Rent increase by text?

poppy10_2

sequence wrote: »

Your easiest route is to not pay however much rent the deposit is worth. With an amateur like this you will have no end of troubles getting your deposit back. It will make him learn to protect it in future.

Normally withholding your rent is a bad idea, but in this circumstance I'd definitely withhold the last months rent. Sounds like the LL is an amatuer, and struggling financially - it's unlikely you'll see your deposit back if it hasn't been protected. He can't do anything to you if you don't pay your last month's rent, you've already been served the section21 notice and are intending to move out anyway at the end of the term.

Enfieldian

I have received another text:

"Disregard the last message as I sent it to the wrong person"

What a joker....

I already have written confirmation from all three schemes that the deposit is not and never has been protected.

As I will not be needing the deposit back for the new place straight away I am almost tempted to leave it as is and if he does not return it in full at the end of the tenancy threaten legal action for non protection, but as you say... If he is in trouble financially I will probably struggle to get anything.

Maybe witholding the last months rent until he can prove that the deposit has been protected would be the most sensible course of action, this would possibly lead to him saying "Forget the last month in that case....."

clutton_2

we have all sent texts to the wrong person in error.....

Enfieldian

clutton wrote: »

we have all sent texts to the wrong person in error.....

Indeed.

It makes sense as even I cannot believe that he thinks a £100 per month rent increase is justifiable.

If he had used the correct method though, none of this confusion would have occurred

.

Fire_Fox

sequence wrote: »

Your easiest route is to not pay however much rent the deposit is worth. With an amateur like this you will have no end of troubles getting your deposit back. It will make him learn to protect it in future.

Your 'cunning scheme' would put the OP in breach of contract, this website is about supporting the consumer and pointing them in the direction of their legal rights (and sometimes their legal responsibilities). It is far more likely that being taken to court for three times the deposit will teach the OP's landlord to lodge deposits than simply withholding the final month's rent.

Ignite

If this joker trys to get in touch with you by text again, ignore it as a text is not a legal way to serve notice. At the end of the day, there is no way to prove that a text was received, it is too short to contain any legally required information and it shows a complete level of unprofessionalism.

As far as the deposit goes, you should have no problem getting it back through the courts. There is no inventory so he would be unable to use that as a defence for keeping any of the deposit, and also at the end of the day, it's not protected so he would not have any rights to it anyway. If he returns the complete deposit, I would just leave it at that, however, if you do have to go down the legal route, I would go for the kill and ask for the 3 x penalty to be enforced. This should more than cover the agro that you've had.

cj25_2

Enfieldian wrote: »

As I will not be needing the deposit back for the new place straight away I am almost tempted to leave it as is and if he does not return it in full at the end of the tenancy threaten legal action for non protection, but as you say... If he is in trouble financially I will probably struggle to get anything.

Maybe witholding the last months rent until he can prove that the deposit has been protected would be the most sensible course of action, this would possibly lead to him saying "Forget the last month in that case....."

Do you need to wait until the end of the fixed term to threaten legal action? I had the impression you could start it, mentioninging the x3 penalty to scare him into protecting it as soon as you realised it wasn't protected? I might be completely wrong in this, but if so then it seems like the type of thing it would be safer to sort out whilst you were still in the property paying rent. Then either he'll protect the deposit to avoid the penalty and you'll be safe, or he'll take the penalty and then even if he doesn' t pay up you can take it off the rent.