New deposit laws

chili2001

I just want to clarify we are correct in doing the following.
We (me and my partner) moved out of our rented house on the 1st January 2010.
We left the property in a good clean condition allowing for wear and tear as we had been there over three and a half years. We got a shock when we went to drop off the keys and check the property with the landlord (who lived opposite) as his wife said he was busy and refused to come to the door we started to suspect something was wrong.
I came back an hour later and no one would answer the door at all! I kept the house keys as I wanted proof we had dropped them off. I left a note with contact details on instead.
The next day I had a phone call from our landlord saying that the property had been left in a poor state and accused us of many things which were quite untrue.
He said he would get a quote for the work that needed doing and would contact us by post. I said I wasn’t happy with the work he said needed doing to which he replied that if I wasn’t happy he would love to see us in court.
We then received a very biased and one sided letter from a local estate agent who hadn’t viewed the house before we moved in he had paid to tell us the damage to his property we had caused including a very offensive comment about our cat causing urine stains on the carpet (the stains were there when we moved in and certainly weren’t urine!) amongst other quite untrue facts. I can also say there was no inventory given to us when we first took out the tenancy. His intentions to keep our full deposit of £840.00 became clear.
I was ready to drop the whole thing as he knew we couldn’t afford a solicitor to take legal action against him and was trying to intimidate us as he is very rich.
My girlfriend then discovered that he is (we think?) breaking the law in holding our deposit.
We moved in on July 2006 before the new deposit protection scheme law came into force in April 2007 so we assumed we couldn’t hold this against him.
However, in 2008 there was a rent increase and we signed a new tenancy agreement on 31st August 2008 which we have a copy of.
Are we right in thinking that he then should have registered us with one of these schemes as now required by law? We have checked all 3 schemes and they have no record of our postcode for us, and as interestingly none of his other tenants that share the same postcode.
We have written to him as advised by the CAB to state our intensions of court action if our full deposit isn’t returned. The fine he could receive is three times the amount of our deposit plus court fees and loss of earnings.
However, we were also advised by the CAB that this is a new law and relatively untested in court yet.
Do people thing we have a strong enough case to take this to court should he still refuse our deposit?

DVardysShadow

chili2001 wrote: »

We moved in on July 2006 before the new deposit protection scheme law came into force in April 2007 so we assumed we couldn’t hold this against him.
However, in 2008 there was a rent increase and we signed a new tenancy agreement on 31st August 2008 which we have a copy of.
Are we right in thinking that he then should have registered us with one of these schemes as now required by law? We have checked all 3 schemes and they have no record of our postcode for us, and as interestingly none of his other tenants that share the same postcode.
We have written to him as advised by the CAB to state our intensions of court action if our full deposit isn’t returned. The fine he could receive is three times the amount of our deposit plus court fees and loss of earnings.
However, we were also advised by the CAB that this is a new law and relatively untested in court yet.
Do people thing we have a strong enough case to take this to court should he still refuse our deposit?

Yes, your deposit should have been protected. As there is no entry inventory, they will have a hard time making any charges stick now. You are also entitled to 3 times deposit for them not protecting, but the courts tend to allow Landlords [too much] wriggle room.

In your position I would write a short letter to the agent detailing

• that the contract was renewed in 2008
• that the deposit was not protected
• your difficulties in returning the keys
• that you deny the cat urine allegation and all others - don't make a meal of it, don't set out to argue the points, just list what you dispute

keep a copy, it could be useful later to sjhow the date on which you disputed their allegations.

BitterAndTwisted

If there was no detailed check-in inventory your landlord hasn't got a leg to stand on, so please do not be intimidated!

That your deposit has not been protected when it should have been is just another nail in his belligerent and greedy coffin.

Once you've written to the landlord and copied in the estate agent as above and mailed the letters by Recorded Delivery the next step will be explained to you when you pop back on here, I'm sure.

DON'T FORGET: PLEASE DO NOT WORRY!

chili2001

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Yes, your deposit should have been protected. As there is no entry inventory, they will have a hard time making any charges stick now. You are also entitled to 3 times deposit for them not protecting, but the courts tend to allow Landlords [too much] wriggle room.

In your position I would write a short letter to the agent detailing

• that the contract was renewed in 2008
• that the deposit was not protected
• your difficulties in returning the keys
• that you deny the cat urine allegation and all others - don't make a meal of it, don't set out to argue the points, just list what you dispute

keep a copy, it could be useful later to sjhow the date on which you disputed their allegations.

Letter has already been written to be posted tomorrow. Thanks for your help.

chili2001

Sent the letter, the jist of it read:

When we signed the contract on the 19th June 2006 there was no scheme in place for tenants to have protection over their deposit. However in April 2007 three schemes were put in place that by law the landlord had to register to one of them. As our original contract was in 2006 this did not apply. However as you are aware you increased our rent in September 2008, this meaning that a new contract was signed by you and us on the 31st August 2008.

The three schemes involved by law are ‘The Deposit Protection Service’, ‘My Deposits’ and ‘The Tenancy Deposit Scheme’. I have spoken to all three schemes and it appears that you are not registered to any of these.

We have therefore been advised by each of them that when we signed the new contract in August 2008, you by law should then have entered our deposit into one of these schemes and then within 14 days provided us with proof of this.

The schemes recommended that we went to the Citizens Advice Bureau, and on doing this they have advised me to write you this letter.

It has been confirmed to us that we can take you to the county court for the breach in landlord obligations and for breaking the law under the Housing Act 2004 section 214 (1) (a).

We would also ask that the court makes an order in accordance with the Housing Act 2004 section 214 (3) which state the following;

(a) "Order the person who appears to the court to be holding the deposit to repay it to the applicant"

And I understand that the Court Must also do the following;

2) The applicant asks that the court makes an order in accordance with the Housing Act 2004. Section 214 (4) which states the following;

"The court must also order the landlord to pay to the applicant a sum of money equal to three times the amount of the deposit within the period of 14 days beginning with the date of the making of the order.”

We will therefore be seeking payment of £840.00 + £2520.00 + court fees and interest.

We have considered our options and would like to give you the opportunity to redeem yourself. If you provide us with the full deposit within 14 days, then we will not take any further action.

However if you do not provide us with the full deposit of what we believe to be £840.00 and not the £850.00 that you advised ‘**********’ estate agents, then we will have no choice then to go to the county court and state our case against you. We are also aware that all of the other property’s you rent out are not under any of these schemes either as now required by law.

We would like to inform you that we expect your reply to arrive no later than within 14 days of the postmark. If no reply is received, then court action will be taken.

We sincerely advise you to comply with our request. The courts are very sympathetic to tenants whose landlords do not follow good practice guidelines and do not fulfil statutory requirements regarding issues of deposits that are now required by law.

We are looking forward to hearing from you within 14 days.

Hope that sounds ok and makes him pony up the dough he owes us! Only time will tell... I will keep you all posted.

BitterAndTwisted

Nice one. Pity you didn't mention that there was no check-in inventory. Do you intend to drop this bombshell later when he's responded?

Please do keep us posted, won't you?

chili2001

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Nice one. Pity you didn't mention that there was no check-in inventory. Do you intend to drop this bombshell later when he's responded?

Please do keep us posted, won't you?

There was another part of the letter that did mention this and our denials of all the other alegations thown at us. I just wanted to show the jucy part, I was up studying tenacy law for hours!
Wish I could have seen his face when he opened it... :rotfl:

gorgeouslatinrose

sound briliiant! let us know how it goes! you sent it by recorded delivery didnt you?

chili2001

gorgeouslatinrose wrote: »

sound briliiant! let us know how it goes! you sent it by recorded delivery didnt you?

Yes, confirmed delivered yesterday. Now we wait and see...
Will keep you all posted, thanks for all your help and support.

chili2001

Well the 14 days for him to respond is up today. It looks like he has ignored the letter I wrote and is just waiting to see what we do next.
The trouble is that I have had legal advice and this law has been so badly drafted that not only will it cost a LOT of money to go to court, I can also be exposed to his legal fees if I lost. I could however just take him to the small claims instead but I couldn't use this law then. Something to do with which claim forms I fill in.

chili2001

Also thinking about contacting these guys: http://www.national-tenant-helpline.co.uk/index.html

They charge 15% on a no win no fee basis, so what have I got to lose?