Made a mess of being a Landlord

haras_nosirrah

Can you claim for this under your insurance?

potzer

and put my premiums up? this is why I had a guarantor and (ok it wasn't protected but....) a deposit.

so for one mistake, I'm possibly looking at losing out on £2500 in lost income/owed monies and £3150 for non-protection of deposit... and then I'm expected to claim on my insurance for these toerags for not looking after the property?

There doens't seem to be much in the line of justice or fairness.

pyueck

potzer wrote: »

I admit the deposit was an oversight on my behalf, the Section21 was given as I thought this would be the easiest method, I hadn't realised I'd forgotten to protect the deposit at that time, it was only going through my papers I'd realised I hadn't done this.

so where does this leave me for damage? surely i can go down the route of criminal damage?

A judge must award the tenant 3x the amount of the deposit as per the housing Act 2004, he has no choice but to award this. The section 21 was not valid as their deposit wasn't protected. Bad paperwork and memory is not going to cut it with the judge.

Criminal damage, sorry but this has no justification and isn't even worth looking at unless you want to be prosecuted with wasting police time as well. Accidentally ripping a floor when moving furniture is not criminal damage!!!!

The only one facing criminal prosecution is yourself for illegal eviction, you could get up to two years in prison!!! Trust me give them back their deposit and hope they move on. You really have no option.

Zelie

potzer wrote: »

I admit the deposit was an oversight on my behalf, the Section21 was given as I thought this would be the easiest method, I hadn't realised I'd forgotten to protect the deposit at that time, it was only going through my papers I'd realised I hadn't done this.

so where does this leave me for damage? surely i can go down the route of criminal damage?

I think you're a bit over-focused on what you want here. You've messed up. Big time. Rather than complaining about damage to kitchen cupboards you need to be trying to limit the consequences of your actions!

Put it this way. If you are very, very nice to your ex-tenants it is possible they will agree not to take you to court over your failure to comply with the law on protecting deposits. Additionally it might well be that you admitting your error, apologising and making amends will be sufficient to stop a complaint being made to the police about what may well have been an illegal eviction. So return the deposit and learn from your mistakes.

BitterAndTwisted

Claims in court for three times the deposit penalty have been refused if the deposit was protected "late". i.e. after the tenants have vacated and then made the threat. So, get the deposit protected by whatever means in whatever scheme possible right away

haras_nosirrah

Giving them back their deposit would be so that you wouldn't have their deposit and therefore so that they wouldn't go for the three times penalty.

Now that they know the deposit hasn't been protected I think it is highly unlikely that either the guarantor or the tenant will give you any money at all. They will just take you to court for it.

The reason I asked about the insurance was that if you can claim the kitchen cost there then you won't have to pay this money for the repair. Yes you will have an excess to pay but it won't be £500.

Were you an 'accidental' landlord and renting out your property you couldn't sell or have you been a landlord before?

Also do you have the other necessary documents e.g. valid gas safety certificates so that they have as little ammo as possible.

potzer

just great.

This was a property I was unable to sell, family home, so I took a BTL mortgage but everything is upto scratch certificate wise.

so basically just roll over and tell them I'm dropping my claim for the owed rent/repairs and then hand over deposit?

potzer

Thanks for all the info. I'll chase up TDS to see if I can get this deposit protected with them.

haras_nosirrah

It is much harder when you never set out to be a landlord (and I know how that feels as have had to do exactly the same thing) Were these your first tennants or have you had other tennants before?

Unfortunately though it doesn't get you away from your legal responsibilities to your tennants. Please join the landlord association and read up what your legal responsibilities are so that you are never in the same position again. Also see if you can get some kind of insurance to cover tennants failure to pay and legal expenses (have seen it at about £23 a month)

pyueck

potzer wrote: »

just great.

This was a property I was unable to sell, but everything is upto scratch certificate wise.

so basically just roll over and tell them I'm dropping my claim for the owed rent/repairs and then hand over deposit?

You need to get into the real world!!!! When you become a landlord you take on responsibilities and the two most basic of these are to protect any deposit monies and not to illegally evict the tenant. It sounds like you have broken both of these things, and if you go to court, a judge will not look favouribly on the way you have acted.

As I have already said, you cannot take any money out of their deposit, as it wasn't protected. With regard to rent arrears, then so long as the tenancy agreement was written up properly (which sounds unlikely!), then you may be able to sue the tenants for this. But, and this is a big but, your tenants may well sue you for 3x the deposit and all the costs incurred due to being illegally evicted. This could amount to £15,000 quite easily. Also the tenants are fully within their rights to call the police and you could be prosecuted for illegal eviction which carries and unlimited fine and up to two years in prison. So all in all the legal case for your rent arrears could look a bad decision.