Am I right in thinking the agents should give back my deposit, not the new tenant?…

[123maco]

As the title says really!
I moved out of a flat share this weekend, my tenancy officially ends this week. The person I was sharing with is extending her lease and finding another tenant.

She isn’t 100% sure who is taking my place yet.

I emailed the estate agents asking about my deposit, and they said they do not release the deposit - I have to sort payment between myself, my flatmate and the new tenant.

Now I won’t know this new tenant from Adam, and yet I have to await their payment. I also have to wait until all the paperwork is done which could take ages.

Seeing as I’ve officially handed over my keys.. I don’t know, but surely this is wrong?

I’ve never rented before so any advice would be great. Thanks

The deposit should have been lodged in a deposit protection scheme, was it? Was your tenancy for your room only or a shared tenancy with someone else for the whole house?

I think it will depend on how the contracts are written

if you have a separate tenancy agreement from the other flatmates then yes you should get the deposit back from the letting agent/landlord and it should be in the deposit scheme under your name - if its not you can report them and they will get fined.

if its a joint tenancy then it might be more normal for the new tenant to replace you and pay you the deposit but still slightly dodgy i would say.

Ahh yes sorry, I should have said. It was a joint deposit for one shared flat.
It just seemed a bit strange that I instead have to rely on a total stranger to pay it back to me.
I just looked at the contract and we are under the protection scheme but there’s no clear explanation of the deposit retrieval

Depends what country you are in

I work for an EA and this sounds a bit odd. Repaying the outgoing tenant is nothing to do with the incoming tenant as it is all separate money. If it is a joint tenancy, then one would end and a new one would start, so we would refund the original deposit and then return it to the people involved and then protect the new deposit in the joint names of the new tenants.

I would ask the agency for a copy of the information that states that the new tenant is responsible for paying you back your deposit and then mention that you are going to check with the Deposit Protection company what should happen in this situation. (You should have been given a copy of the DP when you moved in).

Yes sounds slightly dodgy

If it's a joint tenancy this is correct, the tendency hasn't ended it's been transferred to your flat mate solely and she's finding someone to share with. She owes you the deposit

It’s strange though as the tenancy is ending this week, but the other girl wants to extend her stay. So I’m not breaking any tenancy rules, so surely they should refund my deposit? I could almost understand if I was moving out earlier or breaking the tenancy early

I've been in this situation before and yes they have asked the incoming tenant to pay the deposit to the outgoing. The alternative is everyone is refunded, they sign new contracts (which they will probably charge for) and then they both repay the deposits.

I think the issue is if both deposits were put in the protection scheme at the same time, you can't just take one half out, you have to do the whole thing.

If your flatmate hasn't found anyone to share with yet then it's down to her to refund your part of the deposit really.
DPS will only return a whole deposit, so as someone else said the other option is to break the contract in both names & your flatmate to take a new one out with the new tenant.

If it's a joint tenancy (you both signed the same tenancy agreement not separate ones) then if you've given notice to move out you've ended the tenancy for both of you as long as the initial fixed term of the tenancy is over - this is usually 6 or 12 months. Your flatmate can sign a new tenancy if she wants but that's nothing to do with you.

Is your deposit in a custodial scheme or an insured one? If custodial you can approach the scheme direct to claim your funds back, you don't need to go through the agent. If it's insured then you are reliant on the agent paying you back but if they don't within 10 days of you officially requesting it then you can go to the scheme and ask them to step in. All this info should be on your deposit protection certificate.

I think you need to be clear on all the facts and make sure you've correctly ended your tenancy so you don't end up on the hook for any missing rent if there's a void between you leaving and a new tenant being found.