Surprise, Surprise.. another victim of a greedy landlord refusing to pay back deposit

mellymeep

I knew this was going to happen, after waiting a few weeks from moving out of my old property I have today contacted the letting agents we rented through and the landlords decision has been that we are not to recieve a penny back of our £250 deposit.

The reasons were glazed over, and I have been told that I am to come into the office on Monday to receive a list of the "extensive damages" that we apparently left the house with. Most of which I am guessing will be what was already there (and taken down in the inventory) when we moved in.

I am absolutely fuming because I made sure the house was tidied from top to bottom and left in as good, if not better state than what we found it (which wasn't hard because it was disgusting when we moved in.)

I'm just wondering, despite contacting the agent many times asking for details of the protection scheme our deposits were supposed to be in, I never received any details of this.. is it now too late to start up a small claims procedure because our contract has ended? And if so, short of a long battle against them is there any chance I'll see the money that was stolen from me ever again?

FuzzyMoose

Not at all. As I understand it, even if the contract is up you can still sue your LL for not protecting the deposit

PasturesNew

mellymeep wrote: »

.. is it now too late to start up a small claims procedure because our contract has ended? ...

Thre was a thread here the other day (that I didn't read) that said tenants have up to six years to claim it back. So plenty of time yet to take the scheming bugg4h down.

princeofpounds

Yep, you can still go for it. Hopefully you have all the evidence you will need on the damage issues?

Also remember to check what else you might be able to nail the LL for... gas safety, EPC, tax, HMO license, no permission to lease. For extra leverage in negotiations.

clutton_2

when did you move in ?

tbs624

Mellymeep has posted before about her LL: see http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1190969&highlight=


MM - did you ever actually check with the 3 schemes direct? If you didn't , get them to confirm either way now - google mydeposits (TDSL) , DPS, TDS

A LL has to justify any deductions to you in writing and you can then challenge via the courts or the deposit scheme. if you disagree with him/her.

Was the inventory signed by both parties? Did you take photos when you moved out?

franklee

PasturesNew wrote: »

Thre was a thread here the other day (that I didn't read) that said tenants have up to six years to claim it back. So plenty of time yet to take the scheming bugg4h down.

This one?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1831759&highlight=

Some county court cases reported here to get some idea of what worked and what didn't:

http://nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/tag/tenancy-deposit-scheme/

mellymeep

Yes unfortunately I have had many problems with my landlord since moving into the property in July 2008. And have posted about quite a few of them on these boards.

The main pieces of evidence I have are the inventory we took on the day we moved in,this was signed only by us the tenants as we never recieved back a copy signed by the LA/LL, we didn't take photographs unfortunately so will this hinder our case?

I have evidence of other misconducts of the letting agents and the landlord himself for example letting agents breaching our rights to quiet enjoyment of the property and letting themselves in at any given opportunity to show other tenants round (without prior consent from any of the current occupiers), or in one case just to "check up on us." also have email discussions I had with Leeds County Council on the subject of our fire alarm not working for 6 months while we were in the property, and despite numerous times trying to contact the LA or LL about this just being ignored, so the council had to get involved. When the alarm was finally looked at the landlord came round with builders when no one was in the property (I know this is not illegal as it is the part of the contract which allows the landlord to enter the property under an emergency) but whilst this happened some items went missing from our house (my iPod touch, and my housemates purse) which were reported to the police, when I asked for details of the handymaen that had been contracted to come round the LL or LA refused to give me them.

I'm currently writing out a letter to send to them asking for details of all the supposed damages we were supposed to of left the house with, and for details of the protection scheme our deposits are in (despite already sending a letter of this naure anyway, I want to give them one last chance) gonna send it recorded delivery and give them 14 days to reply, if they don't I'm guessing I can just start up the claim? Do I just contact my local county court to do so?

clutton_2

melly - unless you have an inventory that is signed by both parties you may find it difficult to prove in court that you did/did not do damage whilst you lived there.

if you find that your deposit is in a Scheme - you can use their arbitration service to make a decision on its return to you.

if you are taking your LL to court for recovery of deposit for repairs - the judge may not want to discuss any other matters such as breaches of your quiet enjoyment

mellymeep

I thought that would be the case, but that was the landlords fault as he never sent back the copy signed by himself.

Yeah I know I'll not discuss other matters because they're not as strong a case as not having a deposit in the scheme. I've drafted up the letter to send to the letting agents if people could say if its suitable that would be a real help

Dear Sirs,

Further to your telephone conversation with Eleanor Shaw on the 23rd July 2009 I am writing to you to discuss the nature of this telephone call. You informed Eleanor, and us as previous tenants of 155 Victoria Road that we were not to be receiving our deposit back due to damages to the house. I would like to request you send by post a list to me of all the damages that we were supposed to of left the house with.

I would also like to request details of the protection scheme our deposits are under, so I can contest this under them. And would like to remind you that as part of the Housing Act 2004, since April 6th 2007 all deposits taken for Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) needed to be placed into a protection scheme within 14 days of receipt. And that Landlords have the legal obligation under the Prescribed Information Order to supply this information to the tenant within fourteen days of receiving the deposit, something which we never received. If the deposits were not protected under a scheme then I refer you to information from the rightgov website.

1. Payment to the Tenant

Tenants can make an application to a County Court under Housing Act 2004 if they believe that their deposit is not being safeguarded, or where they have not been given the prescribed information about the scheme in which the deposit is safeguarded within 14 days of the landlord receiving the deposit.
Where the court is satisfied that the landlord has failed to comply with these requirements, or the deposit is not being held in an authorised scheme, the court must either order the landlord to repay the deposit within 14 days of the making of the order, or order the landlord to pay the deposit to the custodial scheme administrator.
The court must also order the landlord to pay the tenant three times the deposit amount within 14 days of the making of the order.
I give you 14 days to reply to this letter via post and I request that if possible you can forward this on to our landlord as we were also never given contact details for him.

Yours Faithfully,
Melanie Welsh

clutton_2

""I would like to request you send by post a list to me of all the damages that we were supposed to have DONE - AND A COPY OF THE PAID INVOICES TO REPAIR THOSE DAMAGES WITHIN 7 DAYS.

FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN OUR TAKING OUT COURT ACTION FOR RECOVERY OF OUR DEPOSIT

Head the letter "Letter Before Action "