Subletting Landlord refusing to return my deposit.

nadnerb_2

centretap wrote: »

So are you saying she is renting the property as as tenant and then sub letting rooms to lodgers? If so does the landlord know what is going on?

If the landlord is in the dark it would only be fair to enlighten them

Yep, she is renting then subletting (I believe at a hefty profit) and has pets. Whether this is in her tenancy agreement I don't know, but I shall be contacting the landlord to let them know. As well as a few other things I'm sure they'd be interested to know regarding their tenant.

G_M wrote: »

We do not know if she was subletting 'legally' or 'illegally'. We simply have no information about her status. Owner? (apparantly not). Tenant? (probobly - but not not all tenancies forbid sub-letting).

But none of that is relevant. Since the OP (nadnerb) was sharing property and facilities with his (sorry... her?) landlord, he/she was a LODGER. Tenancy deposit schemes only apply to .... tenancies.

Given the history I would have stayed long enough to use up the deposit amount (or stocked up for the future with loo paper!), however now?

Move on and forget the whole sorry episode. If Madlady sends you texts/letters/emails/etc just ignore. Madlady won't go as far as small claims court for the damage/key etc but if she did she'd lose.

How to get £50 back? Ask for it? :rotfl:

Sorry - seriously, you could take her to a small claims court but honestly quite apart from the cost (OK you can can claim costs) and the time, it is not worth the STRESS>

There is absolutely no damage, dirt or wear and tear at all and I returned the key. Honestly, all her claims are completely unfounded and since rebutting her claims I haven't heard from her.

PS. I am a he.

nadnerb_2

So an update on this.

I've long since moved out but I am still in touch with one of the [STRIKE]victims[/STRIKE] housemates.
It turns out the 'landlord' has moved out and let her room.
So the 4 bed house now contains 4 subletting tenants.

Am I right in thinking this changes things and the 4 tenants now actually have some rights and are no longer lodgers?
I ask as my friend will be [STRIKE]escaping[/STRIKE] moving out soon and we guess the 'landlord' is going to try the old 'keeping the deposit' trick!

BitterAndTwisted

Why do you care? I realise that you feel like you've been treated badly but it doesn't make you look terribly charming by thinking about doing something underhand. For the sake of fifty quid. My advice is to draw a line under it and move on. Doing sh!tty things to other people is corrosive to the soul

If you're really intent in causing trouble I would suggest that you pay four quid and get the info about the property on the Land Registry website.

RAS

Have you downloaded the land registry record to find out who owns the house (it costs £4 I think)

Have you checked that it is not a local authority or HA property? or that she is no claiming LHA/HB for it?

nadnerb_2

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Why do you care? I realise that you feel like you've been treated badly but it doesn't make you look terribly charming by thinking about doing something underhand. For the sake of fifty quid. My advice is to draw a line under it and move on. Doing sh!tty things to other people is corrosive to the soul

If you're really intent in causing trouble I would suggest that you pay four quid and get the info about the property on the Land Registry website.

No, I forgot about the £50 long ago. (I paid far more in agency fees to move out of that place!)

The issue is my friend/old housemate could potentially lose her whole deposit to this woman. She has no receipt or bank records as she was forced to pay deposit via cash!

I only managed to get most of my deposit back by not paying the rent for the last month, which she's not going to fall for again.

RAS wrote: »

Have you downloaded the land registry record to find out who owns the house (it costs £4 I think)

Have you checked that it is not a local authority or HA property? or that she is no claiming LHA/HB for it?

I haven't got the registry records just yet, but once my friend moves out then I shall be contacting the actual landlord.

Its definitely a private rental property.
And RE: the last point: I suspect this might possibly be the case, yes. while working and collecting 4 lots of rent too!

BitterAndTwisted

Well, if she hasn't actually moved abroad yet you could always have a chat with the HMRC. They might be interested in a load of unearned income not declared on a tax return.

If she's away now, once your pal moves out the remaining lodgers could have a think about changing the locks if they were full of mischief

nadnerb_2

But since she has moved out aren't the 4 people currently living there no longer lodgers and therefore their deposits should be held in a DPS plus they should now have various other rights?

She is abroad, apparently. Due back in a few months where she has already stated to my friend that she will kick someone out so she can move back in. On what grounds? another broken freezer? lol

THAT is how crazy this woman is!
In the 6 months since I moved in, there has been 7 people move in/out of rooms in that house. says it all! :mad:

Badger_Lady

nadnerb wrote: »

But since she has moved out aren't the 4 people currently living there no longer lodgers and therefore their deposits should be held in a DPS plus they should now have various other rights?

Not necessarily... if the 'landlord' has another residence then it could be so, but if she's just travelling and remains a UK resident (by not leaving the UK for more than 6 months at a time) then it's much less grey.

She's not necessarily doing anything wrong at all. Other than apparently getting confused about a deposit amount (did you send a copy of your bank statement showing the correct amount?).

It seems to be that you've had too many written / confused messages between the two of you, got a bit emotional about it, then finally concluded the matter. But now you're trying to dig it up and make it into something again..? Let go of the anger now... it does the soul no good at all.

nikki1520

Surely, if the 4 people living in the house are not connected (not of the same family) then this falls to be a HMO, with all the red tape and regulations this involves. Most local authorities will inspect these, and seem to take a dim view of unregistered ones.

So, you could report it to the local council, or as Badger Lady says, get your mate out of there and forget about it, until it becomes a "funny story" in a few years.

nadnerb_2

Don't worry, I'm not angry and I had forgotten about it and moved on. It already is and in fact always was a funny story! :rotfl:

But since my friend will be moving out soon I don't want her to lose more money to this woman so would be good to know where she stands since the situation has now changed.

AFAIK, she doesn't have another residence and has moved overseas for 3 months.