I have a bit of a potential problem at the moment that I'm hoping someone could give me some advice on.
I've just moved out of a flat that I was renting and because one of my housemates lost his keys we're being told to pay £600 to cover the cost of replacing the keys for the whole building. Not ideal but if this actually happens I know that the housemate will pay this charge himself seeing as it is his keys that were lost.
Anyway, the problem is that the rent we paid was sent as a direct debit from my own personal account with my other 2 housemates paying me their portions each month. I stupidly forgot to cancel the direct debit and sent an extra months rent to the landlords account. The lease is through an estate agents and when I contacted them asking them to kindly let the landlord know of the mistake and get the money returned they said they will only return part of this rent and take out the amount owed for the lost keys and new locks.
Can they do this?
I have argued saying that this is a situation completely different to the matter he is trying to charge us for (which itself is ridiculous) and I have a feeling I am not going to be able to get this back straight away and that it is going to be used as some form of bargaining tool to get us to pay for any claimed expenses from the inventory etc too. Is there anyway I can legally ensure that I get this full rent amount returned to my account with the other matters dealt with seperately?
I'm worried as it is a lot of money and the estate agents have a history of being completely unreasonable.
Any advice welcomed!
I've just moved out of a flat that I was renting and because one of my housemates lost his keys we're being told to pay £600 to cover the cost of replacing the keys for the whole building. Not ideal but if this actually happens I know that the housemate will pay this charge himself seeing as it is his keys that were lost.
Anyway, the problem is that the rent we paid was sent as a direct debit from my own personal account with my other 2 housemates paying me their portions each month. I stupidly forgot to cancel the direct debit and sent an extra months rent to the landlords account. The lease is through an estate agents and when I contacted them asking them to kindly let the landlord know of the mistake and get the money returned they said they will only return part of this rent and take out the amount owed for the lost keys and new locks.
Can they do this?
I have argued saying that this is a situation completely different to the matter he is trying to charge us for (which itself is ridiculous) and I have a feeling I am not going to be able to get this back straight away and that it is going to be used as some form of bargaining tool to get us to pay for any claimed expenses from the inventory etc too. Is there anyway I can legally ensure that I get this full rent amount returned to my account with the other matters dealt with seperately?
I'm worried as it is a lot of money and the estate agents have a history of being completely unreasonable.
Any advice welcomed!
