Letting Agents Close Owing Landlords and Tenants Cash

This is a real example of why all landlords should make sure that any agent they use has a client bonded protected client account, for their protection in the event of circumstances such as this. Landlords should look for the ARLA or safe agent logos.

I am a tenant affected by this story - I paid a £650 deposit which has not been paid into a protection scheme. Now I don't know how to try and get this money back as it was paid directly to Baxter Todd.... Does anybody have any advice?

Well I don't like to have to advise you of this but your ultimate redress for return of your deposit IS THE LANDLORD; no matter what deposit scheme is supposedly used.
This why I ONLY use the mydeposits scheme as I hold the monies and I am hardly likely to do a runner when I am a private landlord with a certain probity required for me to remain in business.
Bearing in mind it does not appear to have been protected within 14 days and you having not received a DPC within that period you may now take and WILL win a claimin the county court for 3 x the deposit plus the doriginal deposit amount from the landlord.
Of course if you were of so generous disposition because of this rogue LA you could advise your LL that you would not pursue legal action against him but would want to receive a DPC no later than 14 days after you have advised the landlord of your proposed resolution.
Yes the LL has to rerturn money to he that he has not recevived from the LA.
That however is NOT YOUR PROBLEM.
It is the LL's problem.
He will have to resource your depost from his own financial resources whilst he presumably attempts recovery himself from the rogue LA..

Paul - the courts COULD order the landlord to return the deposit plus UP TO three times the deposit but are highly unlikely to do that in these circumstances. On all other points we are in total agreement.

Hopefully the landlord will have made a complaint to the Police about the Letting Agent on the grounds of fraudulent deception and embezzlement of funds.

Yes I appreciate that the courts will now take a less prescriptive view now.
Will this continue when the new DPC regs come in around April.
Is there not an insurance policy that you might be able to source for LA to cover these LA when they turn rogue.
The poor old LL and tenant seem to be at their mercy with no real redress.
A branded property118.com  LA insurance indemnity policy would go a long way to assuaging the genuine concerns of LL and tenant.
I have heard of in about the past week of numerous problems of effectively, criminal LA.
Couldn't heads be bashed together to come up with some protection measure against these rogue LA@26e5f1fff6d14712130cb16526d2c39f:disqus It is probably costing good LA an inordinate amount of business..

As other people have said here, you can claim the money direct from the landlord.  However as (I assume) you have moved out, you will not be able to claim the penalty of 3x the deposit sum.  See here for the reason why: http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2011/05/24/tenancy-deposits-the-law-that-never-was/

Note that the tenancy deposit rules are due to change in April under amendments made to the Localism Act but this will not affect your case.

Thank you all very much for your help and advice.
It is greatly appreciated!

I haven't yet moved out of the property, so your comments have given
us some hope that we will get our money back.

I have a new tenant who gave her deposit to a letting agent who did register it within 14 days with TDS - the agent has now ceased trading and TDS say they do not protect the deposit as the agent was in administration on the date the deposit was registered - my agency pays large fees to TDS and to ARLA & RICS and we have to have regular audits so how can TDS accept a registration when they knew the company was in admin? - looks like the landlord will end up having to pay out

I am a Landlord in Newcastle where the Agent I used for some 18 months or so, Central Residential Ltd, behaved in the same way by suddenly stopping answering telephone, email, letters and text messages and shortly later closing their office. They collected rents for me and held deposits for a number of properties. Some of the deposits were registered properly and some were unregistered despite charging me the registration fee. I have lost almost £10,000 in deposits alone. I reported this fraud to the Police and Trading Standards neither of whom was interested nor would they take any action. The Agent has since gone into Liquidation owing in excess of £100,000 meaning that there is little chance that I will see any of my money and I am still responsible for repaying deposits that I have never received.

My husband and I made an application to Companies House to have the striking off and dissolution order suspended on the basis that we have pending litigation against Carl Baxter/Baxtertodd.  Companies House has advised us this morning that based on the evidence we supplied, the action has been suspended until 26/07/12. 
Claire Wightman.