Deposit release - Landlord not co-operating

pinkstarsx

Afternoon all,

I moved out of a property on the 7th April.
We were advised by Townends that the deposit is held with mydeposits and given a reference number.
New tenants have been in that property since the 16th April.

From reading online i understood it takes up to 14 days for the deposit to be released.

After 14 days i called mydeposits who advised me they don't actually hold the deposit, the landlord does (as he manages the property - albeit not very well hense moving out), & they get invovled if there are any issues and re-directed me to Towneds. They said they always advise 10 days after check out for the money to be given back.

I had already left a text, voicemail and email for our LL to request our deposit being released back to us, but no response.

I spoke to Towneds who emailed the LL and said they have to have confirmation in email/writing from him and us to agree the amount being given back to us.

It's now been 22 days and still cannot get through to the landlord, what do we do? As we thought any disputes/deductions have to be done within the 14 day time frame & then the money is released? If he is not co-operating then we're unable to get that money back?

Luckily we had the money for deposit on our new rental but we will struggle a little without that money back. He was useless throughout our whole tenancy so we knew this wouldn't end when we finally got out of there

Thanks in advance,

DVardysShadow

Sounds like your deposit was NOT protected. You now need to write a 'letter before action' demanding the deposit returned in full or you will take it to court and seek 3 times penalty.

edit: OK is mydeposits the insurance based one? In which case you need to find the process for recovering a deposit. Go to the mydeposits site - it is on there.

BitterAndTwisted

The deposit was registered with MyDeposits. In any case, I would send the landlord my "Letter Before Action" and copy in the agent as well. Give them ten days to return your deposit in full.

dodger1

You may find this useful

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/Privaterenting/Tenancies/DG_189120

pinkstarsx

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

The deposit was registered with MyDeposits. In any case, I would send the landlord my "Letter Before Action" and copy in the agent as well. Give them ten days to return your deposit in full.

Thank you.
They confirmed the deposit is registered with them.
However they just sent me back to my agent to get them to chase it up, not very helpful to be honest.
Townends don't seem too bothered either!
All they say is the landlord has to confirm he's happy to release the money back to us and there's nothing they can do.

I think my landlord may be in Australia as he goes there quite abit (and always said email is the best form of contact as he checks it regularly there)

I'll send him a letter but not sure when he will see it. Is there any suggestion on a template? By action i assume you mean court action?

BitterAndTwisted

Yes, court action. You can start proceeding in the Small Claims Court once you have sent your "Letter Before Action" and given them a time-limit to respond and/or return your deposit.

You don't need a template, just put in plain English that you are not aware of any proposed deductions and therefore are formally asking for the return of the whole of your deposit and are consequently giving them x number of days to respond. The only proviso is that you head your letter with the precise wording of "Letter Before Action" and give the full address of the property and the date you vacated.

I would send two copies of your letter to both the landlord and their agent, send them from two different post offices by first-class post retaining proof of postage. DO NOT send any of your four letters by Recorded Delivery as these can be declined at the door and not collected from the sorting office.

One hopes that as soon as the agents receive their copies of your letters they will realise that you mean business and will chivvy the landlord to get on with it by whatever means necessary.

princeofpounds

http://www.mydeposits.co.uk/landlords/landlord-how_it_works5-dispute.htm

Read their website more carefully. You have to raise a dispute within three months. You can do this ten days after you request the return o the deposit. Assuming your deposit is protected (and you say you have confirmed this) forget court.

It is an insurance based scheme, so they don't hold te deposit in custody.

pinkstarsx

Thank you for your help, really appreciate it.

We have send a threatening letter before when no action was carried out in regards to repairs. Nothing seems to phase him.

Does this sound ok;


LETTER BEFORE ACTION
　
　
To Mr & Mrs ___.
This letter is regarding our security deposit which has been held since yourself from our move in date - 10th July 2010 - for the property:
___________
We ended the tenancy and completed the check-out on the 7th April 2011.
We have made numerous attemps to contact yourself but to no avail.
Myself, _____ and _____ who were tenants at the above named property are not aware of any proposed deductions and are therefore asking for the return of the whole of our deposit - £1350.
You have 14 days to respond before we proceed with legal action.
Regards, [/I]


Edit to say i've filed a dispute with them - it does say you can take court action however.

princeofpounds

If the deposit is protected and you have no further claims why would you go to court over arbitration? The judge will likely not let you recover any costs if you have rejected a perfectly good forum of civil arbitration. The whole point of the legislation was to stop courts having to hear cases like this. Plus if the LL really is abroad your chances of ccj enforcement are pretty poor, whereas the deposit scheme insurance would stump the money up right away.

Court action is best for special cases.

G_M

princeofpounds wrote: »

If the deposit is protected and you have no further claims why would you go to court over arbitration? The judge will likely not let you recover any costs if you have rejected a perfectly good forum of civil arbitration. The whole point of the legislation was to stop courts having to hear cases like this. Plus if the LL really is abroad your chances of ccj enforcement are pretty poor, whereas the deposit scheme insurance would stump the money up right away.

Court action is best for special cases.

I agree. Court action is inappropriate here.

Use the Mydeposits dispute/arbitration process. It's all on their website.

pinkstarsx

Update!

Just to let you know i filed a dispute with Mydeposits at the end of April and included documents from the tenancy and all previous correspondance (email and screenshot text messages) with the Landlord.

I had emailed the landlord prior to filing the dispute who said there were 'issues' with our check out and he wasn't happy to return the money.


The dispute was passed to an adjudicator to make a decision based on each partys evidence and we received the good news last week that all the deposit would be returned!
It is already in our bank account, woohoo :-)