Estate agent covering up their severe mishandling of the protection of the deposits?

[PunnyHiker]

I believe the estate agent has made a significant internal error that has resulted in a failure to protect our deposit for at least 2 tenancies but now I am unsure based upon their latest response to our letter before action. They are large estate agent so I want to be sure on a few things.

Context:
There are 4 tenants and 3 separate ASTs involved. Tenants have moved in when the end of that initial tenancy ended and deposits had been transferred between tenants as instructed by the estate agent. The tenancy protection scheme is the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS). The estate agents have provided the prescribed information in each contract. The separate tenancies and tenants are below:

• March 2021-September 2021 - Tenant A & B - Deposit protected correctly
• March 2021-September 2021 - Tenant A & B - Nothing found for the deposit on TDS when searching and after contacting them
• September 2022-September 2023 - Tenant A & C - Nothing found on TDS when searching and after contacting them
• September 2023 - September 2024 - Tenant C & D - Deposit registered date is February 2024, 5 months after tenancy start date.

Deposit:

• The estate agent emailed us in February 2024 chasing for missing payments from our account but we’ve paid everything on time. After some back and forth they dropped the charge as it turned out they had on record a deposit of £1032.69 but our signed AST for this year and the previous one had the deposit as £1125. They then chased us to quickly sign the inventory report which we just ignored as it was from March 2021.
• I think at this point they may have realised the bigger issue and tried to sort the deposit process out.
• During this exchange I realised that our deposit may not have been protected so I requested 4 separate times for the deposit certificate number to be sent over so we and finally they sent one over on the 14th February 2024

This is the strange part is the certificate they sent, the certificate states the below fields and dates as I’ve only lived here since September 2022 and there has been a new AST signed in September 2023 and the registered date seems to imply it was only registered this year despite being received in 2021:

• ‘Beginning on 29th March 2021’
• ‘Ending on or after 28th September 2024’
• ‘Received by Member XXXXX 29th March 2021’
• ‘Registered with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme: 14th February 2024’

Estate agent response and claims:

• The deposit for this tenancy has been protected with the TDS since 25th March 2021, four days before the tenancy began. It will remain protected under this scheme until the tenancy concludes.
• The Deposit Protection certificate you referenced in your previous email states “Registered with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme: 14th February 2024,” which might have caused some confusion, as it suggests the deposit wasn’t registered until February 2024. However, this date merely reflects when the certificate was updated. The same certificate also states: “Received by Member G01488/ 3705::17365 29th March 2021,” confirming that the amount of £1,032.69 was sent to the TDS and has remained protected since that date.

As there were separate tenancies and change of sharer processes I’m not sure if all of this is truthful or they’ve made a significant error and are trying to cover it up and mislead, any advice or comments are appreciated!

Speak to the TDS. And yes, it's a fair amount of detail on here

Sorry! Wanted to make sure all the key things were there, thanks for reading :)

There is a possibility we don't get the deposit back in full, although the property is in a great state so there's that and just the fact they have been predatory chasing for money due to an error they've made so definitely a bit of both.

Thanks for the response!

TDS aren't able to indicate whether it's a breach or not, they keep pushing me to check with the estate agent but of course if they're misleading then I can't get the actual truth :/

Yep we've proved we paid the full amounts and they in turn removed the charge off of our accounts after doing that

If deposits haven't been protected potentially for 2 tenancies then that's a breach of the housing act and we could receive compensation, why wouldn't we? Just like if we broke the law that affected the landlords they could issue an S21 or take relevant legal proceedings against us :)

Ultimately, none of this is your problem. If you have contracted the estate agent to manage the deposits, and ensure they are in the relevant TDS, and have done your utmost to ensure that this has been done, then the estate agent is liable and not you.

Whilst a case may be brought against you as the landlord, you would quickly be able to provide your contract with the estate agent and all correspondence, and subsequently recover any loss from them.

I think you have mistyped A and B in your second bullet under “Context” when you meant C and D?

But if all deposits protected now it really doesn’t matter if a mistake was made on previous tenancies.

Is there a statutory right to fixed compensation? If not, what financial loss have you suffered as a result of the failure to protect? If you have suffered no loss then no damages are payable.

Sorry to clarify, I am the tenant not landlord :)

Thanks for the response!

Yep A and B are correct for the first 2 bullet points, the next 2 are when the change of sharer occurred

As I understand, tenants can take action against landlords for up to 6 years after and considering the deposit appears to be protected late and potentially not protected at all for 2022-2023 there are a few things in play

So there's been no loss to you and your deposit is protected? Is that correct?
You just want to see if you can get some money?

A potential breach of the housing act 2004.

Considering it is such a large estate agent this poor practice shouldn't go unnoticed if it has occurred as described above. I'd have more sympathy if it was an amateur landlord but if there is a large managing agent where this type of thing is their whole world and they want to mislead chase tenants for money they don't owe to cover their poor practices then I think:

1. The estate agent should be disciplined as it affects not only future tenants but landlord too
2. Gives landlords a good reason to avoid this estate agent in the future

You’re confused. You can go ahead and report the failure to protect if there is a regulatory body that deals with this, but nobody is going to pay you any money to reward you for whistleblowing. Claims can only be made by people who have suffered financial loss as a result of the breach. What loss have you suffered?

@HotCrossBunplease I thought you don’t have to suffer any loss,
just the failure to protect deposit within 30 days is the breach and potentially could be refunded the deposit or up to three times the amount. That’s my understanding though.
@PunnyHiker have you contacted Shelter or are you further along in the process? You mentioned a letter before action. BTW I don’t think you’re wrong to pursue this if you believe the deposit hasn’t been protected in the way it should be.

I think you're thinking of something else, the deposit protection rules are quite well documented and most of the time pretty cut dry. This should help you - https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/costs_of_renting/tenancy_deposits/tenancy_deposit_protection#:~:text=means.%5B8%5D-,Time%20limits%20for%20deposit%20protection,see%20Time%20limits%20for%20compliance.

@Breaktimebitches Thanks for your response!

I've used Shelter's guide to help with this yep thanks :)
The confusion is just the estate agent's claims and whether they're plausible or covering up something :/

Yeah, I did ask OP if there was any statutory right to compensation but got no reply. I see it now. Knock yourself out OP.

Ah. It doesn't change anything though unless the landlord is trying to withhold some of your deposit. If they are, and it isn't in a deposit scheme, then they have to give it all back to you regardless.

I couldn't actually make out what your issue was in your original post.

Hi OP, that link you sent says:
A tenant can request confirmation from the scheme administrator that the deposit is being held in accordance with the scheme. The scheme administrator should respond to such a request as soon as practicable.

So it's fairly clear that TDS have a responsibility to confirm this. They can't bat you back to the EAs who are potentially at fault.

If a statutory breach has occurred and you're due compensation then they can't put the onus on you to make the EA admit it - they should be all over this and you may need to escalate a complaint within TDS if that's required to get clarity on whether your money has been held as it should be.

Good luck!

Thanks for the response!

Below is the issue, I'm just a bit confused on the estate agent's claims if I've missed anything :)
england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/costs_of_renting/tenancy_deposits/tenancy_deposit_protection#:~:text=means.%5B8%5D-,Time%20limits%20for%20deposit%20protection,see%20Time%20limits%20for%20compliance.