Complicated house deposit claim.

capstain411

I vacated a property in Wolverhampton 4 months ago. I used to share this property with 3 other students. I was not a student when i was renting this property.

My landlord has a history of being a tw*t when it comes to returning deposit. He has until now not returned deposit to 4 tenants who have stayed at the property.

When my tenancy agreement was coming to end,I had informed him(well in advance...to be precise 6 months) that i would be having a very important exam to appear so i would like to extend it by a month . But just days before the contract was going to expire, he pressurized me to extend the contract by year. When i refused he gave me a months notice to vacate and when i explained about exam he let me stay for 40 days ( i.e 30 days notice and 10 days extra) but charged me double the rent for the extended period ( 10 days).

After my exams when i wanted to vacate the property he cooked up a story of being busy and did not turn up to receive the keys and instructed me to hand to keys to my flat mate. So took snaps of all the communal rooms and my rented room before vacating the property and vacated the property.

Now it 4 months down the line, inspite of repeated telephone calls, landlord is not willing to pay my deposit back. Landlord evades my questions for reasons for not giving deposit by saying I am being sent a letter. It is been 3 weeks since he told me that. No letter have reached me.

I am worried the landlord is going to state that because he did not charge me the council tax he is not going to give my deposit back. Although it does not state on tenancy agreement that I do not have to pay the council tax, inspite of my regular queries my landlord is to say that he will sort it out. Unfortunately I do not have any proof to substantiate this.

Can anybody suggest what I can do ?

lokiman

Hi Capstain,

That's a tough one, and the outcome depends to some extent on how the tenancy was structured. You say that you shared the premises with three others; did you all sign a single tenancy agreement, or separate agreements. If there was only one agreement, then it's likely that each of you is jointly and severally liable for any damage caused to the property above and beyond ordinary wear and tear. In these circumstances, even though you checked the communal areas and your own room, if your fellow tenants were not as fastidious with regard to their own rooms, this can be held against you as well. If you can set up the circumstances a little more fully, that would be helpful.


Cheers

capstain411

Lokiman thanks for your reply. Well the contract which we signed was were individual contracts and not common contract. As far as condition of the house is concerned, I have pictures of house with the dates and fortunately even today they house is in good condition.

lokiman

OK - Have you got a copy of the agreement that you signed that you can send to me? I'm a Barrister and would be happy to take a look at it for you. As far as council tax is concerned, my recollection from when I was practising in the UK (I practise in Bermuda these days) is that the tax is levied against the property, not the individuals living in the property. This being the case, unless the agreement specifically states that the landlord can claim a proportional indemnity from you with regard to the amount of council tax, he's out of luck on that aspect.

capstain411

thanks for all your reply. Today i called my landlord. He again started cooking a story about being busy and not able to post anything.

I lost my patience and warned him that I will have to take the matter to court. In response to that he suggested that he will not give me my money back because I had taken a telewest connection and that a hole had to be drilled into my room to get the connection. He accused me of not informing him about the connection.

I swear to god I had informed him about the connection in writing and even if he perceives this as damage to property, does a half mm hole constitute as damage to property that enables him to withhold 200 pounds of my deposit ?

Please help. £200 pounds in not the main issue over here ? the issue is this man has cheated many more students like me and i want him to face the law.

I am prepared to take the matter to small amount court. Can anybody please suggest whether that is the right thing to do.