Please help - Deposit Lost

ajm410

Hi, can anyone please help?

I moved out of a privately rented flat over two and a half months back now. It was a joint tenancy for a minimum six month period. Unfortunately, the lot of us in the property had rather a big falling out and after 3 months, we kindly asked the LL if she would be OK with us terminating our contract early, so long as we found her new tenants who would move in straight away. She agreed to this and we kept our side of the bargain and a new couple moved in the day after us. All of these agreements etc. are in writing and we were promised that we would all receive our deposits back within 28 days of moving out (again, this is in writing).

After nearly two and a half months we have still not received any of the deposit back from her. There was a long saga of when she was saying that she was in Jamaica and unable to deal with the problem. We offered that, if she gave us the details of the deposit scheme it was under then we would chase it up for her: nothing. I then went round to the flat and spoke to the current tenants who said that they hadn’t heard anything about her being in Jamaica and had actually seen her in the last few days. I then confronted her with this and threatened her with court and she sent a reply to the extent of ‘How dare you!’ and said that she would be back in the UK on the 8th of this month and would sort it then. Again, I’ve not heard from her since despite emailing, ringing etc. All this is inconsequential in terms of my deposit I understand, but the frustration and anger it has fuelled has led me to the point I’m at now where I want to take her for every penny I can.

During the tenancy and subsequently, I have rang all three deposit schemes and none of them have ever had any details of our deposits being held with them. I understand that I can try claiming for the deposit and x3 the amount on top, and interest. (Or is it just x3 the deposit?) I have an N1 form ready and all the documentation but I was wondering about the best way to do this. Do I claim for it on the N1 form or is there another procedure I’d need to go through? In short, any help on how to fill this form in so that I am claiming for the maximum amount would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,

Anthony

BitterAndTwisted

Claim for the return of the deposit in full plus 3x the original deposit. IF the court awards you 3x the deposit as a penalty to the landlord they may choose to award you interest as well. Please note that it is not a foregone conclusion that the court will award the 3x deposit as sometimes they do not, it depends on who's hearing the case and their interpretation of the statute.

Have you WRITTEN and sent your letter by Recorded Delivery to the landlord requesting information about which deposit protection scheme your deposit is held in and requesting return of same? You do need to show that you have exhausted all avenues and you DO NOT want this landlord to show up in court waving a sheaf of bills to justify why they have declined to return your deposit or you will have wasted yours and the court's time and your money as well

ajm410

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I have sent a letter recorded delivery (I have the receipt and everything) however, the Royal Mail has lost track of its whereabouts. I have also emailed her a copy of it but would you recommend I send it via RD again before going any further with this?

So far the only (albeit minimal) correspondence that I’ve had with her since has said that we should receive the deposit back in full, and I’ve kept all of this for proof.

Sorry for my ignorance once again, but just to confirm, should I claim for all of this on the N1 form?

Thanks again

G_M

You received perfectly good advice on this problem last time you posted (here).

Why have you done nothing since then?

BitterAndTwisted

Re-send your Recorded Delivery letter and send two copies by first-class post from different post-offices getting proof-of-posting for both. That way, no-one in their right mind could argue that all three letters could have gone astray to the same address at the same time. It's entirely possible that the landlady declined to accept and sign for your original Recorded Delivery letter because she either knew what it was or she was expecting rather a lot of them.

ajm410

G_M I have got on to this. I’ve done as much research as possible, sent letters and expected that would shake her into action and tried calling because I’d much rather have sorted this out outside of court. Then, when I did eventually hear from her, I was told that she would sort it out and yet still, she hasn’t.

The other problem is that the other couple we lived with have the tenancy agreement and they paid the deposit from their account and so have the receipt etc. No one else has done anything about this and so I’m chasing around etc. The other couple are unable to meet until a week today and I need them to help fill out the N1 form. So until then, all I can really do is make sure that I’ve got everything in order for when I hand this form in to the courts.

Thanks for your help BitterAndTwisted

kmmr

ajm410 - its perfectly ok to just re-post on the same thread again. It goes to the top of the listing as soon as you put something new in it.

It just avoids the regular and helpful contributors from thinking "hmm... isn't this familiar" and going searching for the previous similar post, only to find it was from you originally! I can imagine it is a little frustrating.

BitterAndTwisted

It sounds like your co-tenants will have to do all the letter-writing as they are the ones who actually paid the deposit, so in theory it should be re-paid to them unless the tenancy agreement named all of the individuals and acknowledged that the deposits were received as separate amounts from each individual.

I do wish you would disclose ALL of the information rather than revealing it piece-meal in different threads. I don't know how you expect posters on this site to be able to remember your particular situation from anyone else's. We get posters asking similar questions on here every singe day.