Help needed regards to owing money to previous landlord

roses_babe

really need some advice please..

I moved out of my previous flat over a year ago due to it being covered in mould *clothes/furniture ruined* my landlord done nothing to repare this. I left owing him £400 he kept my deposit of £130 he hasnt bothered with me for over a year now i came home tonight and found him standing at my doorstep at 8.30 at night.

I really am angry i didnt speak to him i drove off but im really scared now any advice?

evoke

Erm...pay him what you owe him?

roses_babe

i would of if he had the decency to fix the mould. My items were destroyed.

Hump

Did he live with you in the flat? If yes then you're a lodger and he'll struggle to get you to pay anything. If no then you'll be a tenant. Then the next question is did the tenancy start after April 2007 and if yes then was the deposit held in a protection scheme i.e. mydeposits, DPS etc? (and can we assume you're in England?)

roses_babe

hi ya he didnt live in the flat. It was after 2007 and our money was held in a tenancy scheme

Hump

Did you consent to the deposit being returned to the landlord at the end of the letting by signing off the deposit scheme paperwork?

roses_babe

we didnt sign anything at all he just emailed me saying he is going to keep my deposit

Hump

The first thought is that your deposit may never have been protected*, meaning you may be able to claim under the Housing Act 2004 for upto 3x the deposit (i.e. £390), a recent county court case http://nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/2011/02/distinguishing-tiensia/ (doesn't set a precedent as such though explains how a judge might treat an application from you) suggests that a landlord who fails to either protect the deposit during the tenancy or give the tenant the prescribed information may very well have the 3x deposit penalty applied to them - even though the tenancy has now ended.

The second thought is that the landlord will need to obtain a court order to make you pay anything you might owe him.

So if he tries to get a court order then counter claim under sections 212-215 of the Housing Act 2004

*If you never received the paperwork from the protection scheme then it's likely the deposit was not properly protected

roses_babe

thank u so much for the advice

tbs624

OP - you can check with each of the three schemes -TDS, mydeposits and DPS. All they need is the property address and tenancy dates.

If he turns up on your doorstep again, tell him to put his issues in writing to you and close the door. If he persists in visiting you, you may like to know that S40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 says:

(1)A person commits an offence if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under a contract, he—

(a)harasses the other with demands for payment which, in respect of their frequency or the manner or occasion of making any such demand, or of any threat or publicity by which any demand is accompanied, are calculated to subject him or members of his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation;

It's always best to get written confirmation that any debts owed have been settled by agreement, at the end of the tenancy, rather than just hoping that you've " got away with it" .

Ts should always make sure that the deposit is scheme registered and that their own contact details lodged with the scheme are kept up to dateso that a LL cannot attempt to use the single claim processwithout the T's knowledge.