Broken door lock - maintenance issue but being deducted from deposit?

Hopejack

Well shame on them as they missed a trick not accepting you. I should think I too will be 'tarred with the same brush'

EagerLearner

I say Clutton would be excellent on the board!I guess though maybe they have people that are neither landlord nor tenant or something.

For now LL has still not responded. From what I can tell, she has neither provided evidence, nor agreed to arbitration, even though she is supposed to do both these things.

The LL will always have the upper hand if they claim a deduction of around £100-£120 as it's just above the court costs fee, making it pointless to contest.
I know we've done the right thing for stress levels, definately not in terms of fairness.

Her last e-mail says 'the Arbitration or courts will decide' and yet she then refused arbitration when it came down to it, probably because she knows damned well a broken lock is wear and tear and can't be claimed for. Grr.

There is a new tenant who went in early Jan I think,so she did not even have a vacant property/lose rent as we gave her the last week of December, which is when she attended and presumably painted a bit etc. Little do they know that she has her own special way of judging how much to take from a deposit.

If £110 is the queried amount by both landlord and tenant, I really don't see why the DPS don't hang on to that, and return the rest of our money which is not in any query at all...

Anyway, I imagine she will stretch this out to the very last day but I really hope not, or worse, simply refuse to accept the £110 now. We just want to move on.

Does anyone have a link to this other £2k dispute thread? I'd like to lend some moral support if I can.

DIY fest at home, colour charts, cans of paint, planning to shabby chic some furniture and take mind of this.... We'll see if this week brings any news. Have a great weekend all...

clutton_2

""If £110 is the queried amount by both landlord and tenant, I really don't see why the DPS don't hang on to that, and return the rest of our money which is not in any query at all... ""

because these are not the scheme rules - DPS run an arbitration service which has to have authority before releasing funds... and that authority is either the joint agreementn of both landlord and tenant, or a court order....

DPS is free to use for both landlord and tenant - and their costs to run the scheme are paid for by the interest they have earned on the £480,000,000 they have handled since the scheme started operating.

Mydeposits is run on the money lodged by landlords when they join (£57 joining fee plus £40ish to lodge each deposit) - i dont know about the costs of the third scheme. Mydeposits does allow the LL to release the undisputed part of the deposit whilst waiting for court action ...


Dont ask me why the government set up 3 schemes, nor why they are allowed to operate with difference T&Cs - but there we have it - thats how they work and we have to work with them....

EL - it is just as frustrating for LLs waiting for tenants who wont communicate as it ;is for you - i know it does not feel like it for you right now, but, this is a level playing field... unlike prior to 2004Act as then all tenants had to take a dispute to court if the landlord would not cooperate...

BitterAndTwisted

EagerLearner, I think this is the thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2204041

redcar_2

EagerLearner wrote: »

If £110 is the queried amount by both landlord and tenant, I really don't see why the DPS don't hang on to that, and return the rest of our money which is not in any query at all...

I thinkthis is why I was confused as it seems so illogical and unfair but then I guess thats the rules.

EagerLearner

Hi Clutton,
On that basis... of joint agreement... if both parties agree that the £110 is the only disputed amount... that's when I'd like to see the rest of the cash come back to the tenant rather than sitting in limbo, no skin off landlord's nose... and the query on the £110 could continue, to be awarded in due course. My guess is the DPS don't because they only want to pay 1 lot of bank charges sort of thing...

Yes would be nice if there was 1 system only :Trather than the 3 bodies as even just understanding the T&C on one is hard enough.

I guess with the deposit being protected that if tenants have trashed a place and then not paid the last months rent, in that case the LL would be in a poor situation...
However I imagine that's rare and a high percentage of the time, it's the LL that has more power to wield, as damages are wear and tear/or small fry damage, and tenants desperate for the deposit so they can get their next place... I do think it's fair that there is mutual agreement of course.

Another wishlist item is a set number of days for LL to enter 'additional' items as DPS told me she could add these 'at any time' even though we'd checked out already.

Aaaanyhoo, she finally agreed today to release the rest of our cash and we've had to wave goodbye to the £110 towards her lock... some battles are just not worth fighting! We are worried though about the gas safety though so might give that a look.

Thanks for your support all, thankfully not a saga thread this time, not even close :T