AIBU to think I have any chance of getting this money back

[Vilanelle]

I am mainly posting here for traffic, I can not find the legal board!

Back in 2007 I rented a flat for 6 months and paid a £530 deposit.

For some reason it has only now sprung to mind that I never received it back so made some enquiries with the letting agency. They said they have found my DPC number with My Deposits and I should contact them.

I do this and they said the deposit was unprotected in 2009 - what does this mean? And that the Agency would have the deposit. The agency are denying any liability to pay this back.

Anyone able to help? Have I left it too long?

Just rang Agency again and they have said that they would have passed the money on to Landlord. That the property file is not even in the archive as it is so old, and they have no way of contacting the landlord.
So I guess that's £530 down the drain!

I'm not 100% sure but yes I imagine it's too late now. Companies have to keep their accounts 6 or 8 years, can't quite remember so there would be nothing to stop the agents saying they don't have the accounts for 2009 anymore so can't give you anymore info.

I could be totally wrong though!!

Yeah sorry you are out of time. That money is gone. Companies keep records for previous plus 6 years and debts can only be chased within 6 years.

So I guess that's £530 down the drain!

Yes but it actually went down the drain 12 years ago and you've been OK

Are you in the UK? I'm not an expert, but, in the UK, financial liability normally expires after six years, so I think you'd be out of time to claim this back - you could check with the CAB, though, before writing it off completely.

@DeathStare Haha, very true! Think I got excited at the thought of an extra £530, especially as I am pregnant!

Oh well. Thank you everyone

Well you are out of time but have you got in writing that they "would have given the deposit to the landlord"? That isn't right... They should have given it to you unless there was a claim for damages but they would have written to you in that case. It sounds like they are accidentally admitting to a mistake.

My Deposits has 2 schemes - custodial (they hold the deposit) or insurance (the agency holds the money but an insurance policy protects the money eg if they go into liquidation). If it was custodial, My Deposits will know where the money went. I am guessing from "it was unprotected in 2009" means it was an insurance policy for money held by the agent and they stopped insuring it in 2009. So reading between the lines, the agency forgot about your deposit for all that time. Why don't you get more info from My Deposits about what type of scheme it was in and what happened in 2009 when it was "unprotected" eg did the agent cancel the policy?

The agent should only have given it to the landlord if there was money claimed for damages/rent arrears. Do you have any emails from the time showing you had no arrears/the check out inventory showing there were no issues? If you have that, you can ask them why they paid the deposit to the landlord? In fact, ask them why they would have done that anyway as it wasn't the landlord's money. And why they still held it in 2009?

I doubt you will have much luck but you can give it a go...