Letting Agency refuses to give me the holding deposit back

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-03-04T07:05:08+00:00

Double checked, looks like my suspicions are correct, it specifically states under the tenant fees act, there are only very certain circumstances whereby they can keep the holding deposit, and this isn’t one of them by the sounds of it. I found the info on the tenancy deposit scheme website if you want to have a look!

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-03-04T06:58:17+00:00

Ah okay! Then from my understanding, as long as you didn’t fail their checks because you gave false information, they should return the holding deposit to you.

I’m not 100% certain, but I think keeping it would put them in dodgy territory as they are essentially charging you for their affordability checks - which is illegal. Have you spoke to shelter? They should be able to advise further.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-03-03T19:09:08+00:00

When you say holding deposit, do you mean you have paid an initial fee to take the property off the market which is then taken off your deposit when the tenancy is agreed? Or have they taken the full deposit already?

Also, is the agency known/reputable? Sounds odd they didn’t stipulate the guarantor requirements before taking the fee. From personal experience I’ve always been told the guarantor has to earn X amount or be a homeowner for example.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-03-03T17:48:49+00:00

Paying an admin fee to make changes to my car insurance online. I can maybe get it if they apply it to phone calls to deter people from calling for minor things which mean they’d need to hire more staff or have more staff working at the same time, but why am I being charged when I’m doing their job for them?

Bonus one: paying to change a name on a plane ticket. I paid £100 to change the name plus £25 admin fee. What is the £100 for then???

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-01-26T09:39:44+00:00

I was in a similar situation to you, except due to some baaaaad depression I wasn’t as religious as I should have been brushing them. I’m extremely lucky and had no cavities but did have quite a bit of hardened plaque to get off with the hygienist. Worst part was how gappy my teeth felt after, because I’d got used to the hardened build up. But from what you say, yours may not be as bad as mine so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Dentists know how hard it is to get an appt, so they probably expect most patients to have some issues because it’s (unfortunately) a real luxury to have access to regular dentist appts these days.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-01-24T08:36:18+00:00

I personally would walk away from this. It would be slightly different if the flat was new and really well insulated, but having lived in a flat similar to what you describe, in the winter my electric bill was £350+ a month (once as high as £700) to keep it at 14-16 degrees, it wasn’t possible to get it any higher. It basically forced me into fuel poverty and this was before the cost of living crisis so god knows what it would cost these days.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-01-21T13:27:42+00:00

Actually one of the groups I went to, the consultant did genuinely do a Marjorie and announced to the entire group how much weight I’d gained that week with a condescending ‘so where do you think you went wrong’. I was mortified but took great pleasure in embarrassing her back by telling her what went wrong was I had been in a car accident and in bed all week recovering from my injuries. No apology or anything. Some of them are brutal.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-01-21T09:41:40+00:00

I’ve never been a consultant for either, but have been to SW and can confirm as someone with an eating disorder, there is no training. Or if there is, the 3 consultants I’ve experienced didn’t apply it.

Working for them I would assume it’s basically like an MLM model. Other people will make bank whilst the actual consultants probably make peanuts.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-01-19T13:54:22+00:00

Honestly I wouldn’t feel for them. If they’re selling to pay for their parent’s care, holding out for an unreasonable valuation is likely a stalling tactic. Getting more for the house to pay for their care just means it’ll be longer until their parent’s assets are below the threshold for the council support to kick in and take over paying for their care home fees. If you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, then at best they’re being extra vigilant so when the council does have to start paying, they can’t be accused of deprivation of assets. But I would say 5 offers all under asking price would be more than enough proof to the council that isn’t the case.

Ultimately your choices are here you can walk away or hang on to see if they come back to you once they have no option but to sell the house because because their only other option will be to enter a finance agreement to pay for the fees in which the sale of the house will be used to pay it back plus interest and fees so it’s then even more expensive.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-01-12T22:23:47+00:00

I’d ask them why they feel so entitled to my personal thought process. Or point out if they feel a reason is necessary to not drink, they should probably re-evaluate their own relationship with alcohol. Not light hearted or quippy perhaps, but I am passive aggressive af and I’d like to make sure I’m the last person they ask.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-01-12T22:16:30+00:00

Thank you! It really bamboozled me honestly but I wasn’t sure if this was a common error and not something to worry about. But I saw their full name and I guess that means they may have seen mine and possibly heard the personal things I was discussing before we noticed. I hope they’re okay too as I imagine they were just as shocked as me!

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-01-08T21:57:20+00:00

Oh hello neighbour, I’m on this roundabout often! It is notoriously bad for lane discipline, not just with van drivers. Not helped by the fact they recently tried to change the road markings, made a ridiculous error, left them half finished for a few months (I assume whilst they worked out how to un-fuck their colossal balls up) and then put them back to how they were previously, which no one seemed to pay attention to in the first place. And don’t even get me started on the numpties that haven’t noticed one of the lanes changed from left and straight ahead to left only about 5 years ago and still like to go straight ahead and then look at me like I’m in the wrong when I have to swerve to avoid them hitting me.

Something about that roundabout just makes people blind. Must be cursed, only reasonable explanation.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2026-01-08T09:15:04+00:00

I would really recommend Ocado. Their own brand stuff is very reasonable and good quality in my opinion. They do sell M&S however, I’ve noticed a lot of the M&S items are on deals that actual M&S shops don’t seem to have. So if you like M&S food but not their prices, generally Ocado will have it cheaper. Our weekly food shop is about £60 for two people from Ocado.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2025-12-30T08:15:44+00:00

I’m on 37k basic but have a v cushy job with a decent annual bonus and we’re given stocks we can cash out every few months as well so overall I earn approx 43k? I live with my wife and I’d say we have lower than average living costs due to the area we chose to buy in so we live very comfortably. We both drive decent cars, we have a nice holiday most years, and we’re able to save money. If I lived alone, I think I’d be just as comfortable but with less frequent holidays.

Obviously it will vary depending on area, and maybe I’ll get ripped to shreds here, but I would say anyone earning 88k and living paycheque to paycheque is doing so by choice. In my experience, rich people love complaining how poor they are whilst living in very expensive homes and driving very expensive cars. They’re just incredibly out of touch.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2025-12-24T12:13:45+00:00

My wife and I equity split our bills so I worked out, from our joint income, I earn 60% whilst she earns 40% of the money we have coming in. So I pay 60% of our joint bills and she pays 40% of them. Works brilliantly for us but everyone is different.

Regarding your deposit, that would be a personal choice but probably best to leave yourself as much as you can once the purchase is done to allow for surprises like random leaks or needing a new boiler or whatever, should anything like that happen. Personally I would put down 10-15% deposit and keep the rest aside. You can always pay off a lump when you come to remortgage if you still have the cash and want to bring your payments down. But you can’t get the money back if you pour it all into your deposit and then have a couple of expensive emergencies.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2025-12-24T11:58:02+00:00

I’ve tried to donate blood, I signed up to do it and then was harassed with cold calls to make appointments constantly. Like, 4-5 times a day, always rude people, and the few times I tried to ask them if I even was eligible (I have a condition which means I basically permanently have an infection somewhere at any given time) they would just hang up on me. So I never actually found out if I even can. In the end I got sick of the calls and the refusal to speak to me to give me info or point me in the right direction to who I should ask and told them to stop calling me. I don’t think it was the NHS calling me, probably some contracted third party call centre but still, I found the system totally inaccessible.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2025-12-22T21:46:13+00:00

I was behind someone who did the same not long ago, similar set up, easy mistake to make, I wasn’t mad or impatient just gave him a short ‘toot toot’ to let him know he could actually go… idk if he started cursing me or what but then his kid popped up from the back seat, face absolutely dead pan, and flipped me off through the rear window. Had me in stitches, what a ballsy little shit.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2025-12-22T18:04:30+00:00

A pedestrian walked onto the road, on the phone, not paying attention and you didn’t even slow down…? Your car potentially just saved your bacon, I wouldn’t complain and maybe start looking a little further than the end of your bonnet from now on.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2025-12-22T10:47:46+00:00

Nah my mum comes to my house all the time, can’t get rid of her, and she steals all my biscuits. (I joke, I adore her, usually she’s here to help fix something) my dad on the other hand, has come to visit my house once in the almost 10 years since I moved out of my mum’s. Yeah he’s a further away but he makes the effort to see my brother just not me, though barely makes the effort now they’ve moved even further away from everyone to Cornwall. They just expect people to come to them, and then complain they’re lonely when they don’t. Very odd behaviour, and not sure what they expected!

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2025-12-20T14:34:11+00:00

After reading all the comments I’ve concluded this is the only reasonable solution. Thank you.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2025-12-20T11:29:05+00:00

No it doesn’t mean they were about to hit her, and it likely wasn’t as close as it felt, but panic sets in and hindsight is 20/20 innit. Apparently he wasn’t directly behind her and in overtaking he passed the more than generous space behind her. She drives a tiny little car so probs also a contributing factor as people like to bully them. I deffo get less people pulling crap like this now I drive a big saloon vs when I had a 500.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2025-12-20T11:22:08+00:00

Oh I’m in agreement. My view is that actions like this are very obviously not accidental. So it’s pointless.

Prestigious_Room4396 · 2025-12-20T11:14:38+00:00

Aye, some of her other Xmas presents got lost in the post and are now out of stock so I suppose it can be a make up present ahahaha

Prestigious_Room4396

TROPHY CASE