Ex-Landlord witholding deposit - Help Please

lynzpower

MAir

Also phone your local council and find out if they have a PRivate sector lettngs officer, all LAs are supposed to have one.

Mine was brilliant when I was in the same situation, and they helped us write the letters etc. We got our ( pretty much all ) money back before we had to get to court.

devils_advocate

spend an hour or two reading https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/ Most of these people are professional landlords and don't like cowboy landlords either.

Do a search on 'return of deposits' or something similar and you'll see how to get most, if not all, your money back.

mystic_trev

It sounds like she's withholding the deposit due to "wear and tear" and this is not acceptable - particulary as she had verbally agreed to return the money to you. I agree the Small claims court is the place for this and you should have no problem getting back the majority / all of the deposit.

As a matter of Interest did your Landlord get an Annual Gas safety certificate? If not it might be worthwhile mentioning the fact to them. This could cost them far more than witholding your deposit!

Tassotti

Ahh..The good old Landlord/Tenant Divide.

First Question. Did you sign an inventory when you first moved in?

If not, then the Landlord has absolutely no legal right to hold your deposit.

If so, check it and condition of everything.

If the Landlord was decent and had the property professionally cleaned (as some of us do) then you have to leave the property in the same condition of cleanliness. If not up to standard, and the LL has to get professional cleaners in, then this can be taken from your depoisit (you can and should request receipts)

Fair wear and tear CANNOT be taken from your deposit, but this is a grey area.

£1350 is a huge amount, and from your posting, I think you should be entitled to most (if not all) of it back.

This from a "uber" Landlord. We're not all bad

Persue it

Tass

Voyager2002

OK, so after inspecting the house she told you that everything was fine and you would get back your deposit. Presumably you both heard her say that. And now that she has written stating something different, she has not mentioned anything that she could not have observed while inspecting the house. So that means that the law is fairly and squarely on your side.

You need to write to her politely requiring that she return your deposit in full. State that unless she does so within five working days you will be taking legal action to recover the amount, without further reference to her. Then do so: as mentioned above you can download the forms, or obtain them from your local County Court. The Court staff are generally helpful and can give basic advice about how to fill in the forms, and doing so is really not all that difficult. You have to pay the Court fee up-front, so be sure to add that to the total amount that you are claiming. You can also claim interest on the amount in dispute: there is a particular (technical) sentence that you use to claim interest, and the sentence is given in the leaflets that the Court gives out. Doing this makes it look as if you have an expert solicitor working for you, and is likely to encourage her to return the deposit rather than contest the matter in Court.

nelly_2

I still say violence is the answer.

do you know any rugby union players their allways up for a good scrap send them round.

Tassotti

Nelly, your response is what I would expect from the likes of you.

However, people are trying to inform the OP of legal ways to persue this.

Your comments do not help

chugalug

Aaaaaaawwwwwwww, don't upset Nelly!! He always makes me smile!

mair1

Think that we are a bit niave here as we handed the house over on 10/4 (on LLs request) but had paid rent up to an including 30/4. As I have said previously the LL agreed with my husband on 10/4 that there was no problem refunding deposit and thanked us for being such good tenants. She has not contacted us about any problems since then but has gone ahead and done whatever she felt necessary to redecorate the property and then sent a letter saying she is witholding our full deposit of £1350. I have written a letter to her detailing responses to the points she raises and suggesting that if she does not return our deposit in full we will take her to the small claims court. Can anyone advise if there are specific words I should use in my letter?

jenniferpa

There are some sample letters here
http://www.advicenow.org.uk/go/feature/feature_390.html?pkgid=38