We were contacted by Sam this month who was looking for accommodation – he had been served a Section 21 and told he probably would not get his deposit back as he had no paperwork to say where it had been lodged and his landlords managing agent was no more. He had also contacted PCC and been placed on their emergency housing waiting list.
The Detail...
After some research, he had originally signed up as a student tenant with Tenant Network. This was the rogue agency that operated in full sight in the city in spite of the protestations of the University (who did not like Tenant Network staff turning up in purple T-shirts impersonating Uni staff in order to poach students for their own properties) and the council. Eventually the council took action under the 2013 Additional Licensing scheme, deeming the directors of Tenant Network to be unfit – sadly said directors simply restructured the company, appointed new directors and carried on as before.
Tenant Network became Ashbourne which had all of the same issues as its forbear and then finally folded, with it remains being taken over by another local agent.
Is that agent liable for Sam's deposit or is it the landlords problem? As in most cases, that depends on the paperwork and what he/she actually took over in terms of liabilities and we will leave them to sort that out - though at the end of the day, it is always the landlords problem.
For our part, we pointed out that although Sam had been served a Section 21, it would be considered invalid and can be contested if the deposit was not registered or was registered without issuing the prescribed information and scheme leaflet to the tenant - all within the 30 days after the tenant paid it (not before). You would think that was good news as it means someone has to find and refund Sam's deposit in order to go ahead with the eviction but so far, the only thing that has happened is that PCC, on realising the S21 was not valid, removed Sam from the emergency housing wait list.
We would hope this is a temporary measure while the bureaucracy is sorted and once it is and a new S21 is correctly served, PCC will honour its duty to house anyone about to become homeless – but at present, Sam is in limbo with a letting agent and a landlord each pointing at the other and neither taking responsibility and PCC walking away as fast as possible.
We appreciate that reducing wait lists and not spending any more than is necessary on emergency accommodation are big drivers within all councils, but when misdemeanours such as this one happen one would hope that steps would be taken to ensure letting agents know their duties, perform them correctly and are suitably admonished when this does not happen rather than leaving it all to a comparatively naïve tenant to work out what should and should not be. At least alert him to the fact that this is a breach of the landlords responsibilities and claiming the deposit plus compensation is not a complex procedure.