Damage Deposit & Rent Arrears

chris_phil

Right, heres the situation..

I was a tenant at a previous property with 4 friends, the tenancy ended in July. Since then they have said none of us are getting our damages deposit back or at least until mine and a friends rent arrears are cleared as it is a joint tenancy agreement so we are all legally liable..

Ive requested a copy of the tenancy agreement, to check this as they only issued one between the 5 of us when we moved in, along with a copy of our damages to be deducted from our deposits.
Id requested this several times and had no reply (2 letters and 3 emails).

I finally got a letter through with the list of charges and realised they were wrong. So i got in touch after 2 days of being told id get called back and ringing them 6 times and got told that someone in the office had copy and pasted someone elses damages list and sent it to us, and they were currently on holiday but were in big trouble when they get back!

They then said that theyll not look at our damages until rent arrears are cleared. This cannot be the case though as there are new tenants living in the property now and new couches in place as ive seen when walking past. So surely they would have made a damages list before the new tenants moved in!?

The situation now is that i have told them im refusing to pay any money back until i know how much deposit we will get back and get a copy of my tenancy agreement.

I dont want to be struggling each and every week for money as im paying them off as much as i can in order to get my friends there deposits back asap, only for them to turn around and say were not getting any deposit back anyway because of the damages, when i could set up a payment plan with them and not stress so much.

Further to this all five of us recieved another letter saying that legal action will be taken against all of us if payments for rent arrears stop and the letter stated how much we both owed on rent which was a bit embarrasing and i thought that this kind of information would be confidential and shouldnt of been published?

Anyway i was wondering if anyone knows if legally they have to provide me with a list of damages and my agreement if ive requested it? And also if them publishing the rent arrears is confidential or not?

Any help is appreciated!

tbs624

If you are on a joint and several liability contract then all the Ts in th eproperty have a absolute right to know about any arrears.

You and all the other housemates were equally responsible for ensuring that the rent was paid on time, and in full.

If you and one other tenant renege on your commitments under the contract then (a) the LL is entitled to look to all of you to make up the shortfall and (b) in turn your fellow Ts can pop along to the small claims court to pursue action against the non payers.

You are entitled to a copy of your tenancy agreement and you could have photocopied the one that was provided to one of your housemates. In the TA you will probably see a clause which specifically states that your deposit may be used to clear rent owed to the LL.

If this property is in Eng/Wales and total annual rent is under 25K, is your tenancy deposit scheme registered?

chris_phil

Well i didnt photocopy one at the time did i.

Theyre not using the deposits to clear the rent arrears theyre giving us them back when the arrears are cleared, all i want to know from them is how much of this deposit we will get back when that time comes.

As at the moment im paying all my wages out to pay this off. I dont want to find out in the end that theyre only giving us £20 or something ridiculous back each anyway when i could just pay my friends off what part of the deposit theyll get back now and then pay off my arrears slower in a more affordable way.

They should surely have a copy of any damages before the new tenants have moved in?
And do they have to provide me with this if im asking for it?

At the moment im going to refuse to pay anything else until i get an invoice for damages so that i know theyre not just trying to get me to pay it all back as quick as i can thinking that we are getting a full deposit back.

clutton_2

Landlords must provide tenants with a copy of their tenancy agreement.

Tenants must pay all the rent for the entire period they occupy the property.

If you are all on one agreement then the landlord has to inform all of you of the level of arrears.

If you have left damage behind you - it must be paid for out of the deposit

Was an inventory signed by all parties on arrival and departure from the property ?

In a court - damages and unpaid rent are entirely seperate issues.. you cannot offset one against the other....

The landlord should have provided your Tenancy deposit scheme with a list of repairs he is claiming against your deposit - has he ?

If your deposit was protected - you should be addresssing all these matters via their Arbitration Scheme....

silvercar

Are these friends, who aren't getting their deposit back until you clear your rent arrears, still your friends?

My son is in a similar position and the landlord has said he is deducting the rent arrears of one tenant from the deposits, so the one tenant in arrears will owe money to his friends until he clears the arrears. If he doesn't pay up soon, I doubt they will be friends for very long.

Would you pay up quicker if it is your friends that you owed not the landlord?

tbs624

Sorry , as you're a newbie I'm trying to be kind ( and most people know that I try to be helpful to Ts who post about their difficulties)

However,.......you owe your LL rent , but you are also letting your former housemates down and you are then whingeing about the LLs perceived shortcomings.

If I was one of your housemates (or one of their parents who had coughed for their share of the deposit) I'd be suggesting that you get an additional part time bar job or sell some of your stuff on ebay and get the arrears paid pronto.

Rent payments or mortgage payments have to take priority. Don't let your poor planning impact on other people like this. It's not on.

Live by yourself if you want to run up rent arrears, but you can expect to end up with a cream crackered credit rating as a result.

Give your LL a written plan for getting those arrears paid, ask him if that is acceptable, and ask him to give you *all* a written confirmation of any proposals he has for deductions from your deposit.

Check TDS, DPS, mydeposits if property is in Eng/Wales, total rent is under 25K and you are not sure whether the deposit's been scheme registered.

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

Landlords must provide tenants with a copy of their tenancy agreement.

the LL did apparently - one copy of the J&SL contract which they could have chosen to photocopy.

hbk619

Would the deposit not cover the rent arrears? If it doesn't you must have been in debt for a long time! Before a landlord can take any money from your deposit they need all T's written permission.

Of course the other T's can see what's owed on the rent account, it's their account too!

clutton_2

if all tenants are on one agreement and they deposit is lodged with a deposit scheme one tenant is nominated as the Lead TEnant to represent all of them...

""Would the deposit not cover the rent arrears? - even if it does.. what about the repairs ?

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

if all tenants are on one agreement and they deposit is lodged with a deposit scheme one tenant is nominated as the Lead TEnant to represent all of them...

This is the case with mydeposits, although it does not have to be the Lead T who raises any dispute, so long as the Ts name appears on the DC.

DPS does not require the use of Lead Ts and under TDS the deposits can either be registered individually or as one combined

hbk619

clutton wrote: »

if all tenants are on one agreement and they deposit is lodged with a deposit scheme one tenant is nominated as the Lead TEnant to represent all of them...

""Would the deposit not cover the rent arrears? - even if it does.. what about the repairs ?

There should be formal written communication between the T's and L's about the damage and cost of repairing. Only after the OP has agreed to it can they take any money. So my point was use the deposit to cover the rent debt and pay the OP's mates back at an easier rate and take them to whoever the deposits registered with about the repairs as it seems they L/EA hasn't handled it properly.