Help with Letter of Action to Landlord

noms25

Hey everyone, I need to write a letter of action to my previous landlord (I will add the post explaining why after this one).
I am hopeless with these sort of things and I am unsure what I have to put legally in the letter. I have searched the other threads quickly so I apoligise if there is already one there explaining.

Also how do I apply to take him to small claims court? and roughly how much does it cost?
I apoligise if these seem like silly questions but I have never had to do anything like this before and I want to do it right.
Many Thanks

noms25

I moved out from my rented flat in July 2010 after living there for over 2 years with no problems with the landlord.

After moving out and giving our forwarding address to the LL we hadn't heard from him after 6 weeks about returning the deposit.
I rang his office and spoke to his secretary who said that we were getting the whole deposit back but had lost our forwarding address and apoligised and said that they were posting the cheque to us that day!

After 2 weeks, hadn't received the cheque so rang the the LL office and spoke to the same secretary who apoligised again saying that she had mislaid our address, and promised me that it would be sent straight away.

Received a cheque for the full amount of the deposit by the end of september. I deposited the cheque into my bank account about 10 days later in October. But the bank then returned the cheque to me later that week saying that it had been cancelled by the issuer. I rang the LL and managed to speak to him directly who said that he had changed this business account from where the cheque was issued from to another bank and had forgotten to let me know. But then said that he would directly transfer the money into my account that day.

Have been ringing his office on a weekly basis up till now but keep getting the answer phone. I have left a message every time leaving my contact number.
Im getting very frustrated and angry, but I dont know what next step to take!

Following this in december I managed to get a reply from the landlord via emailing saying that he was "sorting it out", but have had no further contact or the money from him!

slyracoon

Was your deposit protected? Lodge an appeal.

noms25

yeah it was in deposit scheme, but i got into contact with them and they can't help as once you have permanently vacated the property you have three months only to raise a deposit dispute. And its been 6 months now since I moved out!

tbs624

Is the property in Eng/Wales - if yes, then your tenancy deposit should have been scheme registered. (Edit - now seen OP's other post)

Your letter must have those 3 words at the top - Letter Before Action. Keep only to the facts. Give tenancy dates, address of property, amount of full deposit and date on which it was handed to LL. Then state: "my attempts to resolve the return of my deposit have so far included" and list dates, to whom you spoke/wrote and what happened.

State that if you do not receive the return of your deposit in full, within 5 working days, then you will proceed straight to the Small Claims Court. Tell him that your claim will be for the return of your deposit in full, plus interest and reimbursement of your court fees. Keep a copy. You may also want to state that bouncing a cheque when you know you have insufficient funds falls under fraud by misrepresentation.

noms25

Am I allowed to claim interest on it? I didn't know that! do you know how I can work it out???

tbs624

From the HMCS webpages:

Can I claim interest on the money owed to me?

Yes. If you want to claim interest, you should include the following text in the section titled ‘Particulars of claim’ on the form:
“The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of [8]% a year from [date when the money became owed to you] to [date you are issuing the claim] of £[amount] and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or earlier payment at a daily rate of [daily rate of interest].”

The rate of interest depends on the type of claim that you are making. For more information, speak to a legal adviser.
To work out your daily rate of interest, use the following calculation:
0.00022 x [the amount of your claim]

To work out the amount of interest you are owed up to the claim date, use the following calculation:

[number of days passed] x [your daily rate of interest]
You can then add this amount to the amount that you are claiming.

Source

noms25

Thank you everyone for their help and comments! I'm writing and sending the letter today!