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Hi Everyone,
I've had a look around this site and there seem to be some very helpful people out there so I'm hoping you may be able to give me some advice on my situation.
I moved out of a rented property on 16th March this year, with the idea that my deposit would be returned to me within 14 days at the most. It is now the 29th April and I haven't seen a single penny of it back yet, and am getting increasingly frustrated with the situation, but because of how strange it is, I'm not sure who the blame lies with.
A bit of background info:
I moved into the property after having paid my deposit in full, to the estate agent (a chain) dealing with the letting. This particular branch of this agency was located close to the property I rented. Several months later, I discovered that the flat had a pretty severe damp and black mould problem. I called this branch of the agency to report it so that something could be done and was never able to get through to them. So I decided to go on their website to get an email address. It was here that I discovered, upon clicking on the branch in the location I dealt with, that the forwarding email address and telephone number had changed to a completely different branch! So I had to assume that the original branch had for some reason closed down.
I contacted them, they informed me that the property was managed by the landlord himself (something I was never told) and I would have to tell him about any problems directly. That was fine with me. I did this.
Fast forward to my moving out day, I had received a letter from the 'new' branch dealing with my letting, informing me I had to leave the flat in good condition, etc etc and return the keys to them in their office.
Again, I did this, and the lady I handed them to gave me a signed receipt to confirm they had the keys back, and told me that upon checking the property was in good condition they would return my deposit to me.
After 14 days I still had not received any money back, nor any contact to state if any deductions were to be made (unlikely, as no inventory was done when I moved in, and I had left the flat in a better state than when I moved in) so I called them to ask about it - I was again informed that it was all down to the landlord, and I'd have to contact him. I called later and spoke to someone else and told them that I paid the money to THEM, not to the landlord, so someone must have some record of where this money has gone, I shouldn't have to chase the landlord directly for money. They told me they would look into it and get back to me.
By this time it was coming up to the Easter bank holiday weekend, so I left it until the Wednesday after, and called again. The girl I spoke to here asked me 'oh, did nobody tell you to send in a copy of your tenancy agreement?' I said 'no, as nobody has actually bothered to let me know what's actually going on' so it turns out that they don't even have a copy of my tenancy agreement so can I scan it and email it to them. Hell no is my answer, so I decided to physically take it down there and speak to someone as they seem to be denying all knowledge of this, purely because my portfolio was one that they had acquired from the closed down branch.
So I turned up and asked to speak to the branch manager. She informed me that although all the different offices trade under the 'umbrella' of the company name, each individual office is kept open by a franchise holder. So obviously the franchise holder of the office I dealt with originally had had to close down for whatever reason. So I told her, with all due respect, I paid that money to (company name) not an individual person, so someone has it, and it needs paying back.
She claimed that apparently they had had a couple of other people who originally had tenancy agreements with the original office had this same problem, they had contacted this man, and he had paid the money back.
I might add that by this point, I had already checked with all the tenancy deposit schemes and my deposit wasn't registered with any of them, and I informed her of this.
So as we stand now, I have emailed this woman a couple of times asking for updates on the situation, and was firstly told that the man has 'paid the money to central office and as soon as we get it we will pay it to you' then the latest email, sent almost 2 weeks after the first, apparently they are still waiting for a cheque to clear and it will be with me asap.
I feel I have been more than patient with this but I don't know where to go from here, as I don't technically know who is responsible.
My apologies for the long post but I just wanted to get the full information in there as I have never heard of anything like this happening before!
Any advice would be welcomed with open arms.
Thanks!
I've had a look around this site and there seem to be some very helpful people out there so I'm hoping you may be able to give me some advice on my situation.
I moved out of a rented property on 16th March this year, with the idea that my deposit would be returned to me within 14 days at the most. It is now the 29th April and I haven't seen a single penny of it back yet, and am getting increasingly frustrated with the situation, but because of how strange it is, I'm not sure who the blame lies with.
A bit of background info:
I moved into the property after having paid my deposit in full, to the estate agent (a chain) dealing with the letting. This particular branch of this agency was located close to the property I rented. Several months later, I discovered that the flat had a pretty severe damp and black mould problem. I called this branch of the agency to report it so that something could be done and was never able to get through to them. So I decided to go on their website to get an email address. It was here that I discovered, upon clicking on the branch in the location I dealt with, that the forwarding email address and telephone number had changed to a completely different branch! So I had to assume that the original branch had for some reason closed down.
I contacted them, they informed me that the property was managed by the landlord himself (something I was never told) and I would have to tell him about any problems directly. That was fine with me. I did this.
Fast forward to my moving out day, I had received a letter from the 'new' branch dealing with my letting, informing me I had to leave the flat in good condition, etc etc and return the keys to them in their office.
Again, I did this, and the lady I handed them to gave me a signed receipt to confirm they had the keys back, and told me that upon checking the property was in good condition they would return my deposit to me.
After 14 days I still had not received any money back, nor any contact to state if any deductions were to be made (unlikely, as no inventory was done when I moved in, and I had left the flat in a better state than when I moved in) so I called them to ask about it - I was again informed that it was all down to the landlord, and I'd have to contact him. I called later and spoke to someone else and told them that I paid the money to THEM, not to the landlord, so someone must have some record of where this money has gone, I shouldn't have to chase the landlord directly for money. They told me they would look into it and get back to me.
By this time it was coming up to the Easter bank holiday weekend, so I left it until the Wednesday after, and called again. The girl I spoke to here asked me 'oh, did nobody tell you to send in a copy of your tenancy agreement?' I said 'no, as nobody has actually bothered to let me know what's actually going on' so it turns out that they don't even have a copy of my tenancy agreement so can I scan it and email it to them. Hell no is my answer, so I decided to physically take it down there and speak to someone as they seem to be denying all knowledge of this, purely because my portfolio was one that they had acquired from the closed down branch.
So I turned up and asked to speak to the branch manager. She informed me that although all the different offices trade under the 'umbrella' of the company name, each individual office is kept open by a franchise holder. So obviously the franchise holder of the office I dealt with originally had had to close down for whatever reason. So I told her, with all due respect, I paid that money to (company name) not an individual person, so someone has it, and it needs paying back.
She claimed that apparently they had had a couple of other people who originally had tenancy agreements with the original office had this same problem, they had contacted this man, and he had paid the money back.
I might add that by this point, I had already checked with all the tenancy deposit schemes and my deposit wasn't registered with any of them, and I informed her of this.
So as we stand now, I have emailed this woman a couple of times asking for updates on the situation, and was firstly told that the man has 'paid the money to central office and as soon as we get it we will pay it to you' then the latest email, sent almost 2 weeks after the first, apparently they are still waiting for a cheque to clear and it will be with me asap.
I feel I have been more than patient with this but I don't know where to go from here, as I don't technically know who is responsible.
My apologies for the long post but I just wanted to get the full information in there as I have never heard of anything like this happening before!
Any advice would be welcomed with open arms.
Thanks!
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