Playbook, estate agency
The money in question is usually not the agency's money
Refund is the wrong word for nearly everything it is used for in this trade, and the wrongness is not pedantry. It decides who can return the money, how long it takes and whether it comes back at all. A tenancy deposit sits with a protection scheme. Rent paid in advance sits in a client account that is not the agency's own funds. A charge for an inventory or an energy certificate has already been spent on somebody who has already done the work. And commission cannot be refunded because it has not been paid.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for refund requests holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The largest sum anybody asks about is the tenancy deposit, and that is not the agency's money to give back: it sits under a protection scheme, its release follows the scheme's process, and the agency alone does not decide the outcome.
- Rent taken in advance for a tenancy that never starts is client money held separately from the agency's own funds under client money protection arrangements, which changes both who is allowed to return it and how the transfer is made.
- Several charges pay a third party who has already turned up and done the job, an inventory clerk, an energy assessor, a referencing provider, so the cost was incurred at the moment of instruction rather than at the moment of completion.
- Commission is not refundable in the ordinary sense because it is earned on completion, so a seller who asks for it back is nearly always asking about an abortive or withdrawal charge instead, which sits in a different clause of a different document.
How it arrives
- when will you send back the rent i paid
- i paid for an energy certificate and the sale fell through
- do i get anything back if i change my mind
- who pays the money back you or the scheme
- how long does money take to come back
- can you refund the inventory charge
What has to be indexed for this to work
| What the agency itself holds, and what it does not | A plain list separating money in your client account, money passed to a protection scheme, and money already paid to a supplier. Almost every argument in this area is really a disagreement about which of these three a payment fell into. |
|---|---|
| Your client account arrangements and payment timing | That client money is held separately, the protection arrangement you have, when transfers are run and how long a return takes once approved. Timing is the part people chase, so publishing it removes the chasing rather than the wait. |
| Charges that pay a third party, and the point they stop being returnable | Inventory, check in, energy assessment, professional photography, referencing. For each one, say when the cost is incurred, because the answer is almost always earlier than the client assumes and that is the whole dispute. |
| The deposit release route, described as the scheme's process | How a release is proposed, what happens if the parties disagree, and where the adjudication sits. State that this is the scheme's procedure rather than yours, so nobody reads a timescale as a promise the agency made. |
The reply
It depends which payment you mean, because they behave very differently. A tenancy deposit is held by the protection scheme rather than by us, so its return follows the scheme's process and we cannot simply send it back [1]. Rent paid in advance is client money and is held separately, and the page sets out when transfers run [2]. Charges like the inventory or the energy certificate pay somebody who has already done the work, so those are treated differently again. I have no access to any account or payment, so tell me your name, an email and which payment you mean and the accounts side will look at the actual figures.
It refuses the single word refund and replaces it with three named categories, which is the only way the rest of the reply makes sense. Saying the deposit is not ours to send is a fact rather than a deflection, and tenants generally accept it once it is stated. The limit is put in terms of access to accounts, which is concrete and stops the follow up asking it to look again.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor names an amount, a date they paid, a property, or says the money has not arrived.
I cannot see any payment, any account or any deposit, so anything I said about yours would be a guess. Send me your name, an email and roughly when the payment was made and the accounts side will pick it up and check.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say money will be returned, since the assistant cannot see whether it was received, what it was for, or whether anything is set against it.
- Never describe a deposit release as a refund from the agency, because that implies the agency is holding it and can decide, and it is neither.
- Never give a timescale for a payment that a protection scheme controls, as the scheme sets its own and a wrong figure becomes the agency's broken promise.
- Never state that a third party charge is refundable unless the published terms say so, because the supplier has already been paid and the money is not sitting anywhere to return.
Questions
- Can it check whether a payment went out?
- No, and it has no route to. It cannot see an account, a ledger or a transfer. Everything it does here is explaining categories and timings from a published page, then taking a name so somebody who can see the figures picks it up.
- Is it worth publishing when a charge stops being returnable?
- It is the highest value sentence on the page. The inventory clerk was booked and attended, the assessor drove out, and clients assume the cost lands at completion. Saying when it is actually incurred converts an argument into a fact somebody read beforehand.
- Tenants think we are sitting on their deposit. Does this help?
- It helps if the wording is specific. Saying it is protected sounds like a formality. Saying it is held by the scheme, released through the scheme's process, and not in the agency's account is the sentence that changes the tone of the conversation.
Keep reading
- Everything for a estate agencyViewings, fees, referencing and deposit rules are answerable at any hour. Valuing a property or discussing an offer is not.
- Handling refund requests in generalA refund question is really about eligibility and timing. What to index, what the reply may promise, and where it has to reach a person.
- Two documents, and neither of them behaves like a billA rent statement is a record of deductions, and the seller's commission invoice is usually settled by a conveyancer out of the sale.
- Insurance questions from landlords, and the line before adviceA residential policy is rarely written for a let property, and rent guarantee turns on the referencing outcome rather than the landlord.
- What an overnight reply is allowed to promiseEnquiries land long after the branch has locked up. What an overnight reply can honestly promise about Monday, and what cannot wait for it.
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