Holding Deposit Withheld After Reference Check

Landlord Discussion
1

I recently paid a holding deposit for a property listed on OpenRent. The landlord requested bank statements for affordability checks, which I provided. I redacted personal spending information but left all essential details visible: my name, statement dates, income deposits, rent payments, and account balance.

The landlord refused to proceed with referencing unless I provided a fully unredacted statement. He is unable to give me a proper timeline of the decision making and now stated that because I won’t provide the full statement, the holding deposit “won’t be refundable.”

Even after I give the full bank statement, he said it wasnt refundable because Im wasting his time.

2

Contact the Council Trading Standards office and tell them. They have the power to enforce the Tenant Fees Act with regard to holding deposits.

3

@Luqman

if you paid holding deposit via OR, you can ask OR to help. @mod_harry can put you in touch.

Difficult to judge without the detail, but without all the details of all payments, the LL /referencing co can’t really form a full view of your spending habits - for example any debt payments. Just the income, rent payments and account balance isnt enough to know if somebody will be able to afford a future place, is it?

The legal guidance ‘Tenant Fees Act 2019: Guidance for tenants’ says holding deposit can be retained if tenant

“fails to take all reasonable steps to enter into a tenancy agreement when a landlord or agent has done so* “

so if you didnt provide what was needed for referencing in a timely manner you have indeed wasted their time, and they may well be entitled to keep the holding deposit.

Ask your Citizens Advice Bureau or Shelter, who may be able to help. Consider telling LL it is illegal under Tenants Act and they will need to refund and face a large fine if the LA rules in your favour - they may relent. [An enforcement authority can impose a civil penalty if it is satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that a landlord or agent has committed a breach of the tenant fees rules. A civil penalty can be up to £5,000 for an initial breach and £30,000 for any subsequent breach within 5 years”]

Good luck

4

I don’t take holding deposits, but your application with me wouldn’t proceed without a full bank statement. There are just too many other applicants out there who won’t make life difficult for me and with the RRA, I’m more picky than ever about who I’d rent to. Hiding anything in your financials from me would disqualify you immediately.

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5

Probably a scam. Why would he care that you redacted a few entries? Contact the police.

6

Because surely the landlord would want to know what the money your spending us going on lets say you redacted several on line betting payments and a payment to a debt management company these are things that MAY affect your ability to pay your rent therefore causing an issue further down the line and also it gives the impression that you are hiding something- what is it you are paying for that you want kept a secret?

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