Landlord deposit ccj

[DONNA1458]

We rented out a house and went through an agent and paid them commission each month, the tenants left and the agents had always held the deposit but after inspection of the house and some minor damage we told the agent to give the deposit back minus £100 for repairs. Now we have got a ccj letter saying we didn't hold the deposit in accordance to the law and we have to pay £1800. Where do we stand on this, the tenant asked for a shower so we had one fitted, the washer started to leak we got someone straight there to fix it was a blocked filter, never had any issue I am not sure what to do.

[DONNA1458]

just to clarify we own the house and they rented it through an agent who found them and charged us a management fee each month.

[themas]

The deposit should have been put into a deposit protection scheme under legislation that came in about 2 or 3 years ago. If the agent did not know this then they are incredibly incompetent!

For there to be a ccj this must already have gone to Court. Did you know anything about that? If not, did the agent know and fail to inform you? If you knew, you should have taken advice before the Court hearing, as you could then have corrected the position. If the agent knew & didn't tell you then he is grossly negligent.

I'm not sure what you can do now. You may have a case to make a claim against the agent - depending on the exact facts. I suggest you either visit your local CAB or ring the Shelter helpline (see their website) for advice.

[DONNA1458]

This is the first we have heard of this, I have to wait till tuesday to speak to them.

[themas]

The Court claim should have been against you (not the agent) & the papers should have been sent to you at your address (which should be on the tenancy agreement so should be known to the tenant).

If the tenant wrongly took out the claim against the agent then the agent should have done something about it, but if that is the case the agent is legally liable not you. What document have you now received? Is it a Court order addressed to you? If it is, then the claim was against you but something has gone wrong if you were never sent any papers before the case went to Court. If that is the case, you might be able to apply to Court for the judgement to be set aside, but this is not simple & you will need advice from Shelter or CAB.

The first thing to do is to create merry hell with the agent.

[Eve]

It would be a good idea to find out whose responsibility it was to ensure that the deposit was dealt with properly (ie put into a TDS).

You are the landlord so a good chance it may have been essentially yours but, if so, was there any (proper and legally enforceable) passing of the responsibility to the agent to make them liable eg do their terms and conditions in any contract between yourselves confirm they will deal with all this, specifically or within a provision which would cover it?

Out of interest, how did the authorities find out the deposit wasn't in the TDS? Was there a problem with the tenants getting it back from the agents, were they querying the £100 etc...?

[themas]

Jenna

A good point, but Donna says the deposit has always been held by the agent. Surely if that is the case the very least the agent should be expected to do (i.e. an implied term of any contract?) is to let the landlord know what the law says. And if the agent doesn't know the law on this then heaven help their clients!