Can't Get Deposit Back From Letting Agent

Bit long winded this one...

We've been renting a place for a few years now, in a small apartment block. When we first rented it, it was rented off a company, but through "Letting Agent A". We paid our deposit to the Letting Agent A, and all was happy.

A couple of years ago, the company went into receivership, and "Letting Agent B" was brought in to manage the sale/rental of the apartments. In the process of transferring the handling of the apartments, we needed to move our deposit from Letting Agent A to Letting Agent B. This was all fine; we signed a letter to Letting Agent A that they could transfer the deposit to Letting Agent B on our behalf, and we got a receipt from Letting Agent B saying they had received the deposit.

So at this point, Letting Agent B had our deposit, and we paid rent to the receiver.

Fast forward to December of 2013. Letting Agent B was selling the apartment, so we'd have a new landlord. They told us stop paying rent to the receiver, and pay the new landlord instead. We did this in January, and every rental payment has gone to the new landlord since.

The trouble comes in with trying to get the deposit back off Letting Agent B... it's always some excuse... at first it was "the receiver won't release the deposit because you didn't pay January's rent". We pointed out that they told us to stop paying the receiver and pay the new landlord. Now it's "the receiver will post a cheque". We haven't received anything, and the excuse was "our contact in the receiver's office is on leave".

Naturally, I'm a bit pissed off about this. From my point of view, our deposit was given to Letting Agent B, so they are responsible for it, not the receiver. I think blaming the receiver is just making excuses.

So a couple of questions...

• Am I right in saying Letting Agent B are responsible for the deposit, and not the receiver?
• Who do I complain to?
• Letting Agent B is a member of IPAV, so should I contact them?

Michael D Not Higgins

But you say Agent B had control of the deposit. Did they give the deposit to the receiver?

Michael D Not Higgins

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

But you say Agent B had control of the deposit. Did they give the deposit to the receiver?

I think they did.

If they did, does that necessarily mean that I need to wait on the receiver? I figured that whatever Agent B did with the deposit was their business. My business was that I gave it to Agent B, and that as far as I'm concerned they are responsible for it.

Michael D Not Higgins

Uncle Wil wrote: »

I think they did.

If they did, does that necessarily mean that I need to wait on the receiver? I figured that whatever Agent B did with the deposit was their business. My business was that I gave it to Agent B, and that as far as I'm concerned they are responsible for it.

PRTB is your way to go. Open a dispute with them and notify Agent B. It will either kick them into gear or you'll have to wait a few months to get your deposit back (+ damages possibly).

Your agreement was the transfer of the deposit to Agent B. Was there any separate agreement for the transfer to the receiver? This doesn't make sense as Agent A transferred to Agent B who transferred back to Agent A's receiver?

Michael D Not Higgins

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

This doesn't make sense as Agent A transferred to Agent B who transferred back to Agent A's receiver?

Just to clarify this bit... Agent A are still in business, it was the company that owned the apartment that went bust.

Thanks for your help!