Deposit protection

Cissi

I'm not sure where we stand on this? According to our LA (who don't manage the let, only draw up contracts) our LL had no obligation to register our deposit as we moved in in Sept -05. However, the 1-year AST was last renewed in Sept-07, does this change anything? In Sept -08 we chose not to renew the contract which hence lapsed into a periodic tenancy. We're planning to give our 1 months' notice on the day before rent day as soon as we've exchanged contracts on our purchase (hopefully!)

The LA also waffled something about our rent anyway being "above the level where anything has to be protected" (we're in London so yes, it's high). I haven't been able to find anything about the existance of such an upper limit though, is this true?

princessamy86

No upper limit as far as I am aware, not sure about the obligation to protect though, hopefully a more knowledgeable person will be along soon!

tbs624

Cissi wrote: »

I'm not sure where we stand on this? According to our LA (who don't manage the let, only draw up contracts) our LL had no obligation to register our deposit as we moved in in Sept -05. However, the 1-year AST was last renewed in Sept-07, does this change anything?

There have been mixed results on cases on this one, but IMO any LL who renews a tenancy agreement with a new FT ,but who fails to then register the deposit, is leaving themselves open to a potential action for 3x the deposit. (However, see last para)

Cissi wrote: »

IIn Sept -08 we chose not to renew the contract which hence lapsed into a periodic tenancy. We're planning to give our 1 months' notice on the day before rent day as soon as we've exchanged contracts on our purchase (hopefully!)

What date did the last FT agreement expire? Was your rent due the following day? The reason for asking is that the actual "period" of the stat peridic agreement doesn't always co-incide with the rent day.

Cissi wrote: »

The LA also waffled something about our rent anyway being "above the level where anything has to be protected" (we're in London so yes, it's high). I haven't been able to find anything about the existance of such an upper limit though, is this true?

What your LA will be talking about is the fact that if your rent is £25K ,or above, per annum then your tenancy cannot be under an AST, so escapes the deposit legislation requirements.

Cissi

tbs624 wrote: »

There have been mixed results on cases on this one, but IMO any LL who renews a tenancy agreement with a new FT ,but who fails to then register the deposit, is leaving themselves open to a potential action for 3x the deposit. (However, see last para)
What date did the last FT agreement expire? Was your rent due the following day? The reason for asking is that the actual "period" of the stat peridic agreement doesn't always co-incide with the rent day.

Yes, our rent due date coincides with the first day of our initial tenancy agreement - moved in Sept 5th, rent due on the 5th, last "AST" expired sept 4th 2008 (but see below!)

tbs624 wrote: »

What your LA will be talking about is the fact that if your rent is £25K ,or above, per annum then your tenancy cannot be under an AST, so escapes the deposit legislation requirements.

Really?!? That's the first we've heard of that! Our rent does indeed exceed £25K/annum (4-bed detached house). So how come they made us sign an AST initially then (12 months) and have been pestering us to renew them every year??? Does that mean that we've always technically been on a periodic tenancy? So what does that mean for our deposit - effectively the more you've paid in the less protection you have? We're obviously talking about rather a lot of money here - 6 weeks' rent...

Also, does this mean that if anything goes wrong with our house purchase and we don't give notice now, we can safely give in to the LL this year and "renew" our 1-year "AST" again in September without actually being tied in to it? Yes, he's pestering us again to do so, doesn't even seem to have realised that it wasn't actually renewed last year :rolleyes:

Any idea what implications any of this could have?

tbs624

Unfortunately, LAs who deal with thousands and thousands of £s worth of other folks' money and property do not currently have to have had any training or specific knowledge, submit to any formal regulation or, indeed ,have a modicum of common sense.

Your tenancy falls outside the statutory provisions of the Housing Act 1988 ( which introduced the AST) so both parties would be bound by the specific terms of a non-AST contract/by common law. As a T you are still afforded protection under various laws: for example, if a LL wants to seek repossession, a lthough s/he would not be restricted to the Grounds specified under the 1988 Housing Act, a LL with a non-AST tenant still has to obtain a court order. If you want very specific advice/confirmation contact Shelter 00808 800 4444 or the private sector rentals team at the local council.

Other tenancies that are non-AST include those at a very low rent/ no rent, student tenancies in larger properties, holiday lets, lettings to companies, lettings that include more than 2 acres of agricultural land, those with a resident LL etc.

With your deposit, you still have recourse via the small claims court should the LA/LL start to play dirty with you.Was an inventory done at the start of the tenancy and have you notified any problems with the property in writing?

When you have a date for actually moving out, you could arrange for the LA/LL to call at a mutually convenient time/date a week/10 days before you go to talk through any potential areas of contention. Take photographs of everything when you go, include the meter readings. Give them 10 days to a fortnight to repay or start discussion and then you start pursuing the return of your deposit.

Cissi

Thank you, those are very good suggestions.

Are we still right in assuming that we only have to give one month's notice, given that the last extension contract expired in sept-08?