Is an unprotected depsoit a breach of contract??

smudgebiscuit

Hi all,

We moved into our house in sept '11 and have had loads of problems with house & lanlord ( topo many to go into on here!!)
One of the issues is that our landlord hasn't put our deposit into one of the 3 schemes. It states in our tenancy agreement that he must have done this within 14 days of the signing of the agreement.
We wrote him a letter complaining about all the house problems in october -also stating that he had not protected our deposit. He refused to respond to the letter but agreed verbally after environmental health got involved to give us a months free rent to get repairs done to property-which we accepted. He didn't proptect deposit so i text him and asked him to do this again in december-he replied saying he would not do this but would refund our deposit in full without checking the property...this may sound good in theory but that's why the house was in such a state when we moved in because he'd had students renting before us and gave them deposit back without checking property 1st!!!

Anyhoo.....our tenenacy is due to run out in march but due to all the stress this man has caused us we just want to get out asap and have found a suitable house......is he in breach of contract by not protecting deposit??

DVardysShadow

Yes, he is in breach of contract also in breach of the law. But don't go thinking that it gets you out of the contract. If he is not prepared to protect it, then he should refund you. Do you have a receipt? I am just wondering whether he no longer has the money.

smudgebiscuit

Hi,

No we didn't get a receipt as such but it was paid to the estate agents at the same time as the 1st months rent.

So it really doesn't mean we can get out of the contract early!!! Oh no:mad:

So sick of this man...his latest trick was to change our gas & electric supplier over without telling us...grrrrr!!!

We have heard that we can claim some compensation or something as he hasn't protected deposit but it would mean going to court??

00ec25

smudgebiscuit wrote: »

No we didn't get a receipt as such but it was paid to the estate agents at the same time as the 1st months rent.
did you pay as one single amount - your bank statement will surely shiown the total paid and this should be reconcilable with the total; of one month's rent + an amount for the deposit. This is the proof of payment you will need


So it really doesn't mean we can get out of the contract early!!! Oh no:mad:

correct it is not grounds for you walking away from a legally binding contract that you signed


So sick of this man...his latest trick was to change our gas & electric supplier over without telling us...grrrrr!!!

Unlcear - why are the utiliy bills in hios name?? You are the tenants and unles this is an HMO then you should be paying and controlling them yourself


We have heard that we can claim some compensation or something as he hasn't protected deposit but it would mean going to court??
yes you must go to court to impose the x3 penalty BUT the LL can protect the deposit 60 seconds (online!) before the judge starts the case and so you would lose so don't hold your breath

see comments above

G_M

You need to understand the significance of him not protecting the deposit:

1) do not believe his "would refund our deposit in full without checking the property". If that is true, why does he need a deposit at all? You will have arguements over its return at the end - I almost guarantee it.

2) on the plus side, he can never serve a valid S21 Notice to evict you, as a S21 is invalid if the deposit is not protected.

However as it seems you want to leave, 2) above is not much help so I would force him to protec it - via the courts if necessary. 00ec is rright he can easily avoid the penalty, but at least you get your deposit protected and access to the dispute resolution process.

How long is your Fixed Term?

BitterAndTwisted

The very first thing I would do is to write a letter to the landlord confirming your conversation about the rent-free month. You could be in danger of the landlord going back on his word and he'd only have to give the court a copy of your rent-statement to prove your arrears. Keep a copy of your letter on file, you may need it.

Second, if you paid the deposit over to the agent I would ask them IN WRITING to confirm whether that money was transferred to the landlord or whether they arranged for it to be registered with one of the three deposit-protection schemes. Keep a copy of your letter and send it cc the landlord.

Thirdly, contact all three deposit-protection schemes right away (DPS, TDS and MyDeposits) and see if you can get written confirmation about whether they have is registered or not.

Issues of disrepair are not a good enough reason to claim that the landlord has breached your tenancy agreement and therefore cannot be used in mitigation to breach your own legally-binding obligations, alas.

Once you are clear about the deposit and have everything you need in writing the best, and only way that I can think of, is to reach a mutual agreement with the landlord for you to surrender the property IN WRITING.

There could be ways and means to ensure that you don't lose your deposit money but that can be addressed on another day once you have done points one, two and three.

smudgebiscuit

Thanks for replies..i'll try to answer the queries raised below:

did you pay as one single amount - your bank statement will surely shiown the total paid and this should be reconcilable with the total; of one month's rent + an amount for the deposit. This is the proof of payment you will need

Yes paid as single transaction to estate agent



Unlcear - why are the utiliy bills in hios name?? You are the tenants and unles this is an HMO then you should be paying and controlling them yourself

When we moved in the energy company was southern electric-within 2 days of us moving in we had a bailiff & locksmith come to the property to gain entry & to change locks for non payment of gas & electric bills by the landlord.We had already informed SE that we would be moving in 2 weeks prior to this but the landlord had not informed them he had tennants moving in & debt collection agency hadn't been informed either. We have had bills in my name from SE since september and then suddenly last month i get a letter from them saying sorry you're leaving us!! Basically don't know how it's happened but landlord has changed both gas & electicity over to British Gas without our knowledge & so now we are in the middle of a very complicated switching back process ( having to explain that we are tenants etc etc every time i call & speak to someone new)

We have written to him on 2 occasions and he point blank refuses to reply. We sent copies of both letters to Estate Agents to put on file & also to environmental health ( landlord said he was having house professionally cleaned & appliances checked/replaced before we moved in but had no cooker for 5 weeks as it was unsafe to use( he sent round an un registered'gas' man to fit 2nd hand cooker ,gas fire was condemned, house was filthy & bedrooms covered in mould)
Both estate agent & enviro health know about the rent free month that we used to get some of the decoration & minor repairs done with.
As for him offering to give us full deposit back-i don't trust this man as far as i could throw him and text him to say that i didn't want this as a verbal agreement and would still like him to put deposit into one of the schemes as stated in the tenancy agreement ( i even sent him the link to all 3 schemes and told him 2 of them were free!!) But to date he still has not done so :-(

what i don't understand is....why are there parts in our agreement about the landlord having to put deposit into scheme and must keep house in good state of repair if you can't do anything about it or leave contract early even though he has clearly breached it!!!!

Thanks

BitterAndTwisted

Why are you sending text messages to this a-hole about something as important as your own money? You've said that you don't trust him as far as you could throw him , so please get writing for your own protection. Ditto the other two letters I suggested that you write. The point isn't so you can exercise your English composition-skills.

There are ways that you can try and scupper this landlord or at least not risk everything but the writing of those three letters is only the beginning. I suspect the reason he hasn't protected your deposit, and the month rent-free in return for repairs confirms it, is that he doesn't have the money any longer. This is very worrying. I wonder how long it's going to be before the property is repossessed?

Please get writing. Pen and paper or printer and paper by First Class post. Keep proof of postage. No emails, no text-messages. You're probably going to need file copies of them so keep them somewhere safe.

Werdnal

I would 2nd B&T's advice above. If you stand any chance of getting your money back, whether or not you have to resort to legal assistance, you must have a valid and provable papertrail as proof that you have done everything correctly and followed up the LL for his side of the bargain. Text messages do not count - they get lost, can be deleted, and LL will deny all knowledge. You may feel good old traditional "snail mail" has had its day, but in these circumstances, it is the only proof you will have of any conversations, promises or deals struck with the LL, and his failures to deliver on them!

smudgebiscuit

Hi,

Thanks all for your advice. We have got copies of letters but he's never responded to any of them ( they were sent recorded) Have some text messages saved to pc as after each letter he's rang me and given me abuse down the phone that i couldn't prove so resorted to texts as at least i had some evidence of what was being said i.e. when he agreed to the month's free rent i wrote to him asking to put it in writing & that i'd also send him receipts to prove work had been done-he refused any written communication, so i have a text message trail of him agreeing to month's free rent & what it was for. Also Estate Agent & environmental Health are aware of the month's free rent agreement.

BitterAndTwisted

Send two more copies of your letter to the landlord by First Class post retaining proof of postage. Send the from two different post offices on the same day. People who are anticipating nasty letters, possibly from parties who are demanding payment rarely accept signed-for letters and never collect them from the sorting-office.

Have you sent your other letter to the agent copying in the landlord? Have you had a response?

Have you had any written confirmation back form the deposit-protection schemes?

Texts are useless unless any of the messages were confirmed un writing. Does the agent have anything in writing from the LL about this rent-free period?