Landlord threatening to sue for damage, deposit not registered..

skint-student-nurse

OP,when your deposit isnt protected,it is worth putting a claim in for 3x the deposit. My deposit wasnt protected by my landlord and i won 3x my deposit back in February 2010.

omen666

Gnomemeister wrote: »

Hi

It's been a few weeks now since I moved out of a joint tenancy house rented to 5 tenants by a private landlord, the contract was for 6 months, and then another 6 months.

Upon moving in we paid a deposit of £1950; one month's rent, and we have it in writing from the landlord that we paid a deposit at this time.
I have enquired with the three companies authorized by the government to have deposits registered with them, each of them on two occasions, and checked thoroughly with them each time as to whether the deposit we paid was registered with them, and on each occasion it has been confirmed that our deposit was never registered with them. I'm also confident that we never received a letter from any of these three companies at the beginning of the contract (or any other time) to confirm that the deposit was being held with them - I understand that ordinarily this correspondence would be issued with a reference number etc.

After conversations with each of these three companies, I understand that to not register a deposit is illegal, as of July 2007 (or June, I forget; in any case we moved in around October 2009) and that as a result the landlord is liable to pay as an amount equal to 3 times the deposit paid, which would mean we can go after them for a sum total of £5,850.

To further complicate matters, or perhaps it is a separate issue entirely, they are now claiming that we owe them around £1,000, as the deductions they are claiming total around £3,000.

How should I proceed? I have sought confirmation from the landlord as to who the deposit is being held with, but have received no response.

My father was going to assist me in this matter, but unfortunately he is now on holiday and will not return til the 18th of December.

Thank you for any guidance you can give - I have not yet informed the landlord that we intend to go at them for £5,850, thinking it is best to try and reduce the deductions payable first (I believe if I go after them for this money first, they'll put more effort into keeping the deductions as close to that £3,000 figure as possible, and a judge/magistrate (or whatever the title of a person who overlooks proceedings in a small claims court) will perhaps look upon them with more favour in the knowledge we have already taken them to court for the 3x deposit figure.

EDIT: Incidentally, the house was in England (I've just read the rules are different for Scotland etc).

EDIT 2: I've just read that the 3x penalty doesn't stand up in court because it was badly written (At 0945 this morning, 11 November 2010, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgement in the two conjoined cases of Universal Estates v Tiensia and Honeysuckle Properties v Fletcher)grrrrr!I'm thinking my best recourse now is perhaps to threaten them with the 3x penalty, in exchange for handing back the original deposit, and hope they don't come across this Court of Appeals judgement in the meantime!

This case was in relation to Lettings agents late registration of deposit. Not a Landlords

tbs624

Gnomemeister wrote: »

Thanks, I think that will be my next course of action, I'm going to find out how long it takes for them to get a deposit registered ..

Still reading rest of thread but deposit registration can be done online in 10-15 minutes, allowing for a slow connection;)

Note that before trying to pursue any claim for non reg of the deposit you will have to write a "letter before action" to the LL, giving him the opportunity to rectify the matter. Most LLs will at that stage just get on and scheme register it prior to any court hearing date.

neverdespairgirl

I have a feeling, though, and can't check right now, that a deposit cannot be protected "late" if the contract is already finished.

omen666

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I have a feeling, though, and can't check right now, that a deposit cannot be protected "late" if the contract is already finished.

correct as I understand it too

teeni

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I have a feeling, though, and can't check right now, that a deposit cannot be protected "late" if the contract is already finished.

correct, a deposit cannot be protected once the tenancy is over,