My deposit has not been protected

catwood1

Hello,

Can anyone give me some advise as to what I should do.

I moved out of my rented property in April this year, the landlord wants to keep ridiculas amounts of money for work he says needs to be done in the flat (the flat hasnt had any work done to it since it was built in the 60's and he wants my deposit to redecorate) so I asked the lettings agency for the information of which deposit scheme is protecting my deposit. After 8 weeks, 10 unanswered emails and 5 phone calls they refused to give me the information. I have contacted all 3 schemes and none are holding or have ever held my deposit. It has now been over 10 weeks since I moved out and everytime I call the lettings agency they always say that they will get back to me but dont.

Please can someone advise me what to do now?

Many thanks

jjlandlord

Do you have check in and check out inventories?

In any case, stop wasting time: send a letter before action to the landlord requesting immediate refund of the deposit. Then start a money claim.

catwood1

I have check in inventory but not the check out inventory.

Do I send the letter to the landlord or to the letting agency?

Thanks for your help

RAS

The land lord as it is his repsonsibility to repay you.

00ec25

as your tenancy has now finished then recent case law has shown that after the tenancy ends courts will not award the penalty payment

therefore what you must do is this:

1. send a letter (not phone or e mail) to the LL , copied to the LA, stating that as they were in breach of the deposit protection rules you require the LL to return the deposit IN FULL, within 10 days or you will take the LL to court for failure to protect. You must head it "letter before action"

2. If the LL does not repay in full you must follow through and use the small claims route at court and the court will (automatically) award you the deposit in full because by failing to protect it, the LL loses the right to make any deductions at all from your deposit.

Note
a) it is the LL who is legally responsible, not the LA, therefore address all correspondence to the LL copied to the LA

b) the LL make try to protect the deposit even at this late stage, one of the schemes will not allow a depsoit to be protected after then end of the tenancy. If the LL succeeds with either of the other 2 then you should register a dispute with that scheme and enter the arbitration process to ensure any deductuions are then fair.

catwood1

Thank you so much for all you help, I will send a letter today recorded delivery to my landlord and a copy to the lettings agency.

jjlandlord

00ec25 wrote: »

2. If the LL does not repay in full you must follow through and use the small claims route at court and the court will (automatically) award you the deposit in full because by failing to protect it, the LL loses the right to make any deductions at all from your deposit.

I disagree.
With the threat of the 3x penalty the cheaper option for the landlord was indeed to refund the deposit in full if he could not protect it anymore. But as you said this is probably no longer the case since the possibility of 3x penalty seems to have vanished
But that does not mean that the landlord is not entitled compensation for any damage that he can prove the tenant has done.

catwood1 wrote: »

Thank you so much for all you help, I will send a letter today recorded delivery to my landlord and a copy to the lettings agency.

Personally I would not waste money on sending a copy to the agent...

catwood1

There was no damage done to the flat by me, the landlord expects me to pay for new carpit in the whole flat, new kitchen floor and painting of all rooms. When I asked for prove that the carpits etc were new when I moved in the landlord advised that the carpits and painting was done 8 years ago and the flat has had atleast 5 different tenants in that time so why should I have to pay for it. The carpits were old and stained and walls grubby and mark all of which is stated in the check in inventory.

I will send letter direct to landlord and hopefully he will return my deposit but i am not holding my breath.

RAS

THE LL is not allowed betterment, and this is betterment.

jjlandlord

catwood1 wrote: »

The carpits were old and stained and walls grubby and mark all of which is stated in the check in inventory.

What is important is the state of the flat as stated on the check in inventory with respect to the state when your tenancy ended.

Even if you had caused some damage to e.g. the carpets the landlord could not charge you the full cost of replacing them.

tbs624

Catwood - write a Letter Before Action to the LL (put those 3 words at the top of the letter) Keep a copy. Don't use RD as LL can refuse to sign: obtain a free cert of posting ( I would send two separate copies from two different post offices - he can pretend not to have received one but it is highly unlikely that both would go astray.)

Confirm the property address, the tenancy start date and your moving out date, the tenancy deposit amount and the date on which it was paid. State that you left the property in the same condition as when originally let to you, save for fair wear and tear, and refer him to the original inventory. Note in your letter that there was no corresponding inventory check out on your exit from the property.

State that you have checked with all 3 tenancy deposit schemes and know that your deposit was unprotected, contrary to the provisions of s213-215 of the Housing Act 2004. Mention briefly the dates/times of your attempts to seek resolve to date and then say that you are now formally requesting the return of your deposit monies in full within the next 10 working days, after which time you will proceed to the County Court to seek recovery of the deposit plus an award of your court costs. Stick "day 10" in your diary and then get on with issuing proceedings when/if LL does not respond satisfactorily: it's not a difficult process provided that you organise your paperwork in advance.

Google "mydeposits" and "landlords guide to fair wear and tear" , plus see here ( look at buttons on left of the screen - betterment, FW&T etc) so that you understand that even where a T has caused damage, a LL *has* to make specific allowances and cannot simply use a T's deposit as some sort of "new for old" insurance policy.

If you are able to keep the thread updated as you go along it can help other Ts who may face similar issues.