Tenant Deposit Never Secured - Who is to blame?

[MrSquash]

Hello all,

We are seeking some advice as to who is legally responsible for the protection of our deposit.

I'll try to keep this short. Appreciate the feedback.

We began privately renting our home in August 2015. At the start of the tenancy, we paid a £2,000 deposit to a well known letting agent - Fine & Country. It later transpired that the branch who managed the property (in our case, Liverpool) was previously a small local estate agent, Davis Beyga, who were licensed by Fine & Country and trading under their name.

http://www.yourmovemagazine.com/live...perty-firm/455

Several months ago, we were contacted by our actual landlord who expressed concerns with the management of the property, and proposed that we let the tenancy run down with F&C and continue to rent on a 1-2-1 basis with themselves. Having had some problems ourselves with the estate agent, we agreed and went ahead.

We contacted Davis Beyga (still trading as Fine & Country) to acquire information as to our original deposit as neither ourselves nor the landlord had been informed which deposit protection service had been used to secure the £2,000.

We subsequently discovered that the deposit had never been entrusted to any service and therefore was not secured in line with the law.

The original letting agent has offered only excuses, unfulfilled promises and stalling tactics, and so we contacted the Head Office of Fine & Country who were apologetic, promising to resolve the matter.
However since this time we have still received nothing.

We have had a reply from a Director at Fine & Country stating that Mr Ben Davis, the owner of Davis Beyga, has now had his license with the Fine & Country brand terminated. As a result of this, he has mentioned that they can do no more to recover our deposit and that he suggests "his creditors all act together to apply as much pressure as possible, which we will support and amplify in every conversation we have with Mr. Davis"

We feel that;
A. The likelihood is, that having multiple creditors, Ben Davis will declare himself bankrupt
B. Fine & Country are trying to distance themselves from any activity of wrongdoing

Our question is, since we feel that pursuing Ben Davis for our deposit will be futile, do we have a case to claim our deposit back from Fine & Country? As Davis Beyga were trading under license as Fine & Country and all of our Tenancy Agreements - including receipt of deposit - were singed for by "A representative of Fine & Country"

We appreciate your time for reading this,
Andrew & Debra

[Diana M]

Re: Tenant Deposit Never Secured - Who is to blame?

Hello

In law the Landlord is responsible for making sure the deposit is protected.

If an agent ceases trading (with your deposit money in their bank account) or sells the business to another agency etc. it still remains the responsibility of the Landlord to deal with the matter.

First establish whether your deposit really is or isn't secured using Shelter's website checker >

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housi...t_is_protected

If it isn't protected then your Landlord needs to protect it even if he doesn't hold the actually money (he can fight that battle with the agent separately because it's his problem not yours).

The contract (tenancy agreement) is between the Landlord and the Tenant with the agent only acting as the Landlord's agent. The buck stops with the Landlord.

In short the Landlord has to replace your money and then protect it

Di