Unfair deposit deducations - possible fake invoice. Next steps?

bristol_pilot

The fake invoice is a police matter - fraud. Several years in jail for LL if convicted.

debstardeb

Amazing stuff.
N79 - just to check my understanding of what i should do - i could claim through the small claims court but not money claim online?

So in stating that giving back the deposit the court case may be frustrated, if the LL offers the deposit back after my letter before action will i have no recourse to court if I accept the full deposit?

debstardeb

Oh you answered my question before i even managed to finish writing my post! Form 208 - thank you.

Bristol Pilot - I have asked the LL to clarify the Alex and Co invoice. The LL at this point could try to just deny all knowledge that this invoice exists so i am hoping that when he gets round to emailing me back he will try to assure me that it is a real invoice. Once I have something in writing from him I will then pass all the information i have on to the police.

N79

It won't start as a small claims case although it may end up being allocated to the small claims track. You will be starting off with a county court application (or whatever it is called these days).

If you intend to claim for anything else other than deposit non compliance then you will need to use a different form.

Remember its a letter before action first - very important when you need the judge onside to make sure that he uses your interpretation of the housing act!

N79

debstardeb wrote: »

So in stating that giving back the deposit the court case may be frustrated, if the LL offers the deposit back after my letter before action will i have no recourse to court if I accept the full deposit?

Note the key word may. Even if the LL refunds in full at the LBA stage then you can still claim the 3x. Obviously the LBA should be for return of the deposit and the 3x "penalty" if you intend to go down this route.

I will put on my tin hat to protect me from the general outrage here but in my view if the LL repays the deposit in full prior to the court hearing then your claim for 3x should fail based on my strict interpretation of the legislation wording.

However that is clearly not what parliament intended and in most cases that I am aware of courts are now awarding in favour of the T (this did not used to be the case but seems to be settling down a bit now). As with all litigation you pay your money and roll the dice. The odds are in your favour though it will depend on the judge on the day. If the LL does not repay until after you issue proceedings then you do not even risk your fee as even if your case for 3x fails there is no way the court will not award your fee against the LL so you risk nothing.

Given the terrible (and possibly criminal) behavour of your LL you should definately consider making such a claim. If you had a good LL then you would not be posting on here.

debstardeb

My LL has been pretty stupid so far...maybe he will refuse to pay back the full deposit before court, and then i won't have to worry about the interpretation by the courts heehee!

debstardeb

How is this for the letter before action??


Ref: [address]
[date]

Letter Before Action

Dear [xxxx],

Further to my two requests on 6th August 2009 and my further request on 4th November 2009 for you to provide me with information regarding the tenancy deposit scheme that is being used to hold our deposit (which I requested after I could not find my own copy of the TDS agreement), I note that you have failed to respond to my requests for this information. [Name of my partner] and I never received a registration certificate to confirm the registration of our deposit with a TDS scheme.

[Name of my partner] went to your offices today and collected copies of our tenancy deposit agreement and our tenancy agreement (as I have been unable to find my copy), but your colleague in the office was unable to find the registration certificate.

I have therefore contacted MyDeposit, The Deposit Protection Service and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme myself to establish which of these schemes I should refer to for dispute resolution in regards to the amount of our deposit that should be returned. The Tenancy Deposit Scheme is the insurance-based scheme that was named in our TDS agreement. Upon contacting these agencies, each of them confirmed that they do not have our deposit registered.

Under the Housing Act 2004 s.214, failure to register the deposit with an authorised scheme, and failure to provide tenants with proof of compliance within 14 days gives the tenant the right to seek the return of the deposit through the courts, plus three times the deposit amount as a penalty.

Within 14 days of the date of this letter, if I do not receive a full refund of the £1,200 deposit in addition to a payment equivalent to the penalty that the court could order (£3,600), I will issue a County Court claim against you. Costs and interest will be added to the amount claimed.

Yours sincerely,

[signed by me]
[my name]

debstardeb

*Correction, my deposit was £1260 not £1200. This would push the total of my claim over £5000 meaning it wouldn't be eligible for the small claims court.

As a point of interest does anyone know how long a claim of this type takes from start to finish on average? A few months? A year?

Trollfever

As a point of interest does anyone know how long a claim of this type takes from start to finish on average? A few months? A year?

Ten years?

Having won the court case you will still have to enforce the judgement, and this could take forever.

Good luck.

easilydistracted

Wow! I dont post much but had to log in for this. This landlord is seriously dodgy and sounds criminal as well. I would really recommend that you get in touch with the private rents team at your local council. They are specifically for sorting out these sort of disputes. They have some powers of prosecution although I'm pretty sure that these are limited to illegal eviction prosecutions. I have some across them in my line of work and they have been really helpful, though there seems to be a lot of variations between each local council. Good luck!