Please help re flat deposit

Mrs_pbradley936

RabbitMad wrote:

Wouldn't that be a breach of contract allowing her current landlord to claim damages?

If my tenant refused to leave I'd start court precedings to get them out and bill the client for this cost. I'd also sue for damages caused - e.g. loss of rental income fromt the time the existing tenant left to getting a new tenant (assuming I had somebody lined up straight away that I then lost due to the tenant not moving out) or if I was selling it, a months interest on the mortgage etc.

No you would not. I had a tenant that kept changing his mind over his leaving date he gave the Notice not me. I had a new person lined up (well the agent did) and they had to find them somewhere else. He has gone now but his reason was because of a start date for a new job kept changing. He did not owe any money when he left but the irritation factor was high. If you took court proceedings for that you would get nowhere.

Mrs_pbradley936

jennynoo wrote:

Hi Chemgirl

When my last tenancy agreement ran out we weren't sure when we were going to leave as we were looking to buy and our landlady was thinking of selling the flat so we signed another year agreement but with a clause saying we could leave with one months notice. We did this twice and had to pay the letting agent £70 each time for one bit of paper that I could have written in my sleep. Are you saying we could have just stayed there without a further agreement? This would be interesting to know.

You need not have paid the money everytime. All my tenancies are now subject to a Notice period rather than fixed term. Some people have been there for over 5 years. Every year or so I make sure they are happy and ask if they want any decorating done. Once I replaced the sofa. Most people are pretty fair but you do get rogues on both sides. But that's life!

jennynoo

pbradley936 wrote:

You need not have paid the money everytime. All my tenancies are now subject to a Notice period rather than fixed term. Some people have been there for over 5 years. Every year or so I make sure they are happy and ask if they want any decorating done. Once I replaced the sofa. Most people are pretty fair but you do get rogues on both sides. But that's life!

:mad:

Since moving to London I have had problems with estate agents, landlords, letting agents, the guy downstairs, the council and had a shooting at the end of the road. Why are there so many nasty people around? Makes me want to move back to Cumbria

RabbitMad

pbradley936 wrote:

No you would not. I had a tenant that kept changing his mind over his leaving date he gave the Notice not me. I had a new person lined up (well the agent did) and they had to find them somewhere else. He has gone now but his reason was because of a start date for a new job kept changing. He did not owe any money when he left but the irritation factor was high. If you took court proceedings for that you would get nowhere.

My post was to let EL know that if she is planning on just staying put, that she would need to talk it through with her current LL. Another post had suggested she should just stay put.

Anyway enough of that I've had a brain wave

EL: re deposit on the new place. Ask the landlord to transfer the deposit to the new scheme once the scheme comes into force and make this part of the contract. If they refuse you are forewarned that they might try to keep some of your deposit.

EagerLearner

Hi all,

RabbitMad - we can't stay put - our current LL wants us out by end of month due to kitchen re-fitting prior to selling...

Just quick update - we spoke to agency re the other property and they were completely uninterested and said 'the deposit will be under whatever law at the time of signing', meaning they knew damned well it wouldn't be under the new law. They said landlord only comes back 10th March so questions would have to wait until then, and if another tenant paid £200 holding deposit now, they would get it not us.

I did not like how they spoke to me and it seemed a bad agency - have since heard from one of my clients that it's a terrible agency, no thanks. Shame though as the property was nice. The agency have not rung back since I called them on Monday, so seems they don't care.

It doesn't even seem worth calling them and saying we will sign if LL agrees to be under the new law, as they just want £200. Which we may then lose if he says no to being under the new law when he comes back on 10th March... aaaargh!

We are seeing another tonight at 18:30.

Mr EL had a wrist operation yesterday so we are laying low and focusing on getting him better for now.

jennynoo

Hi El

If you go with a bad letting agent like I did you end up paying £140 in fees you really didn't need to pay, your landlord also has to pay lots of fees they rather would not pay and the letting agent gives your landlord bad advice so they try to take your deposit. If I was renting again I think I would try to go private and write the tenancy agreement myself!

Although there must be some good agents our there, the estate agent I bought my flat off was really nice although worried they weren't getting much business because of other unscroupleous agents. (that's a long word and I have no idea how it's spelt). I think the local ones are best rather than the big chain ones.

Hope the flat tonight is good and Mr EL gets better soon.

clutton_2

a tenant does not have to move out just because it is the end of the AST term. Only a court order can get a tenant out if they choose not to leave.

However, they are unlikely to get their deposit back if the landlord does not like their self-imposed "squat"

jennynoo

It's silly - I've been trained in contract law so I should have though of this at the time - but for some reason I didn't. If you have an agreement that says it will end on a certain date but both parties keep going past that date then legally the agreement still stands until one or the other party notifies the other to terminate the agreement. You probably want to reduce the notice though and check a few other things. I'm going to go over my agreements again and see if I can argue the case with the letting agent that our first extension simply continued.

John_Pierpoint

jennynoo wrote:

:mad:

Since moving to London I have had problems with estate agents, landlords, letting agents, the guy downstairs, the council and had a shooting at the end of the road. Why are there so many nasty people around? Makes me want to move back to Cumbria

Hi Jenny,
Welcome to the great wen.
A very close relative of mine was renting a property to 5 young people "living as a household" at one per room, a few years ago. (The house in multiple occupation law has been extended into this area since).
The property was about 3 hours drive away, so it was a bit concerning to get a call to say the sofa had collapsed.

We had a quick pow wow and popped round to our local Ikea - another quick phone call to the tenant(s) to make sure we had got the dimensions and the story right and one of them had got a credit card. "OK, put the collapsed frame into the bike shed in the garden and get a new frame from IKEA; and fit it with the old cushions. Send us an email jaypeg scan of the Ikea invoice and we will send you a cheque topped up with a tenner to pay for the trouble and transport; problem solved, happy landlord happy tenants. I cannot remember the figure, but it did not cost anything like the sort of money your LL is suggesting.

It turned out that the little, allen-key screwed into a barrel, things, that hold Ikea furniture together, had unscrewed itself until the joint was under incredible strain and the wood had then fractured; the sort of thing I would have noticed and fixed; but 5+ twentysomething tenants perhaps not.
(Probably collapsed during a game of hearth rugger = fair wear and tear?). We would not have dreamed of getting stroppy about the deposit over something like that and prid pro quo the tenants were very understanding about a leaking roof the following winter.

Good luck,

John

EagerLearner

Whoo - last night we found the flat we want - smaller than the one we are in now but nice and also has a raised patio garden. It means in the next 4 weeks we have a lot of charity shop / ebaying to do, plus Mr EL will bring back boxes from work as and when. His wrist is still bandaged up until 9th when he gets stitches out, I know it will still be weak at end of month so have bribed friends with pizza to help out at the end of the month :rolleyes: