tenant stopped DD

real1314

Gorgeous_George wrote:

The deposit is not the last month's rent.

I suggest you write to them requesting payment of the rent in the first instance. Most tenancy agreements afford the LL the right to charge interest on late rent at 'base rate+'. Remind them of these. Maybe LLs should be able to charge for such letters in the way that banks do.


GG

Although the OFT say that standard charges for letter "may be unlawful", they do allow landlords to recover the cost of charges made by a letting agent for the issue of such a letter. It would therefore be difficult to contest a charge made by a landlord for their own "reasonable costs", subject to this being included in the agreement. many agreements include a charge, typically £10, which might be seen as excessive (maybe not though) however the OFT do not like charges that are not clear, so a clause that just said "reasonable costs" may aslo cause problems. Perhaps "reasonable costs, not exceeding £10 per letter" would be the way to go.

david29dpo

nelly wrote:

The amount of threads I have seen where LL have tried to stiff tenants over for the deposit, I 'm sure this will become much more common place.

if you had bothered to read my post properly, i am not trying to "stiff" my tenants. please keep your bitterness to yourself. update.... have been to see the house today, it is as new. i gave them there deposit back and they gave me 3 day rent back. we are all happy and i wished them well in there new house. nelly take note.

silvercar

very generous landlord!

when did they actually give notice?

I understood notice needs to end at the end of a tanancy period, so if the rent month ends on 13 Dec, they need to have given notice by 13 Nov. If not then they are obliged to pay til 13 Jan.

Have you got the next tenants lined up, or are you landed with a void?

shellsuit

david29dpo wrote:

if you had bothered to read my post properly, i am not trying to "stiff" my tenants. please keep your bitterness to yourself. update.... have been to see the house today, it is as new. i gave them there deposit back and they gave me 3 day rent back. we are all happy and i wished them well in there new house. nelly take note.

Nelly wasn't suggesting you were trying to stiff your tenants, he was just making a point on what he has seen and heard about that's all - he wasn't being bitter at all

david29dpo

silvercar wrote:

very generous landlord!

when did they actually give notice?

I understood notice needs to end at the end of a tanancy period, so if the rent month ends on 13 Dec, they need to have given notice by 13 Nov. If not then they are obliged to pay til 13 Jan.

Have you got the next tenants lined up, or are you landed with a void?

they hinted they may be moving after xmas about two months ago, but called about two weeks ago to say it may be before xmas! it was only Wednesday when they told me they were moving out today/tomorrow. you are right about the dates and notice, and should really have paid up till the 13th of jan, but they do have a lot on there plates at the moment, with them buying a house, so i dont mind. the house is being sold ASAP so no new tenants. lets hope it sells quickly!

david29dpo

ps. my solicitor has informed me that it is legal to withhold deposit for damage AND unpaid rent. this is news to me!

greencat_2

I'm glad it's all turned out well - and good on you for being so flexible.

There's another dimension to this. Some tenants will find it difficult financially to have two deposits at the same time - which is effectively what you have to do if you don't get it back prior to sorting a new place. So you can see why the temptation is there.

Personally I've never been stiffed by the landlord and always had enough cash to pay the last month's rent. Ocassionally the landlord has assumed that the last month's rent comes out of the deposit - which has been fine by me also.

Finally any landlord who did try to take my deposit without good reason would quickly find out it wouldn't be worth the money as I would be losing sets of door keys and direction instructions to any local homeless people I met on the street. I don't necessarily need the deposit back - but I hate being screwed over. Better to part on good terms if you can.

Clive67

lynzpower wrote:

they have probably been advised by some dumb person to withhoold the last months rent. i see advice like that given everywhere.

Id phone them and say why havnet you paid? see what they say. fairly sure you can keep the deposit in fact I expect they are expecting you to anyway iyswim

Not sure why you say it is dumb to with hold the last month's rent to safeguard a deposit. Sadly many many landlords don't return deposits in full for things they have no right to with hold money for. If your deposit equals your last month's rent (in money terms) then it is good advice for a tenant to with hold it.

I say this as someone who rented out a property and never received the last two months rent and they left the property in a state but even so I still think many tenants cannot trust their landlords to repay them their deposit.

prudryden

Clive67 wrote:

Not sure why you say it is dumb to with hold the last month's rent to safeguard a deposit. Sadly many many landlords don't return deposits in full for things they have no right to with hold money for. If your deposit equals your last month's rent (in money terms) then it is good advice for a tenant to with hold it.

I say this as someone who rented out a property and never received the last two months rent and they left the property in a state but even so I still think many tenants cannot trust their landlords to repay them their deposit.

I'm sure Lynz meant that for the tenant to not pay the last's months rent and imply that it should be taken out of the security deposit is a breach of the contract. Quite often on these boards and elsewhere, we see people telling tenants not to pay the last months rent. That is not very good advice.

abaxas

prudryden wrote:

I'm sure Lynz meant that for the tenant to not pay the last's months rent and imply that it should be taken out of the security deposit is a breach of the contract. Quite often on these boards and elsewhere, we see people telling tenants not to pay the last months rent. That is not very good advice.

Not paying the last months rent is usually the best thing to do providing you can guarentee not to have any deductions.

It protects the tenant from dodgy landlords (sadly still in the majority) and the even more dodgy letting agents. That is not to say there are not good ones about.

There is little risk. If the LL goes to reclaim the last months rent, counter sue for the deposit. It's basically a zero sum game, with the tenant holding the trump card.