deposits
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Features
Safe deposits
Agents are conduits when it comes to cash and in a market that’s gone from bubbling to boiling point, keeping money safe is of paramount importance, says Lisa Isaacs.
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Latest property news
Which? investigation slams industry over rental break clauses and deposits
Consumer organisation has gathered evidence of letting agents and landlords using underhand tactics to prevent tenants moving out of properties.
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Features
Landlords, tenants and the non-existent deposit
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) Katrine Sporle reviews a complaint from a landlord concerning an agent saying a tenant had paid the deposit, when no deposit had been paid.
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Features
Deposits are deposits!
"Landlords complained that the agent used a deposit as rental payment. Further rent payments were missed and eventually the landlords won a possession order. However, says Katrine Sporle, The Property Ombudsman, they did not accept that the agent acted properly."
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Features
Dawn of a new kind of tenant deposit
Finding a deposit to buy a home is beyond the reach of many young people, but, says Andrea Kirkby, finding a deposit on top of the first month’s rent is also tough for many - something that the new generation of deposit replacement schemes hope to address.
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Latest property news
More smaller agents will ‘dip into’ tenant deposits after fees ban, predicts Romans
The number of independent letting agents who illegally dip into tenant deposits to support their struggling businesses is set to rise, 30-branch South East sales and letting agency Romans has predicted. Its punchy comments are within an unusual blog on its website that likens errant agents to character Walter White in US TV drama Breaking Bad. The agency says that when the Tenant Fees Bill becomes law next year many independent agents will lose a “sizeable chunk” of their income and therefore start looking for ‘short cuts’. “If the recent behaviour of misusing client money is anything to go by, the amount stolen will increase further putting more and more landlords at risk,” the blog says. No agent sets out to be a rogue deposit dipper, Romans argues, but a series of bad decisions leads to it happening. “Whilst watching an episode of Breaking Bad, it suddenly occurred to me, like Walter White, other agents hadn’t started out with bad intentions, they are victims of circumstance,” explains Romans’ Lettings Managing Director, Richard O’Neill (left). “All agents (hopefully) start out with good intentions [and] they want to do the right thing for landlords and tenants alike. However, just like Walter White,…
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Features
Will deposits reform achieve its intended goals?
Debate rages, frustration grows, but, says Andrea Kirkby, is the proposed legislation really a force for good?
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Latest property news
Fake letting agent who scammed £10k off tenants is tracked down after going on the run
A fraudster who posed as a fake letting agent and pocketed £10,000 in deposits for properties he did not have permission to rent has been arrested after more than a month on the run. As we reported in December last year, James Bennett (pictured, right) was sentenced to six years in jail at the Inner Crown Court during a trial at which he faced 17 counts of fraud. The 32-year-old had listed numerous properties on SpareRoom.com over a 12-month period ending in December 2016, asking potential tenants for deposits for properties he did not own or manage, and pocketing the cash. Many tenants did not find out about the scam until they turned up at the properties to move in, only to discover that they were not available to rent. The listings were for four properties Bennett had lived in within south London and had fraudulently advertised to rent out while he was waiting to be evicted. In total Bennett took 17 deposits each worth £725 from tenants who were often so desperate to find accommodation in the capital that they made easy targets for his scam. Bennett was arrested in November 2016, made a full admission during a police…
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Latest property news
House prices to rise by just 1% this year, says leading lender
House prices will rise by just 1% this year, the latest house price report from the Nationwide reveals, returning to growth only in the “the longer term”. The lender says the average house price increase last year was 2.6%, down from 4.5% during 2016 as housing affordability problems and mounting pressure on household incomes continued to put the brakes on activity within the property market. Despite this, during 2017 all regions of the UK experienced house price gains except London, where they dipped by half a percent. “The major surprise during 2017 was undoubtedly the slowdown in London house prices. It’s been 13 years since the Capital sat at the bottom of the house price growth table, and since then we have seen prices surge to unprecedented and unaffordable levels,” says Alex Gosling, founder of HouseSimple.com (pictured, left). “Fortunately, there’s no longer the reliance on the London market to prop up the rest of the country. Growing regional business hubs have seen other major UK cities prosper, while London has suffered as property prices have become unaffordable for the majority. The West Midlands was the top performing region in the UK last year for house prices, where they rose by 5.2%…
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Latest property news
Rental deposit scams stole nearly £1m off tenants during 2017, says campaigner
Rental deposits protection campaigner and insurance-based scheme operator Ajay Jagota (picture,below) has claimed that £926,000 in deposits has been stolen from tenants during 2017. The figure, which only shows the tip of the iceberg because it only reports reported cases, reveals that 25 landlords and letting agents were convicted this year of stealing various amounts ranging from a few hundred to, in one case, £130,000. The most common way deposits are taken illegally is through simple scams – people posing as landlords or letting agents and then taking deposits for fake properties or homes they haven’t been instructed to market or have the authority to rent out. A good example of this is James Bennett, who was sentenced to six years in prison last week after conning at least 17 people in South London out of £10,000 in total using this method. Rental deposits Bennett, who failed to appear in court and is now on the run, used listings on SpareRoom.com to advertise rooms to rent in Brixton, Walworth, Clapham, Elephant & Castle and Tooting despite not having permission to do so. In each case he was staying at the property but, prior to being evicted, advertised the rooms to…
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