Deposit Help!

paintpot

Some LL's/LAs ask for proof of bills having been settled but IMO this is unncessary and unenforceable if the bills are in your name. If you don't pay the debt will be attached to you not the property.

You need to read your meters on the day you leave and turn everything off in the property except maybe the boiler to be left on low if that's a stipulation in your tenancy due to current weather conditions. The reading you take should stand if that's the last day of your tenancy. Take a photo of the reading. Leaving a note on the notice board is inadequate but a LA doing a check out should read meters as a matter of course.

If possible, you should suggest that you are there at the checkout.

Ensure you provide the LA with the details of the utility provider and your readings in WRITING, then you are squeaky clean.

Clutton has asked if the deposit is protected is proteced - if it isn't and should have been you have a strong bargaining tool, if it is then the LL or LA cannot unilaterally make a deduction of £200 and you can pursue the matter through the deposit scheme.

GoldenGirl25 wrote: »

Hey everyone thanks for the reply this is a really active forum

I will give shelter a call tomorrow morning.

I wont know if they will deduct the £200 until I get written notice within 10 days after we move out.

I have spoke to eon and arranged that our final bill will be sent to my parents address.

We have put on a notice board in our building that we want readings to be taken on Friday the day before we move out.

I was hoping to buy a laptop with my deposit back

tbs624

paintpot wrote: »

Clutton has asked if the deposit is protected is proteced - if it isn't and should have been you have a strong bargaining tool, if it is then the LL or LA cannot unilaterally make a deduction of £200 and you can pursue the matter through the deposit scheme.

GoldenGirl mentions notification on deposit issues *within 10 days* of moving out, which maybe suggests that the deposit is scheme-registered?

Even if GG's tenancy deposit pre-dates the deposit regs, the LA still cannot unilaterally make a decision on proposed deductions, as the OP can always proceed to the county court under the small claims route.

GoldenGirl - many LAs have a poor understanding of LL&T law and try it on with tenants. If you pay the utility bills then the choice of supplier is up to you. As the others have said, provided an LA/LL knows who the supplier is, it shouldn't matter.For them to be able to justify a £200 deduction they would have to show that costs equivalent to that amount had been incurred by them by you switching away and failing to return to the original supplier.TBH, even if you had failed to notify the LA of your new supplier it takes just a couple of phone calls requesting a Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN) for gas and a Meter Point Administration Number (MPAN) for electriciy to find out who supplies the property.

If you have gone with a cheaper supplier then that's a benefit to any future tenant and, when and if prices alter again, it's no big deal for another switch to be made.

Check whether this LA is a member of ARLA, NALs, OEA etc and make a complaint if necessary. Do you have the name & address of your LL? If you ask the LA in writing for it whilst still a tenant they have to let you have the information within 21 days. You can alternatively check for yourself via the Land Registry, for a couple of quid, and then copy the LL into all correspondence on the issue.

It's a pain when you're busy with the rest of your life but tenants who come up against this sort of nonsense should highlight it by writing to their local MP and to the Housing Minister: you can do it online via http://www.writetothem.com/.

Also send copies to the CAB& Shelter campaigns office, and to the local Council's Private Sector Rentals Team and the Trading Standards Office. It's time LAs were properly regulated and fully reined in on their dubious fee-charging practices but unless Ts make a point of sharing their experiences, it won't happen.

There's another site you may like to post on www.allagents.co.uk - you may even find your LA on there already.

On a wider note, there also seems to be an increasing number of LAs trying to insist that all "their" tenant properties use one supplier "for ease of admin" - note that there is a £ benefit to the LA for doing so, in the same way that individuals get cashback if they switch. "Xxxxxxx Utility Management Solutions" who encompass a specific Energy Group and describe themselves as the "UK's Leading Management Partner for the Lettings Industry" and say :

"The ... schemes are completely free and have been successfully adopted by private letting agents of all sizes along with nationwide franchises. The scheme owes its tremendous success and growth to its ease of implementation, improved administration benefits, the introduction of a new revenue stream and the fact that there is no selling required."

My emboldening - "revenue stream", ie LAs/LLs making money out of removing a T's choice of utility supplier? Sounds a like a form of restrictive practice to me..........

see also

"you will soon find that you get into a routine of "signing up" your tenants to the ... scheme and earn yourself somewhere in the region of £1,200 per annum just for getting the tenants to "sign up" to the scheme!!"

Unfortunately, some of the LA letters to existing T's that I have seen are worded in such a way that many T's will believe they have no choice, and those who sign up to a tenancy after the LA has joined up will usually have a AST clause about remaining with the one supplier.

The scheme will even "help" (interfere?) with setting up water rates and council tax payments. Apart from HMOs, council tax again is usually the responsibility of the T, not the LA or a third party firm.

Pity MSE Martin is so busy with credit crunch issues...........;)