New deposit laws

G_M

Are you a member of a LL's association? They'll have access to solicitors.
Do you get legal cover with your house insurance? This might well cover it.

If not, I'd recommend using a local solicitor so you can sit down face-to-face, but make SURE they have good experience in landlord/tenant disputes. No use using one who spends all their time conveyancing or doing criminal cases!

chili2001

G_M wrote: »

Are you a member of a LL's association?

If you mean a landlord association, why would I be? I'm an ex tenant! :-)

Colincbayley

You seem to have a pretty sound case to me ( I have quite a good knowledge base on this part of the 2004 housing act and have pursued the matter via the courts on behalf of a new tenant )

The court fee for N208 is £150, which you will get back when you win. If you can stump this amount up then give it a go.

Be very prepared for the court case, it is a pretty straight forward affair, but as you may be aware some judges do not know the full lenght of the law, so make sure all your papers are in order.

Your LL is out of order by trying this on, don't let him get away with it, as it gives the rest of us LL's a bad name.

With regards to the deposit paid, if he has no in going inventory, then he has next to no hope of making any deductions anyway.

Good Luck.

Soot2006

Good luck!
Sounds like you are doing things by the book & quite politely too!
He on the other did appears not to have done anything by the book!

MissMoneypenny

chili2001 wrote: »

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.

Have you got a house contents insurance policy with the added extra of Legal Cover (sometimes called Family Cover)? If you have, you can use this to get a free solicitor/barrister who specialises in housing law, for just the cost of your Legal Cover excess (often no excess). If you lose in court, your policy pays all fees but if you win, the landlord will pay all your court fees and your solicitors/barristers charges. It just might be enough to make the landlord pay back the deposit and the 3x the deposit, before court.

It's just a case of phoning up your insurers and asking for a legal cover claim form, but don't instruct solicitors first as the insurers only pay once they have approved the case, in writing.

You could always check to see if you have any legal cover on credit cards.

G_M

chili2001 wrote: »

If you mean a landlord association, why would I be? I'm an ex tenant! :-)

Oops sorry! Got my threads in a twist. :(

Blacksheep1979

Print out the N1 form (what you use to take someone to the small claims court) fill it out with all the details (no he said she said) but a plain account of deposit £x paid on date, moved into property on date, vacated property on date. No inventory, landlord not returning deposit and deposit not protected. Claiming £x plus interest of £x accruing at £0.0x a day.

Now once this is filled out photocopy it and mail it to him - almost guarantee he'll be phoning you to pay. Failing that go for the small claims court - for £840 it's not much to enter the claim and you should have no issues as he has to prove that he's out of pocket and without a moving in inventory agreed by both parties he's not going to be very credible. Small claims court he can't claim for his legal fees (neither can you above the hearing costs/time off work etc)

Good luck and feel free to send me a message as I've been through this before and had to hold out till the morning of the hearing to get paid.

chili2001

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

Print out the N1 form (what you use to take someone to the small claims court) fill it out with all the details (no he said she said) but a plain account of deposit £x paid on date, moved into property on date, vacated property on date. No inventory, landlord not returning deposit and deposit not protected. Claiming £x plus interest of £x accruing at £0.0x a day.

Now once this is filled out photocopy it and mail it to him - almost guarantee he'll be phoning you to pay. Failing that go for the small claims court - for £840 it's not much to enter the claim and you should have no issues as he has to prove that he's out of pocket and without a moving in inventory agreed by both parties he's not going to be very credible. Small claims court he can't claim for his legal fees (neither can you above the hearing costs/time off work etc)

Good luck and feel free to send me a message as I've been through this before and had to hold out till the morning of the hearing to get paid.

Thanks, but I cannot use form N1 if I am going to use the fact that my deposit wasnt protected. The new CPS rule is that all prosecutions under this law have to started using form N208 which doesnt start in the small claims but in the more expensive multi track system.

mlz1413

chili2001: Anybody know of a good no win, no fee solicitor that would take on this case if it went to court?

chili2001 wrote: »

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?

Did you contact this company?

chili2001

mlz1413 wrote: »

chili2001: Anybody know of a good no win, no fee solicitor that would take on this case if it went to court?



Did you contact this company?

No, I looked into them a bit more and it seems that they are nothing more than a glorified aggressive debt collector. If they do go to court they put up their fees to at least 50% plus other unspecifed costs and they send the papers in on the wrong court forms.

http://painsmith.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/national-tenant-helpline/