tenant has not payed rent but still gets deposit back - this can't be right?!

[reastie]

DHs tenant on his house has had legal proceedings against her and has moved out after not paying any rent since moving in (aside from her deposit).

DHs estate agents have told him he can't have the deposit back unless it's for specific work to the house where the tenant has left it in a worse condition than she should have based on the inventories they have done (eg cleaning where she left it dirty or replacing a blind where she left it broken etc) but the remainder of the deposit will then go back to the tenant despite the fact she hasn't paid any rent. Surely this isn't right???? It seems so unfair that she gets most of her deposit back despite us being so out of pocket and having no rent coming in for 5 months (and it has transpired she didn't pay any bills whilst there and has a whole host of debt companies after her and did the same at her last place (as the solicitor letters that are arriving at the house are telling us) so we have alot of extra paperwork proving she has moved out and we aren't liable for her debts.

Thanks petty . Tenant moved in paying 2 months rent upfront as the deposit (around £1.5k). The agents did all the checks. They said they did a credit check (but would never give us proof of this) and we got a copy of the form the tenant completed giving her job details/past landlord details. We never saw an actual reference from the last landlord but were told it was all OK. Now we know she was chucked out of her last place for the same thing I assume it was all fudged up. I don't blame the agent for this but they have been beyond useless with everything. We are no longer with them! So it sounds like it might not be possible to claim it back. Thank goodness DH had insurance against this tbh. It's odd as DH had never had this insurance with other tenants, the agents added it onto this tenant by accident and DH just went with it, thank goodness he did!

Unless the tenant somehow provided false credit reports and references, the insurance premiums would be very high for someone who had defaulted in the past. So either she was clean (unlikely) or the agency has provided incorrect information to the insurer and they my decide not to pay out.

I have had this happen several times before (tenants left owning rent) and I have always been able to claim the money back from their deposit.
Your agents are spinning you a line.

You can't claim for the insurance excess but you can demand the money for the first half month that the insurance wasn't covering.

I would go as far as to take the tenant to court for the money.
And then possibly the agents for being extremely incompetent.

Sorry for very belated response, we have been on holiday.

lala I believe insurance has already paid out. I'll have to ask DH what it was he paid as I'm not sure. The really odd thing though is DH has never had this insurance before, the estate agents put it on this time we thought either by accident or as a new scheme they have set up for a bit extra revenue. DH decided to keep the insurance despite the guessed mistake to it being added. It makes me seriously now though as to whether they knew/thought this tenant would be trouble (I assume they just want a tenant in so they get their fees?).

weare thing is, the estate agents are saying that the first half months rent IS the excess which is why we can't claim it. I'm not sure how true that is, we are still half a months rent down that she didn't pay.