Put it down to experience?

Reply to the comment left by Suresh Parikh at 06/07/2022 – 10:51
To be fair to Ian he did say you’d need to read the agent’s ToB to know definitively.

Ultimately the buck stops legally with the landlord.

If the landlord’s contract with the agent required the deposit to be protected by the agent, but they failed to do so, then they are in the wrong contractually, but it’s up the the landlord (not the tenant) to pursue the agent.

If dealing with the deposit is silent in the contract then the agent presumably has no liability.

As a long term landlord and agent I find it odd that an agent would not set out how to deal with a deposit, but perhaps I am not surprised. It makes we wonder what actually happened to the cash – is there more to the story than we are being told?

Thank you.
I regret you have not understood my comment.
Let us assume under the ToB, the Agent is not allowed or authorised to take a deposit.
Or, simply, he just not deal with deposits.
He then knows the limit of his express/implied authority.
To use neutral words, in taking a deposit, he is not off the hook.

Unless Tom fills in the gaps I am not sure that speculation is profitable.

If I did not have a managing agent I would not expect the letting agent to have the account with DPS or TDS but to have it in the landlord’s name.

Did the agent take the deposit towards his 10% plus VAT commission for finding a tenant?

Perhaps I’m missing something amongst all the great and good looking to take a pitch at the agent, but wouldn’t the matter of the tenancy deposit and the scheme in which it is lodged or registered with, be set out in the tenancy agreement which the landlord either should have or, failing that, can request ?

Hi Nigel
We are in the realm of law, and have to be careful of the words we use.
A tenancy agreement is between the landlord and the tenant.
In this thread, we are using Terms of Business (ToB) for any agreement between the Landlord and the Agent.
Hope this helps.
Yes, my AST does give all details about the deposit.
I tell all my prospective tenants that the deposit is their money and the law makes me responsible for it. You have to pay me the deposit and not to the Agent. You may pay first monthly rent to the Agent.

The Lettings Agent always transfer the Deposit and the First months rent to me before the commencement of the tenancy.
I can’t understand why a landlord would work this way