UK Landlord Forum / Life

My previous letting agent was tardy in the submission of the tenant deposit to the DPS. When the matter was brought to my attention the letting agent lodged the deposit. During the tenancy I changed letting agent (not sure if this is relevant). Now the outgoing tenant is threatening legal action or an out of court settlement. I haven't contested any part of the deposit and they have had it returned in full. Any advice greatly welcomed....

You - as Landlord - are ultimately responsible for the correct protection of the deposit. A change of Letting Agent is irrelevant. The outgoing Tenant is perfectly within their rights to sue you for not protecting the deposit correctly (in this case this appears to mean in time). They will sue you, not the Letting Agent.

In Court, the Tenant would win their case and the Court would award them the return of their deposit (which they already have) and then from 1x to 3x the value of the deposit as a penalty. So - if the deposit you took was £1,000, then the penalty could be as low as £1,000 and as high as £3,000.

The Court must find in favour of the Tenant because you did not protect the deposit correctly.

This is the crazy situation. People can shout about this all they like, but it's the world we operate in now.

What was the value of the deposit and what is the out-of-Court settlement offer being put forward by the Tenant?

Of course, if it went to Court and you ended up paying the Tenant some kind of penalty, I suppose you could go after your Letting Agent for satisfaction, but that would carry its own effort and risk.

Personally, I would not want to go to Court as a Landlord who had failed to protect a deposit properly.

As Hippo says buck stops with you unfortunately, the agents tardiness will ultimately cost you alot of money.  For the tenant it's money for old rope, literally have to do nothing for a nice little payout.

Your recourse would be to put a claim in against the letting agent separately.