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

moromir

mellymeep wrote: »

I have evidence of other misconducts of the letting agents and the landlord himself for example....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.

Regarding this is your property an HMO or new build? I was under the understanding that the LL and LA are under no obligation to provide fire alarms, and even if they are in the property already, are under no obligation to ensure these work, unless ofc it was new build or an HMO?

wheresmydoshat

i'm always well prepared when it comes to these things. basically landlords are so greedy, that they rely on your deposit to spruce the place up again in order to rent it out again.

this is totally unfair, and more so the longer you have been living there.

if i have been anywhere more than 2 years, i would expect the landlord to have to give the place a paint etc. i certaintly wouldn't be paying for anything other than serious damage.

my partner had her landlord decorate BEFORE telling her, so they couldn't even argue that the place had been in a fit state.

best way to deal with this is to go all out attack from the start, telling the agents that you expect all of your deposit back, as the place has been well looked after considering how long you've been there etc etc.

themanbearpig

If the money isn't in a bond, threaten to seek 3x the deposit, as you can do by law!

The land lord sounds like an absolute scum bag. Screw him over as much as you can.

mellymeep

Well I went to the student union today and we've started the ball rolling towards court proceedings after contacting all three scheme's and finding no record of it ever being placed into one. The SU guy was really helpful and he said that we're probably going to have a long road ahead of us (he does this every year and its always the same companys) but if we don't stop fighting then i'll get justice.

Troubled_Joe

Yours is the exact kind of scenario that prompted the requirment for deposits to be protected.

I've seen a couple of clients who are "good" landlords be stung through ignorance in not protecting their deposits and have felt rather sorry for them (particularly where the tenant has suffered no loss).

I've got no sympathy for this one though. Best of luck with the claim.

bc3000

Pretty much the exact same thing has happened to me that has happened to you! Except I do know the landlord, and there were some damages done to the house but not on purpose- sat on a plastic chair and it broke, opened cupboard and the screw was loose so it came off, etc... Anyway don't think they've put our deposit in a deposit scheme. Good luck with your claim- don't really know where to go from here...

mellymeep

Just thought I'd let anyone who was interested know that I received a call today from the my deposits people, and our arbitration was ruled in our favour We're receiving every penny of our deposit back because the landlord couldn't provide suffcient evidence to back up his claims. (After originally thinking it wasn't in a scheme, after my letter to the letting agents they told me that they'd written down the wrong address to protect it under, and it was under thier names and not any of us tenants!!! completely useless)

I'm so happy! We were totally at a loss contacting him personally, I thought we would be able to settle it without having to go through the scheme and make him lose money, but he refused to pay us back any more than £100 each so I had no choice.

Would just like to say that for anyone who is worried about not winning their case, we had hardly any evidence to put forward because we were so taken in by our landlord and his apparent niceness on move in day that I thought it would never come to this! Don't lose hope, the people of the protection schemes are on your side.

Just before Christmas as well Couldn't of been decided at a better time.

tbs624

Well done Melly - thanks for taking the time to post an update

EagerLearner

Well done mellymeep, seems too many people are subject to this sort of treatment so well done for fighting the good fight. It inspires others and of course, makes bad landlords aware people *can* fight back now. Of course remember there are lovely landlords and laydeez around too

Looks like in around 12 days we'll be giving notice on our place (to buy a place hooray!), so you can imagine MrEL and I have *everything* crossed re the (protected) deposit :D

rsykes2000

Congratulations Mel. Can you post the name of the landlord here ? Might help people in future who are thinking of renting with them if stories like this that can be backed up are posted 'naming and shaming' people like this. Also, as someone who lives in Leeds, it's nice to know who the dodgy ones are...