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WSC Estates - Help getting our deposit back!


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Hi, could really use some help here.

 

The two of us are students and just got out of renting a flat for a year...

 

Well, it was advertised as a flat, but was really just a floor of a house.

It wasn't converted into flats, so the people in the floor above us had access at all times..

 

 

We didn't have a proper address to ourselves,

the mail went upstairs,

and we shared internet with random people, despite our floor being self contained.

Which would be great, but it was NOT advertised as a house share.

They are STILL advertising it as a flat, which we will report to whoever necessary.

 

We have just come out of the place and paid £400 each for our deposit.

They are refusing to talk to us.

 

They have moved their address and we are having trouble locating the new one,

though we remember seeing it so will update when we can find it.

 

Apparently they left the address because they stopped paying rent.

They are not answering their phone.

 

We know they can legally keep a deposit for a number of weeks and that is coming to a close.

They have ignored many emails and refuse to correspond on the phone.

 

From other reviews it seems they ignore other people and make up problems with the property in order to keep the deposit,

but I left my room in a perfect state..

 

 

. even when we moved into it,

my lock was hanging off the door,

there were pests,

and various things were broken!

 

 

My friend did have an accident causing some damage to the carpet,

but we are confident it would not amount to £400

- so she should be entitled to know the costs and how much she will receive.

 

Something that set my boyfriend's alarm off was that our money was not deposited into a scheme - is this legal?

 

I've had trouble in the past with them

- They owed £200 and refused to deal with me,

making excuses,

ignoring texts,

emails,

and appeasing me on the phone.

 

 

Eventually my mother rang in a rage and they refunded it..

. pretty pathetic that they will try to get out of it because I'm a student

but as soon as someone else butts in, they refund.

 

 

With this in mind I'm confident some threat of legal action (which we will try to follow through) will be successful?

 

The company is WSC Estates.

 

 

Online it appears they're at King Street in Manchester,

but we have been informed they're not at that office anymore!

 

 

We know the director's name and that it's a tiny company with 3 people.

 

What legal route would be necessary to contest them ignoring us?

 

My roommate is looking into some free advice from a certain scheme,

but we are poor students and £400 means SO much to us.

 

Thanks to all that could help...

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Ned a bit more info.?

did you have a contract? AST? did you all sign it.

If you just had a lockable room and share other facilities, then it is a house share, bt you can still have an AST for that ( legal requirement ).

How may people, how many floors?

more than 5 independent families or people and on three or more floors then it is an HMO, or may depend on council; may have to have a licence ( very strict rules ). you can check direct with the council.

If you had an AST then yes any deposit must be protected and they had to give you details of the scheme in the first 30 days.

Failure to do either and you can take them to court for compensation.

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Hi!

 

Yes, we signed a contract.

It was for a 'room' in the house, which probably legally covers them,

though I'm a bit miffed about them advertising it as a flat, knowing it isn't registered as one.

 

They are still advertising it as one as per online listings, and a number of viewings we had,

where we noticed two separate parties being advertised the house separately.

 

the house was an old 3 floor house.

We had the basement, which was converted and self-contained

with two bedrooms,

a bathroom,

kitchen

and living space.

 

Upstairs was a 4 bedroom house (over two floors) which was similarly self-contained. With four tenants.

 

There was a way for us to move between the house on the inside.

The landlord had not registered it as a separate address.

We didn't have a proper door, only some patio doors.

 

When we looked at the contract and saw it was a room instead of a flat,

we were confused but at this point it was too late to find anywhere else.

 

To our knowledge he did not put the money in the scheme and there isn't a mention of a scheme on our contract.

(and we didn't get a notification when it was put into said scheme)

 

But when my housemate asked him fairly recently, he said it was.

This was unclear and there was confusion over this.

We were just told we'd get it back if there were no problems.

It was a refundable deposit.

 

We believe the people above us were from different families,

as they seemed to be a mix of students and graduates, and so are we.

But we did not have much contact with them as understandably we didn't look for a house share

- it was advertised as a two bedroom flat!

 

The house across the road is almost identical in plan and is split into three flats over three floors

so we assumed it was like that!

 

It was described not as 'two rooms in a house share' but a flat.

Obviously on the day we weren't pleased

- we had locks on our doors but at any time the tenants upstairs could come down into our home!

 

Honestly though,

even though I'd like to report the landlord for some sort of deception,

my prime concern here is demanding our deposit back.

 

We have contacted him numerous times over email (They're ignored, but we have saved them.)

and he has refused to answer a phone.

 

We think he might be deliberately not answering us.

We didn't write up to now as they moved address and they did not update us...

 

Thank you for replying!

 

I believe the deception is important

- because we are students and therefore exempt for council tax.

 

 

We ended up being put in a house with people who did owe council tax

- which meant we were liable.

 

I feel this type of deception, especially for students,

could be really bad.

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Did you get a receipt for the deposit or is it in your contract that it is required?

Your only course of action is to send a LBA ( letter before action ) asking for deposit back, give them 14 days to reply and then take them to court.

As deposit not protected or info given, judge may well apply compensation up to 3x deposit.

You can use MCOL, money claim on line

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No receipt, just have the original agreement. We only got this.

 

The Landlord has now responded and is saying that the property is 'filthy' and that no cleaning has been attempted.

 

 

Fortunately, his pictures of a grimy oven, a microwave with a single yellow stain, and some small amounts of mildew in the shower (we cleaned it top to bottom throughout the tenancy) and some bags left under the sink does not portray the 'filth' he is after.

I think if he tried to say no cleaning had been made the judge would laugh him out.

 

My issue is that he is chasing us for damages that were there at the start of the property.

When we moved in, there was a mark on the table, and on my wardrobe, and things were a bit dirty, but not disgusting.

I'd argue we left the place in a better state than it was in when we were given it!

 

 

Looking at my rights,

it appears we only are required to leave it in the same state we got it in?

 

 

I have some photos around the time but none taken specifically as I doubted this would happen as he would have happen. Regardless I can prove they were there quite early.

 

Our deposit between us is £800

I asked for the payment not in dispute and a full breakdown of any costs, whilst contesting all of his points.

 

It seems he likes to do this a lot.

 

 

Not sure why is he is being so meticulous with us when back when we received the property it was dirtier than we left it.

 

Advice? I can show his email and my reply if necessary.

 

Also he was VERY intimidating in the correspondence.

Threatening court.

 

 

It's pretty funny because his 'evidence' of filth is a clean room with a single spec of dirt on the microwave, or the tiniest cobweb in the door frame.

 

Regardless he is threatening...

'if it should go to court we will be using this', etc.

He has to prove it was us that did the damage, doesn't he?

 

 

Ideally he'd need before and after pictures...

 

Is it legal that he failed to give us notice of the 'scheme' our deposit was in within 30 days and never mentioned it to us or made us aware of the scheme, or even that there was one?

 

 

I feel like he is bluffing taking us to court as he seems to have acted illegally.

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Hi Absolol

 

Could you please confirm if this is the weblink: http://www.wsc-group.co.uk/

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I cannot give any advice by PM - If you provide a link to your Thread then I will be happy to offer advice there.

I advise to the best of my ability, but I am not a qualified professional, benefits lawyer nor Welfare Rights Adviser.

Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

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Hi Absolol

 

Doing a bit of research anyway is it possible you could upload a copy of your Original Agreement? (Please see this link on How to Do This: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?431533-How-to-Upload-Documents-Images-as-PDF-on-CAG-Immediately-(you-do-not-need-10-posts))

 

We need to clarify what type of agreement you actually had as in post#3 you mention the contract "It was for a 'room' in the house"?

 

Also have a wee look at this Citizens Advice link: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-a-home/student-housing/students-in-private-rented-accommodation/student-housing-council-tax/

Edited by stu007

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I cannot give any advice by PM - If you provide a link to your Thread then I will be happy to offer advice there.

I advise to the best of my ability, but I am not a qualified professional, benefits lawyer nor Welfare Rights Adviser.

Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

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I cannot give any advice by PM - If you provide a link to your Thread then I will be happy to offer advice there.

I advise to the best of my ability, but I am not a qualified professional, benefits lawyer nor Welfare Rights Adviser.

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Hey, I'll try to upload it tomorrow...

 

But I looked at that and neither is true, they don't own a bed and breakfast and they aren't resident!

 

the whole house is over three floors.

The ground and top floors was rented as a 4 bedroom house,

and the basement floor was advertised as a 2 bedroom flat!

 

 

On the contract it says it is simply a room in the house.

He is still advertising this as a 2 bedroom flat, but the house is not split,

it is one house and is being advertised as two!

 

 

Does this make sense?

 

 

Is this legal?

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Thanks for that it's really that we need to clarify what Agreement you had in place as the advice can be different depending on what agreement you had in place.

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I cannot give any advice by PM - If you provide a link to your Thread then I will be happy to offer advice there.

I advise to the best of my ability, but I am not a qualified professional, benefits lawyer nor Welfare Rights Adviser.

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I've attached a copy of our agreement.

 

I'd like to point out that it specifically says on my contract that I'm renting 'room 8', but the rooms don't have numbers on them and we weren't told which room was which, we simply picked between us on the day, as like I said, the landlord treated it as if it were a flat. Unfortunately, I did not stay in what they define as room 8. But since there are no numbers and they did not tell us, is this legally binding? My roommate actually DID cause a minor carpet burn, which I assumed I would not be responsible for.

They also said they would take an inventory and appear contractually obliged to do so - they did not do this. Hence it's weird they're claiming we broke certain items - their contractually obliged inventory would have showed these items as broken already. I feel like the law is on our side here but am still worried he will try to con us. He seems generally dishonest and I'm worried that since my contract says room 8 I'll have to be responsible for how my roommate cleaned her room...

 

Tenancy Agreement 2015.pdf

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Also I'd like to point out that the address listed in the contract is no longer valid: they moved business address, ironically because they did not pay rent, which we found quite amusing, but might turn into a headache for us?

 

Also, thanks for condensing my rambling posts. :)

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Hi Absolol

 

Right you have confirmed there website and your agreement also confirms this so after a bit of research here is some info for you:

 

Now as you confirmed the weblink: http://www.wsc-group.co.uk/ on doing a Domain check of this see below

 

This is what you get from Whoisdomaintools link: http://whois.domaintools.com/wsc-group.co.uk

(now go down to the light grey area and specifically look at the 'Registrant' it states "Registrant: waas properties" & address 'Manchester'.)

 

On checking 'waas properties manchester' and the first link I get this: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/c...364949/charges (please note you will get page not found with a search box just type waas properties into the search box and up they pop)

 

On checking the company number from the above link '05364949' so I do a check via Endole and get this: Endole link: https://www.endole.co.uk/company/05364949/waas-properties-limited

(now it gets interesting go to the bottom of the webpage and you will see under Mutual Companies - 'WSC Estates Limited & WSC Construction Limited click on 'WSC Estates Limited' see below)

 

Endole link on WSC Estates Limited: https://www.endole.co.uk/company/07176267/wsc-estates-limited

 

Please note in the above link that the Companies Status is 'Active (Dormant)'.

Edited by stu007

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I cannot give any advice by PM - If you provide a link to your Thread then I will be happy to offer advice there.

I advise to the best of my ability, but I am not a qualified professional, benefits lawyer nor Welfare Rights Adviser.

Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

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I can't see any of the above links - they appear as 404 not found. I'll try to do the relevant searches myself.

What do these things mean for us getting our deposit back and the company? Is it good, or bad?

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Hi Absolol

 

Soz my bad a couple of the links you were correct as not working so I have fixed the links and should all work now.

 

Was the property classed as an HMO (Houses in Multiple Occupation) see this link: https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/houses-in-multiple-occupation

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I cannot give any advice by PM - If you provide a link to your Thread then I will be happy to offer advice there.

I advise to the best of my ability, but I am not a qualified professional, benefits lawyer nor Welfare Rights Adviser.

Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

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I cannot give any advice by PM - If you provide a link to your Thread then I will be happy to offer advice there.

I advise to the best of my ability, but I am not a qualified professional, benefits lawyer nor Welfare Rights Adviser.

Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

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Hi,

 

He didn't tell us about a scheme for the deposit. We did not know there was one. He didn't notify us of the scheme in 30 days.

When asked much later, he said it was in a scheme but failed to give details.

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Absolol

I have been unable to find a listing for 2 Ash Grove, Victoria Park on WSC Estate web page. Can you provide a link?

 

 

HMO's are not my 'thing' but AIUI LL is liable for C Tax (no discounts avail). Mcr Tenancy Relations Officer or your Student Union Accom Officer may better advise you.

Forget how it was described, flat, appt, house-share, diff names mean diff things to diff people. In my day-bedsits.

 

 

You can sue for return of deposit & prob non-protection via SCC, after first sending LBA giving 14 days Notice of impending Legal action to King St address and getting free Cert of Posting from counter when handing over letter.

Don't expect any payment, WSC Estates appear to have 5 unresolved CCJs against them currently

Don't delay, the Co could 'Phoenix' at any time. Worth alerting Student's Union about your problem.

King St address is for rented office space, operated by Regus, who confirmed WSC Estates vacated last Nov approx., but it remains your T.A. address for 'Service of Notices' until LL informs diff.

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Also have you confirmed with the Council concerned that WSC Estates held an HMO Licence for your Property?

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I cannot give any advice by PM - If you provide a link to your Thread then I will be happy to offer advice there.

I advise to the best of my ability, but I am not a qualified professional, benefits lawyer nor Welfare Rights Adviser.

Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

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Hi.

 

I'll try to find it soon.

Yeah, I think our main point is the non protection - they're lying about damages, but I feel as though the court would laugh them out.

I'll try to find more info for you.

Thanks so much for helping.

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I`ll try to confirm that re: license - I didn't know the rules until today.

He has advertised it both as one big house and a house and a flat in the past.

It appears as of me checking that he's not advertising it anymore. I can find some archived pages showing that he is advertising it as a flat, but I don't know how much weight it would carry.

I guess I just felt it was deceptive to advertise a house share as a flat.

Like I said, the people upstairs kindly covered the council tax bill for us - but technically we were liable. The fact that we wanted to rent a 2 bed-roomed property so we could avoid this, and then on the day of the contract, it was too late to find anywhere else, felt very deceptive.

If it were advertised as a room, or a house share, I would understand, but it was advertised as a stunning 2 bedroom flat. I understand that the contract is what matters but it did leave us a bit miffed.

I doubt he has a license as he is a pretty unscrupulous person in general, and has lied to us on many occasions. I'll check as soon as I can, I'll see if I can do it online or if not, I'll ring up?

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