Tenancy Deposit Question from a Tenant

Hi Julie

Advise your landlord and talk to your deposit protection provider about what needs to be done under these circumstances as they all have different rules.

It may well be that your deposit protection is transferable to your landlord, in any event your landlord is ultimately responsible for the refund when you leave the property.

The contract between agent and landlord is not your concern. Your deposit must be returned and both the Property Ombudsman and your TDS provider will support any claim. Using the deposit as leverage in a contractual dispute is obscene. The Landlord, however, should not have signed an agreement which she now dislikes. That said, if the fees were hidden and did not form part of the core terms and were not duly flagged, it is unlikely such terms would be enforceable. The Landlord should seek advice from Trading Standards. Nevertheless, the matter of the deposit is not material to the issue in hand. Its YOUR money and deductions can only be made with your consent. If the agent is regulated, contact ARLA, NALS NAEA for advice. If not, then they dont have your money anyway so speak with the scheme which protects it.

Julie you should have been given the Deposit Protection Certificate and tenant information provided by the deposit protection scheme within 30 days of having paid your deposit - this is the law. If you were given this information you will find details of what to do now in the tenant information. If you were not given this information go to the Agent and tell them that they have broken the law and request the information.
Ultimately the landlord is responsible for your deposit and must return it to you at the end of the tenancy and sort the issues out with the agent without involving you. You may not want to wait until then - I can understand that - speak to the landlord and decide how best to go forward.
If the landlord signed an agreement with the agent which involves the landlord paying them if you stay on this will be legally binding and the landlord needs to sort that out - again without involving you.
You do not need to sign a new tenancy agreement in order to stay in the property, if you and the landlord agree, you can stay and your tenancy will automaticaly continue on the same terms and conditions as before - this is known as a Statutory Periodic Tenancy and is every bit as valid as a signed tenancy agreement.
Whatever happens you do not need to be involved in the agreement between the landlord and the agent - they just need to sort your deposit out for you.
Good luck
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The Tenancy Agreement is between you as Tenant and the Landlord and the agent is not( or should not be) party to the agreement. It depends when you actually paid the deposit, but the Agent was legally responsible to register the deposit in an approved scheme and provide you with a copy of the Certificate of Registration. The Tenancy Agreement must also include the Prescribed Information as defined in the Housing Act, 2004. Originally the deposit had to be registered within 14 days of the start of the Tenancy, but this was recently amended to 30 days. Ask the Agents in writing to confirm they have Client Money Protection in place and a separate ring fenced "Clients Account".

Hi Julie,I don't know how many year you with this landlady and agent.As I am landlord I had few time happened like this but I always suggested my tenants go and personally talk to agent.At the end if agent is holding deposit he must returned to you when you move out.If landlady hold she must returned your deposit too.At the end is your money.Agent charge to landlords ,not tenants.You may tell landlady to negotiate charges with agent ,and happy ending.

Thank you x

Thank you

Thank you very much

Thank you, x