ex tenant's deposit missing- any advice please?

[Cathpot]

Just had upset phone call from our tenant who moved out about 6 weeks ago as we are selling the property. We checked the flat and instructed the estate agents who were holding her deposit to give it back in full. They said they would. After a couple of weeks when she had heard nothing and tried to contact them to no avail she rang me. I then tried and heard nothing back. It turns out the owner of the agency is filing for bancrupcy and is being investigated for fraud and theft. She got a letter in 2009 and saying that the deposit was being moved from the fund it was held in and either us or the estate agent would tell her where to. She didnt chase it up and we didnt know about it.

What is likely to happen now? Are we liable for her deposit? It would be hard to find at the moment as we are now covering the morgage while we wait to sell.

I feel really badly for her, worried about the money- any advice would be great

Yes

Thanks, off to very quickly educate myself in how the hell you use the small claims system. The estate agents are about 3 hours drive away so we are trying to get hold of people who are not picking up the phone. DH thinking about driving up and trying pestering in person.

Unfortunately, you as landlord are ultimately responsible - this is one of the provisions of the Housing Act 2004 which introduced the TDP schemes.
From the scant information available, I would think it likely that if the deposit were to have ever been protected, it would have been with one of the two 'insured' schemes. The most likely of the two being my|deposits, who have always allowed unaffiliated letting agents i.e. those without Client Money Protection (CMP) to protect deposits with them. As indeed does the new entrant CAPITA.
My advice would be for you to check which, if any, of the 'regulators', they were associated. RICS, ARLA, NAEA, NALS. If they were, then you should have recourse through their CMP provider. If they were unaffiliated, then I am afraid you will not have that protection. This is why all landlords should either insist on their agent using the 'custodial' TDP scheme operated by DPS or ensuring that they only deal with an accredited letting agent (details above) who would provide the safety net of CMP.

Ogg is right.

if you are going to bring proceedings you need to do so against the company not it's owner. you can get details of the co from the we check service of companies house on line for free which will also tell you what the registered office address is. you will need this to fill in the claim form