Witholding depost in case of unpaid bills?

BitterAndTwisted

nikki_angel wrote: »

OOOH, just checked the website and it says I should have had a certificate. I definitely never received one of those.

I don't think you should actually have a printed certificate in your possession but you should certainly have been notified about which scheme your deposit was lodged with.

As your landlord has been reasonable letting you leave early I would be tempted to pay the last utility bills and give the LL the confirmation he wants. It might be the path of least resistance.

nikki_angel

nikki_angel wrote: »

I really don't want to annoy him as he has let us leave a month early as he has managed to transfer a couple of tenants from a HMO he manages into our property and no early release fees have been charged.

I have checked our tenancy agreement and it says the following -

.....the deposit is held by The Agent as Stakeholder which means that no deduction can be made from the deposit without the written consent of both the landlord and the tenant. The agent is a member of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.....

......any interest earned will belong to (delete the options which apply) the tenant, the agent, the person paying the deposit, the landlord *none are deleted*....

......Deposit has been taken for the following purposes...damage....reasonable costs incurred.....unpaid accounts for utilities......

.....deposit will be returned within 20 days.....


......The deposit is safeguarded by the Tenancy Deposit Scheme which is administered by The Dispute Service......


So the long and short of it is that I have signed agreeing to it so I don't think there is a lot I can do. That will teach me not to read properly when excited about moving into somewhere! I blame the pregnancy brain I had at the time!

G_M I did answer....in the post I quoted

nikki_angel

Thanks everyone. Of course I do intend on paying the final bills, I just know they will be in slight arrears due to horrid weather and higher heating with the bay so was sort of hoping that the deposit would help towards that IYSWIM.

Fire_Fox

nikki_angel wrote: »

G_M I did answer....in the post I quoted

No you haven't answered. Your AST doesn't prove your deposit was lodged it simply says your deposit should have been lodged. You need to check with the TDS to see if your landlord actually lodged your deposit and get back to us.

nikki_angel

Oh goodness! I thought that meant it was registered. I have sent an email to TDS and am awaiting for reply.

Sorry for being dense. Just panicking as I need the money for new home and bills. I am pretty sure the landlord is all above board as he has many properties but he did clearly state that money will only be given back as per above and it set alarm bells ringing as I didn't think this was correct.

I don't want to sue or anything like that. I just don't want to be waiting however many weeks it will take for us to pay our final bills before we get our money back.

Fire_Fox

There is no need to take the landlord to court, it is simply handy to know your rights so you can remind him of them if he gets difficult. Do you have it in writing that the landlord has allowed you to vacate one month early?

bitsandpieces

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

As your landlord has been reasonable letting you leave early I would be tempted to pay the last utility bills and give the LL the confirmation he wants. It might be the path of least resistance.

I agree - unless you need to the money now, I would be inclined to do as requested. Easier, and - given that your LL has been helpful - you can look at it as repaying a favour in kind.

gamez-over

Most private landlords to ask for confirmation that the final utility bills have been paid. However the security deposit is simply there to cover damages classed above 'fair wear & tear'.

When going through an agent, you're likely to find that with regards to the utlities as long as you provide a forwarding address you don't have to provide confirmation. This is down to the fact that utility companies will happily chase people for final payments and close down an account when a tenant has moved out of the property.

The easiest way to deal with the above, is to pay the utility companies and ask for them to send a closing down statement to you asap.

nikki_angel

Thanks everyone. Appreciate all your input. As I said earlier, was intending to use a small amount of the deposit to pay the final G&E bill anyway so that is why I am worrying about it. I just don't understand how he can withold it to make sure these bills get paid if they are in my name anyway?! I am with an agent but the property is managed my the landlord and his family.

No, I didn't get it in writing that we can vacate early as it was all done very quickly. We were willing to lose the other property if necessary as we didn't want to muck the landlord around and ask for early release but when I mentioned our case he said he would see what he could do. As it was, his mum and dad had tenants they needed to move and came and viewed our place at 7pm on Sunday evening by last minute arrangement. As you can see, it as all been very casual. They have confirmed that no fees will be incurred but only by verbal agreement.

gamez-over

The landlord is just using the deposit to make sure that you do pay the final bills. It's unfortunate, because as a landlord you don't have to actually do that as long as you obtain a forwarding address for your tenants.

With regards to any agreements that you have made, I would strongly suggest that you get this in writing.