UK Landlord Forum / Life

I recently ditched the letting agent I was using after their admin proved to be next to useless. I naively thought that using an agent would take the stress out of being a landlord but the opposite has proved to be the case. Their latest 'stunt' really takes the biscuit though.

I joined TDS and registered the deposit under my landlord ID. I sent a copy of the certificate to the agent and asked them to transfer the deposit to my account. They refused, saying they also needed to see a copy of my new tenancy agreement. That's clearly no business of theirs so I told them that wouldn't be happening. I sought advice from both TDS and the RLA who both told me that the agent only needs to see the certificate and that they are wrong to be still holding the deposit.

I have had a protracted exchange today with the agent who keeps telling me I need to register the deposit with TDS. I keep repeating that I've done this and have sent them the certificate but they just don't seem to understand. They keep telling me that the deposit is registered to them and that I need to register it in my own name! They even told me to look on my certificate for their TDS reference which clearly isn't there as it's MY certificate!

AAAARGH!!!!   

Next stop, the ombudsman.

Hi there,

This is so frustrating! You should definetely report to Ombudsman. Also check if they are registred with ARLA or similar.

It seems to me that there was probably some miscommunication and they might have also registered it themselves not knowing you were going to do it as well. Of course they now want to keep it so that they can earn interests on the deposit.
Or they are just dishonest and never intended to secure the deposit in the first place.

I am assuming you are registred with RLA, so have a discount with TDS, but if this is your only property you might be better of with a custodial scheme instead.
Here some more information http://bit.ly/LF1_tenancy_deposit

Hope this helps and good luck on sorting this out.

Lais from RentSquare
Rent made simple.
www.rentsquare.io

This matter seems to be finally resolved after following the agent's complaints procedure.

It would appear that instead of looking at the TDS certificate I sent to them five times, they were actually looking at their own certificate held on file. I did say their admin was next to useless.

The money should be in my account shortly but I'm not holding my breath!

Ditch these nomarks.  God knows how they sleep at night.

Incompetants the lot of them.