Letting agent gone with my deposit?

ben bedlam

Hi,
I went to Dublin last week looking at a nice apartment with a letting agent. After being impressed with the property, I put a €700 deposit down. The agent wrote me a receipt for my deposit. However, I later online found better accomodation for me, and the following day I tried to contact the letting agent for the return of my deposit. However, their phone continually goes to voicemail. I have left countless voicemessages, emails, and texts to the agent since last week and not one bit of communication from him. I'm really worried that he has actually "done a runner" with my deposit, money that took me a long time to gather. I feel so stupid for parting with so much money of my own accord. What on earth should I do, as this has really upset me and I literally don't know where to go from here

Mr. Presentable

Call in to his premises. It is unlikely he has done a runner just because he got your small amount of cash.

Mr. Presentable

It occurs to me also that he may no longer have your money, as he is only an agent, it may have been paid to his client already.

ben bedlam

Mr. Presentable wrote: »

Call in to his premises. It is unlikely he has done a runner just because he got your small amount of cash.

I don't have an address for him, I contacted him through Daft and only have an email and phone number, both of which I am being ignored on

Zamboni

ben bedlam wrote: »

I don't have an address for him, I contacted him through Daft and only have an email and phone number, both of which I am being ignored on

Post the link from Daft here.

Mr. Presentable

How did you pay him and get a hand written receipt?

Do you not lose your deposit if you decide not to take the property?

Itsdacraic

Could this not be the old scam where somebody manages to show an apartment that isn't actually theres to let out, gets a few viewers on the same day, collects deposits from all of them, then disappears?

Juwwi

Why not get a friend to ring and arrange a viewing on the property and then u turn up at the time.

PCPhoto

robbie1977 wrote: »

Why not get a friend to ring and arrange a viewing on the property and then u turn up at the time.

report the matter to the gardai - and get a member (garda) to join your friend at a viewing, you can identify him to the garda.

its possible that you have been scammed and could have lost your €700, its also possible that the management company or letting agent had some personal issues and was not available to take calls/emails over the last few days (could have been a close family member die unexpectedly or something...who knows???)

RATM

Just out of interest- do rental deposits have a cooling off period during which the tenant can change their mind and get the deposit back without fuss?

ben bedlam

I got my friend to email and phone the letting agent, and no word either

Zamboni

Two choices really.
Hunt him down and 'retrieve' your €700 or live and learn.

jmayo

ben bedlam wrote: »

I don't have an address for him, I contacted him through Daft and only have an email and phone number, both of which I am being ignored on

Was that just a mobile phone number by any chance ?
Please tell me you didn't pay him cash ?

Itsdacraic wrote: »

Could this not be the old scam where somebody manages to show an apartment that isn't actually theres to let out, gets a few viewers on the same day, collects deposits from all of them, then disappears?

My thoughts as well.

testicle

Deposits are not refundable just because you changed your mind.

Bigcheeze

testicle wrote: »

Deposits are not refundable just because you changed your mind.

Presumably the deposit was paid subject to a lease which has not been signed.

bath handle

Bigcheeze wrote: »

testicle wrote: »

Deposits are not refundable just because you changed your mind.

Presumably the deposit was paid subject to a lease which has not been signed.

If that is the case the deposit is refundable on a change of mind. Howlin v Power 1978 high court

ben bedlam

No lease has been signed, I merely put the money down as a deposit. And I did pay cash (you can't make me feel worse than I already do). He has another property listed on daft and as I said earlier I got a friend to email and phone him about it, but he is still uncontactable. Tried calling again today and nothing. Like an earlier poster said, I tried to take into account that maybe he had a berevement etc. but surely in such a case the least he could do was text me.

Zamboni

ben bedlam wrote: »

No lease has been signed, I merely put the money down as a deposit. And I did pay cash (you can't make me feel worse than I already do). He has another property listed on daft and as I said earlier I got a friend to email and phone him about it, but he is still uncontactable. Tried calling again today and nothing. Like an earlier poster said, I tried to take into account that maybe he had a berevement etc. but surely in such a case the least he could do was text me.

Post a link to one of the ads???

paul71

Zamboni wrote: »

Post a link to one of the ads???

No dont, if this is a case of theft, he could be alerted by that sort of attention. Contact the Guards immediately.

Zamboni

paul71 wrote: »

No dont, if this is a case of theft, he could be alerted by that sort of attention. Contact the Guards immediately.

No disrespect to the OP but the Gardai have better things to be doing than worrying about than €700.
As I said earlier, he can get the money back himself in person or he can move on and forget about it.

paul71

Zamboni wrote: »

No disrespect to the OP but the Gardai have better things to be doing than worrying about than €700.
As I said earlier, he can get the money back himself in person or he can move on and forget about it.

€700 multiplied by how many victims if it is a scam.

Tigger

RATM wrote: »

Just out of interest- do rental deposits have a cooling off period during which the tenant can change their mind and get the deposit back without fuss?

2 weeks

ballsymchugh

Zamboni wrote: »

No disrespect to the OP but the Gardai have better things to be doing than worrying about than €700.
As I said earlier, he can get the money back himself in person or he can move on and forget about it.

you may feel that, but 700 is still a lot of money to a lot of people, and the OP should definitely contact them if he suspects somethings amiss.

petes

Zamboni wrote: »

No disrespect to the OP but the Gardai have better things to be doing than worrying about than €700.
As I said earlier, he can get the money back himself in person or he can move on and forget about it.

I'm sorry, what?

Penguino

Post the link

At least it will inform other renters and hopefully prevent it from happening again

Also maybe contact the ad agency (DAFT) and ask for the details of who paid for the ad. You have to pay for each ad posted by credtit card so they should have his full details

Itsdacraic

Any update on this?

BMSF

Any update?

Would like to know as will be renting soon and they only place we've been looking is daft. Quite wary now.

Zamboni

BMSF wrote: »

Any update?

Would like to know as will be renting soon and they only place we've been looking is daft. Quite wary now.

Nothing wrong with Daft.
Just make sure you are not a complete idiot who hands cash over to strangers for nothing.

bigneacy

Zamboni wrote: »

Nothing wrong with Daft.
Just make sure you are not a complete idiot who hands cash over to strangers for nothing.

Zamboni, you're being very harsh to the OP. Calling him a complete idiot is completely uncalled for. He made a mistake, but its hardly right to rub his nose in it.

Any update OP?

Zamboni

bigneacy wrote: »

Zamboni, you're being very harsh to the OP. Calling him a complete idiot is completely uncalled for. He made a mistake, but its hardly right to rub his nose in it.

I'm sick to my teeth of people making stupid decisions and mistakes and running for help.
The distinct lack of basic 'cop on' in this country's population upsets me to the core.
And, I don't give a fiddlers what you think.
I was just giving BMSF some straight advice.