Please Help! My Mum is in tears! :(

wezznco

Hi, I've never posted here before! I really need your help my Mum's so upset!

My Mum is the nicest lady I know, and she's moved in with her partner in London. She decided to rent her house down in Ramsgate out to her friends friend from church.

This lady (the tenant) has been horrific to my mum, she's underpaid the rent as she "didn't have the storage shed" at the side of the house. But Mum told her so many times that it's not included in the rent.

Mum got her own contract written up by her friend (who's rented houses before!) and it was signed and done 5-6 months ago!

Mum asked the lady to leave 2 months ago, sending her a recorded delivery 1 month notice. The lady paid rent for the following month and begged Mum if she could stay just for 1 more month so she can find a place to move out to! So Mum agreed and sent her a second 1 month notice!

The lady now has filed a court order against my mum regarding the £750 deposit the lady paid. Mum has the deposit and has kept it from day 1 in her account.

Mum wants this lady out the house as soon as possible! Apparently the house is a tip (it's a lovely house with a sea view and mum treasured it all her life).

What rights does Mum have with the deposit? Should she send proof to the court and can she claim cleaning expenses from the deposit?

How fast can she get the lady out? What should she do to do so? What are her rights to remove her?

I'm so desperate right now, please help me..

Sam

DVardysShadow

Well, she should have protected the deposit in a scheme. Now her tenant can claim 3 times the deposit.... She should get it protected as soon as possible.

As for the court claim, well the tenant is still in place, so the court claim [NOT court order!] is ill founded.

Sammy85_2

The deposit money should be protected in a scheme, not in your mums bank account, if it is not then the tenant could ask the court to award her 3x the deposit amount.. protect it now before the tenant leaves.

It really sounds like your mum doesnt have a clue about the legislation surrounding tenancies and she could be in real trouble both legally and financially if that is the case.

Im sure someone will be along shortly to give you some more advice, not sure you'll like it though..

Imp

I think your mum should join a landlord's association. Meanwhile, you need to search the internet for

1) Tenancy deposit protection
2) Section 21 notice
3) Section 8 notice

You probably also need to engage a professional (lawyer).

wezznco

Thank you for replying,

The Court Claim is for 3 times the deposit, over 2000 pounds! What can Mum do? It's in her bank now. Where can she put it?

The court claim is ill founded? How does that help Mum?

Thank you, I feel so bad for Mum, she's crying over this whole ordeal and isn't the right type of person to let a house.

Sam

Sammy85_2

The Court Claim is for 3 times the deposit, over 2000 pounds! What can Mum do? It's in her bank now. Where can she put it?

She can protect the deposit now and hope that the court dont award 3x the deposit amount. Google: TDS, DPS & My Deposits.

Zelie

Firstly stop panicking. That will only cloud your judgement and right now you require cool, logical thought.

Secondly, do what Imp just told you to do.

Thirdly, the court claim is not ill founded. Your mum didn't comply with the law. She needs to amend that quick-smart if she's any hope of not getting pulled up for it in court. Tell her to get the deposit out of her account and into a deposit protection scheme TOMORROW.

Fourthly, go to https://www.landlordzone.com which is going to have lots of specific information on this situation. Deal with one thing at a time. First get the deposit protected. Then start thinking about how to evict the tenant - there are specific procedures your mum needs to follow to the letter to be compliant with the law. You both need a thorough education on the law regarding letting property so get reading! Once you've got a little knowledge then you'll know the questions to ask when you go to seek proper legal advice which I hope will be very soon. CAB will do a free half hour though they are busy so it's hard to get appointments. If your mum is in a union or similar through work they often offer free access to a solicitor. There may be other options which the people on landlordzone can tell you about.

Fifth, I suspect you're right and she's not cut out for this sort of business. Possibly using an agent to manage the property would be a better route for her though wait until you've got the current issues sorted before you think about that.

Lastly, again, calm down. Hopefully things will work out well but if they don't this time then you will at least know where she went wrong and be able to avoid the same mistakes in the future. Good luck.

wezznco

Thank you very much for your advice.

I've calmed her down and have told her she needs to protect her deposit, I had a search online and found mydeposits and Deposit Protection Service.

What's the fastest/cheapest way to protect the deposit? I said she has to do this tonight/tomorrow. She can do it online now if it's possible?

Thank you all so much.

Sam

Trollfever

CAB will do a free half hour though they are busy so it's hard to get appointments.

CAB may consider that as your mum is running a business that it is outside their remit.



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DVardysShadow

wezznco wrote: »

The Court Claim is for 3 times the deposit, over 2000 pounds! What can Mum do? It's in her bank now. Where can she put it?

The court claim is ill founded? How does that help Mum?

Ah, you said Tenant was claiming for deposit. That would be ill founded if Tenant is still in place. However Tenant is claiming for Non Protection of Deposit, which as I said is 3 times deposit.

Mother can of course counterclaim for underpayment of rent.

dopester

There are a few cases going through the courts at the moment about the x3 rule.

From memory, in one recent instance, the home-owner won against the tenant, because the court seem to have ruled that in the case before them, the letting-agency should have protected the deposit. Also the court seem to have suggested that by not protecting the deposit, it gave the tenant advantage in that the landlord would be delayed in serving proper notice / evict.

I personally am pretty angry against what the court ruled. Before it gets to court, a tenant can endure a lot of stress and chasing about, trying to find out what has happened with their deposit, and then trouble getting it back. It would be much clearer and easier if landlords/agents were forced to comply with the 14 days / deposit protection scheme - with automatic penalty if they do not - even if they do so before the case gets to court.

Ultimately the latter position prevailed and the Court agreed that the Act itself does not impose a requirement that the deposit be protected within 14 days as long as it is protected prior to the matter coming before a Court.

http://blog.painsmith.co.uk/2010/02/12/high-court-decision-on-tdp/

More generally, the court appeared to take comfort from the fact that there were other sanctions for landlords, such as inability to recover possession of the premises until the deposit is lodged with the scheme.

http://www.propertyweek.com/story.asp?storycode=3159862

However

• We now have a situation where landlords will feel that they can leave deposits unprotected until threatened by tenants with court action (assuming they do not wish to use section 21).
• In order to find out whether their landlords are liable for the award, tenants will have to read not only the legislation but also the terms and conditions of their landlords tenancy deposit scheme.
• We also have a decision where apparently straightforward wording such as “The Landlord or Letting Agent is responsible for ensuring that Deposits are submitted for protection within 14 calendar days of the date of receipt by the Landlord. …” is held to mean the opposite of what the ordinary man in the street would expect it to mean.

http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2010/02/13/tenancy-deposits-schemes-high-court-decision/