Deposit in receivership scenario

womandriver

Does anyone have any experience of getting their deposit returned when a receiver has been appointed to the property? Do receivers tend to pay out if you have proof of deposit? Paid deposit to letting agent. Landlord now in receivership. Letting agent washed hands of deposit, said he paid it over to landlord.

Has anyone had their deposits returned in this situation?

I know tenants are unsecured creditors but do receivers pay out to avoid issues with tenants when they're trying to sell the property? Does anyone have any experience of this one way or the other? Thanks.

ceadaoin.

Well this happened to us last year and we didn't get our deposit back. The receivers said to take it up with the landlord who referred us back to the receiver, both denying responsibility. We broke the lease early and didn't pay the last months rent. I know you're not supposed to do that but we had no chance of getting our €2000 deposit back.

The_Morrigan

It is the landlords responsibility to return your deposit, it has nothing to do with rhe receiver.

MouseTail

Its one of the reasons an independent deposit scheme is in planning. The way things are currently, the only hope you have is to use last months rent as deposit. The LL is long gone, with no hope of giving you back the deposit, and the receivers will just be glad to see you gone, so there are unlikely to be repercussions.

Bigcheeze

Just withhold last month rent equal to the deposit.

womandriver

The_Morrigan wrote: »

It is the landlords responsibility to return your deposit, it has nothing to do with rhe receiver.

Thanks, I know this though, I'm more looking for people's experiences of what happened when they were in this situation. I know it's not unheard of for a receiver to pay the deposit although they're not obliged too, I'm wondering what peoples actual experiences are more than who is legally responsible etc. Thanks.

Sunny Dayz

Hi Op,

We rented a house which was taken over by a receiver. However, we had been renting through a letting agent not directly with the landlord. We recevied the deposit back from the receiver. When we had checked up on the deposit our letting agent told us they passed on the deposit to the receiver and the receiver's office confirmed this. We were in perhaps slightly different situation OP in that we bought the house we were renting from the receiver. We received the deposit as a cheque from the receiver a few days after closing the sale. We never had any hassle in relation to the deposit.

Hope this helps!

paul71

Bigcheeze wrote: »

Just withhold last month rent equal to the deposit.

This is the only set of circumstances where I would agree with this course of action.

Receivers are not interested in returning deposits and a landlord who is in receivership probably does not have the cash to return it.

womandriver

Thanks for the advice everyone who took the time to reply, we have informed the agent appointed by the Receivers that the previous letting agent does not have our deposit to pass on to them and she has said she will inform the Receiver.

So we'll just wait and see what they come back with and then assess our options. The agent has mentioned some forms that the Receiver wants us to sign but won't be signing anything until there is some clarity on the status of our deposit.

Glenbhoy

It's unlikely you'll get your deposit back, if I was in that situation, I certainly wouldn't be paying the last month's rent.

Who is the rent going to at this stage? What are the repercussions of not making payments?

What has the relationship with the receiver been like? Has (s)he been sympathetic, accommodating and pragmatic about your rights thusfar?

womandriver

Glenbhoy wrote: »

It's unlikely you'll get your deposit back, if I was in that situation, I certainly wouldn't be paying the last month's rent.

Who is the rent going to at this stage? What are the repercussions of not making payments?

What has the relationship with the receiver been like? Has (s)he been sympathetic, accommodating and pragmatic about your rights thusfar?

It's only all happened in the last 7 days so we haven't had enough contact with the receiver yet to gauge how they're are going to deal with us.

As (bad) luck would have it we had paid the rent the actual day we found out about the receivership, paid rent to landlord by bank transfer, come home that evening to a letter from the receiver. We've informed the new agent of this, we have proof of payment etc, they just said next rent day we pay to them instead.

Don't know what repercussions would be of not paying. Hoping we won't have to go down the road but I wouldn't rule it out. We've played by the rules and have been good tenants and now we're potentially going to get screwed over through no fault of our own.

Will wait to hear back from the receivers and hope it doesn't come to that, we could do without that kind of hassle.

Glenbhoy

How long have you been there, receivers can be quite accommodating and prepared to deal if you want to renegotiate, if for example they put the house on the market, you could expect a significant reduction to allow and prepare for viewings. Remember the receiver doesn't own the property and is interested in maximising revenue. He won't be able to rent the property again (if it is to be sold), so any rent from u is a bonus, he will also generally be accommodating in asking u to leave, he knows that there may well be legal options (injunctions preventing sale) spring to mind, which could be heard in front of sympathetic judges (and most would be in this situation) which would generate expenses, waste time and cause hassle.
I know of a situation where the tenant and receiver agreed that rent wouldn't be paid for the last three months of the lease on the condition that viewings be accommodated and that the tenants would leave on the day the lease expired.
Every situation is different, but these options should be considered.
Good luck!