PLease help! - Deposit not in scheme!! landlord has it

dxangel

Can anyone help?

ive been renting the property now for 3 and a half years and we have decided to move on - speaking to the landlord tonight, she made it clear she is not willing to give our deposit back - preferring to spend it on doing up the property "to her particular standards"

We have been here for 4 years, we have always paid our rent and until now had a good relationship with the landlord ( the property is a attached annexe ) The carpets are grubby as would be expected after 4 years - we plan to steam clean then. Any other damage was reported to the landlord ( a broken light, they didnt fix it ) and a chip in the wall which we have had repaired at our expense.

Flicking through the tenancy agreement i noticed that the landlord is holding the deposit herself - i moved here in feb 2008 - the deposit is NOT in a scheme. The tenancy is a assured shorthold tenancy which i have re-signed each year.

I dont know how to dispute the deposit as is not in a scheme or what else i can do to get my deposit back!!!!!

HELP!

G_M

Is this England/Wales?

If so, write to the LL and ask which scheme your deposit is registered with. Enclose details from here.
At the same time (just to be sure) contact each of the 3 schemes yourself to check.

If you get no joy, take the LL to court (BEFORE the tenancy ends) and you can claim 3 times the deposit (plus expenses).

Failing all this - if when you move out
a) the deposit is still not regisyered and
b) the LL refuses to return it

then use the Small Claims Court.

dxangel

!!!!

the tenancy ends on sunday - is that enough time?

i checked its not registered with any of the schemes

BitterAndTwisted

Was there a dual-signed inventory at the start of your tenancy? If not, the landlord is going to have a very hard job indeed of persuading any judge that their deductions or retention of the deposit is justified. To start a claim will cost you in the region of £50. Well worth the effort if you have evidence.

Meanwhile, get those carpets cleaned and scrub the place to within an inch of its life. Take dated photographs of EVERYTHING just before you hand the keys back.

dxangel

thanks where do i start a claim?

also, the property is an attached annexe and the rent included all bills. we signed an AST which mentions the housing act 1998 . there is one internal door adjoining the 2 dwellings, which the LL used for access to the garage, across our downstairs hallway. but she never came p to the living area once in the time we have been here - and the tenancy states she would need 24 hours notice.

i just hope i am a tenant here not a lodger. but we have operated under tenancy agreement rules.

dxangel

also ; there was no inventory and the place was far from excessively clean when i moved in.

Yorkie1

If there is no inventory then the LL cannot prove the condition of the property at the start of the tenancy and thus cannot justify deductions at the end, as a general rule.

She can protect the deposit online if she so chooses but I suspect she is not going to do so.

Given the time pressures I'd probably ignore the 3x deposit penalty issue, do as others say by cleaning and taking lots of photos - including down the toilet and inside / on top of cupboards etc. Then, if she does not return your deposit within a week or so, come back on here and people will advise you on the best letter to write to her before starting action in the small claims court.

Do you have evidence that you paid the deposit? Is it mentioned in the tenancy agreement? Do you still have proof that you paid it? (e.g. a bank statement from the time you started the rental, a receipt etc).

G_M

You may be a occupier with basic protection Use Shelter's tenancy checker here.

If you need to claim back the deposit, and it has not been protected, see here for online claims. No inventory? You have a strong case.

If you wish to bring a claim this week before the tenancy ends for the 3 times penalty, see Landlordlawblog here:
"
The precise court procedure to be used is unclear
Before the court website was changed recently, there was a note on the HMCS site which said that claims in respect of the tenancy deposit regulations should be made using a procedure known as ‘part 8′ (becuase it falls under part 8 of the Civil Procedure Rules).
I can’t find that note any more. The only reference I can find to claims under section 214 of the Housing Act 2004 is in (f) of 56.1 of the CPR here. I assume that tenancy deposit claims still need to be made under Part 8, but as the rules do not seem to say anything, I assume that if people bring a claim under the ‘normal’ procedure, they will not be penalised."

This was dated April 2011 - others here may have up-to-date advice on the procedure, or speak to your local court for procedural advice.

chris1973

When I rent a property I always use the services of a professional local cleaning company to visit during the last few days of the tenancy. The cost of this, is around £60 - £90 a fraction of the deposit and i've never had any complaints whatsoever with what i've got for my money, for that I got around 4 - 5 hours worth of cleaning and the property has always been immaculate when they've finished. Just choose a 'proper' company with insurance etc, and it probably won't work out much more expensive than hiring a cleaning machine and buying shampoo. You can find them advertising on Landlord discussion forums and Gumtree etc

I've only had one occurance where the Landlord tried to be !!!! over returning a deposit, citing reasons that the property hadn't been cleaned before vacating. Upon producing the dated receipt for the services of the company just 36 hours before handing over the keys to prove diligence on my part, resulted in an immediate change of attitude, and my deposit was delivered personally!.

To be fair, apart from general wear and tear, after 3.5 / 4 years occupancy and by your own admission the carpets being 'grubby' its not unreasonable for your LL to expect you to clean them, and any fitted appliances etc and basically return the property back to the standard it was when you moved in (allowing for 4 years' worth of fair wear and tear, which would cover damage from wear, colour fading etc but not dirt)

clutton_2

my memory may be poor here... but i think the deposit protection scheme came in April 2008..... so unless another tenancy agreement has been signed since OP moved in then the protection does not apply...

BornAtTheRightTime

dxangel wrote: »

The tenancy is a assured shorthold tenancy which i have re-signed each year.

Therefore the deposit protection legislation does apply.