Impotent lettings agents and pointless Inventory Company reports?

[AnnaCorn]

We signed an agreement through a letting agent 3 years ago, which included a full inspection before we moved in, and then upon exiting 3 years later.

The inventory company found the flat to be in the same condition as when we moved in, and barring £10 worth of damage to the wall where it had been chipped, made no other costs against us.

the letting agents believed we'd get our damage deposit back in weeks.

After a month we called the letting agent, it seems the landlord felt that there were repairs to be made and did not want to take the inventory company report into account.

The estate agent cannot release monies without the landlord's agreement, so now we are stuck in limbo having entered this agreement in good faith. Do I have any rights here outside of legal action? And can I hold the estate agent responsible in any way for not adequately representing us - it's been 2 months now.:mad:

[Paul_f]

I've posted about this on the formum within the last few days so it's worth a look at other threads - just search my posts in the last 7 days using the search tool.

You have no legal relationship with the agent, only the landlord. If you lived there for three years then the landlord has to accept an amount of wear and tear reflecting this, and that might even include slight chips to plaster. £10 must be shown to have been the actual cost of repair, not some "imagined" amount. It's being extremely petty. Dig your heels in and don't take any flak!

Write to the landlord c/o the agent and head it "without prejudice" which means you are still willing to negotiate, demanding that if your deposit is not returned in full within 7 days you will instigate court proceedings against him for its recovery. You will almost certainly win in court given the evidence of the inventory company. Judges don't like "cute" landlords.