Letting Agent refuses to refund tenant's holding deposit

[Mr Jack]

Hi, I am in a real bind with a letting agent i got caught up with.

Me and a freind went to visit a property, and after viewing we decided to go for it. We paid the deposit and admin fees, and after some time, we were told we wont be able to move in, things got messy then and he started getting really irate with us though we had done nothing wrong.

Any way, after all this we agreed a refund would be best as we did not realise how incompetant he could be and didnt want to put up with it for the duration of our tenacy, it has now been over a month since we agreed for a refund and we still havent recieved our cheque.

Unfortunatly, the agent is not part of the oubudsman scheme and not part of any others as far as i am aware. When i call him now to see where my cheque is, he says he is out of the office and will call me back when he is in, but i never recieve any phone calls from him.

What can i do to recover my money from him?

[Colincbayley]

Hi, I am in a real bind with a letting agent i got caught up with.

Me and a freind went to visit a property, and after viewing we decided to go for it. We paid the deposit and admin fees, and after some time, we were told we wont be able to move in, things got messy then and he started getting really irate with us though we had done nothing wrong.

Any way, after all this we agreed a refund would be best as we did not realise how incompetant he could be and didnt want to put up with it for the duration of our tenacy, it has now been over a month since we agreed for a refund and we still havent recieved our cheque.

Unfortunatly, the agent is not part of the oubudsman scheme and not part of any others as far as i am aware. When i call him now to see where my cheque is, he says he is out of the office and will call me back when he is in, but i never recieve any phone calls from him.

What can i do to recover my money from him?


Send the agent a letter advising that you require your money to be returned within the next 14 days or you will issue a claim via the small claims court.
Keep the letter simple and to the point.
If you haven't heard anything by day 15, then go onto www.moneyclaim.gov.uk and issue a claim via the small claims court.
All information you may need is on the website, and it doesn't cost a lot.
You can claim back the cost of the summons, but not any other legal costs.

Good luck.

[jeffrey]

You can threaten to sue:
a. Agent, for retaining money wrongfully- this is called "Quasi-Contract" or "Money had and received"; and/or
b. Landlord, on whose behalf Agent received your money. Letting Agreement would have been a contract between Landlord and you; Agent would not be party to this.

[Mr Jack]

As an update to what has happend, i have sent a letter out to the address i know them to have, but have learnt since that they have moved out of their office space a month ago, I will go down to the police station later today.

[Bel]

Going back to your original post; you do not say why you were not offered the tenancy.

The amount refundable would depend on what the agent or literature said when the money was taken. There should be clear terms given for any refund you might expect. The agent would be entitled to keep fair admin fees, but refund any deposit element.

It seems that the agent is dodgy anyway and you may be right to persue him. But how much is refundable depends on circumstances.