deposit to be returned by now. And if I were the LL, I would refuse to pay the cleaning bill anyway - and I cannot see why he would be required to do so! Thanks in advance for your time and advice! This is the first time we have let in the UK and I have to say we're baffled beyond words by the bureaucracy of it all! Best regards, Embla