Compliance breach by nation letting chain

[Grampa]

We have just been given a property to manage from a certain nation chain that you see advertised on the TV all the time. We are taking it over with a tenant in situ who has been there a number of years so when the deposit was transferred we were gob smacked to find the amount far exceeded the 5 week limit which was brought in with the Tenant Fee act 2019. 

Any amount over the 5 week amount should have been returned to the tenant a long ago. The landlord and this agent are now at risk of  5K fine and as there is also an additional issue with a prohibited payment also taken by this agency and not returned and any second offence will be a criminal offence. Upon conviction, the penalty is an unlimited fine and a banning order offence under the Housing and Planning Act 2016.  

Now do we tell the landlord of this cock-up by their previous Leating 😉 Agent and potential liability or keep quiet?

 

 

[Carryon Regardless]

My suggestion would be to return all the deposit to the tenant, with an explanation that you as new agent don't hold transferred deposits as the transfer can be too complicated.

Clearly the tenant isn't clued up on this anyway, and most find it too confusing to get their head around. This way they are more likely to enjoy the bonus w/o it raising any questions in their thinking, and then doing any research.

 

[Melboy]

I would go with COR's reply. It makes sense to do this with the minimum of fuss.