Ex wants his deposit back - is he entitled?

Dicegirly

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Some questions:

When you started the tenancy with him was it a joint and several one?

Did the landlord register the deposit paid to them in cash in one of the three tenancy-deposit schemes?

When the relationship ended was that at the same time as the original tenancy ended?

Did he give you any notice that he was going and possibly leaving in the lurch to find all the rent on your own?

When did the new sole-tenancy start and what happened to the original deposit?

What recompense will the landlord be seeking from you to put right the damage he has done?

Yes it was a joint tenancy agreement, and all the agreement states is that a deposit was received from us both. The deposit is in a tenancy deposit scheme yes.

He told me about a week beforehand that he was moving out and he had already arranged somewhere else to move to with a friend, so must have known for some time himself.
The deposit is still in the same scheme as it was, on the new agreement his name was just removed from the form. Most recently this was signed a few weeks ago, but there had been one for the previous year which was the same as the current one.

I do not know yet how much I will have to pay to replace the damage to the floors, but I have no intention of moving out any time soon. If I were to move, I would have no means to get another deposit for somewhere else, and have nowhere to go to. I am currently already in a fairly poor state financially as it is, I am just about managing to pay everything on my own, but I have nothing spare, and I certainly don't have this money to give back to him.

For those people who have suggested that I should have said something previously if I was unhappy with the arrangement, I was not. It was the arrangement we had because he got paid 4 weekly, rather than monthly, so it made having direct debits from his accounts tricky, so it made sense for us to pay for things like that. I had assumed that any issue he had with leaving the deposit where it was would have been raised when he moved out, and at that time, everything had been sorted that needed to be and we were moving on.

My reason for posting this in the first place was to ascertain if he had any legal right to expect the return of money that he paid, and then left when he moved out a year ago.

BitterAndTwisted

OK, this would be my position. You left me in the lurch with little notice. I was legally obliged to pay all of the rent in full on my own. Thanks for that. Your deposit monies were used to compensate the landlord for the damage you caused to the X and the Y when the tenancy ended. I therefore know that I owe you nothing. You're bloody lucky that I haven't been hounding you for all the money I think you owe me. Goodbye.

RadoJo

If you're looking for a legal opinion then you might be best posting this on the 'House buying and renting board' as there will be folks on there who know more about the legal position when it comes to deposits.

BitterAndTwisted

The legal position has already been clarified and a suitable and legal response has been provided. I could provide a not-strictly-legal but much more forthright response to the ex if the OP needs one, as I am sure they can, too.

onlyroz

In the time that you were living together, what proportion of the total joint expenditure (rent, bills, food, repairs, holidays, cars, meals out, takeaways etc) did he contribute? Until you tell us this, we cannot hope to advise on whether you owe him a bean.