Housing Advice - Deposit Back

cool_pinkie

Hi,

My friends decided to leave a 50 pound deposit each to secure a house. They got a receipt. When we went for another look though we were told the house had mice, the showers didn't work and the landlord was rubbish.

Does anyone know if they are legally allowed the money back and the best way to go about it?

Cheers

Oldernotwiser

cool_pinkie wrote:

Hi,

My friends decided to leave a 50 pound deposit each to secure a house. They got a receipt. When we went for another look though we were told the house had mice, the showers didn't work and the landlord was rubbish.

Does anyone know if they are legally allowed the money back and the best way to go about it?

Cheers

Who told them this? If they're students already living there, perhaps they've an axe to grind!

cool_pinkie

Well we were trying to find a house to rent for next year and I think they just put the money down to secure it as the landlord asked them too.

The full deposit is 350. I think they just wanted to make sure we got it but then we went again and saw what it was really like!

Thanks

3plus1

Did they sign anything?

Gingernutmeg

Not sure if this is accurate but when my partner and I were looking to rent we were told that if we pulled out of the agreement, we weren't entitled to any of the money back, but if the letting agency or landlord pulled out, then we could get the deposit back. That happened to us, and although we had to fight the LA, we did in the end get our £250 back.

I'm not entirely sure about the situation here though - technically your friends are pulling out of the agreement although it sounds like they have reason to. If they are renting through an agency, the best course of action would be to speak to them asap, highlighting their concerns. It's probably a good idea to do that with a landlord too, and go from there. They need to be tactful though ...

hostie

Yes this sounds very straight forward to me. I´d suggest just asking (nicely) for it first. If that fails, write to the person who you gave the money to. If that fails contact your student welfare office or your student union for legal help. I am sure you will get it back easily. It isn´t really a lot of money. The sooner you approach the person though the better.

hostie

Yes this sounds very straight forward to me. I´d suggest just asking (nicely) for it first. If that fails, write to the person who you gave the money to. If that fails contact your student welfare office or your student union for legal help. I am sure you will get it back easily. It isn´t really a lot of money. The sooner you approach the person though the better.

kittiwoz

cool_pinkie wrote:

When we went for another look though we were told the house had mice, the showers didn't work and the landlord was rubbish.

TBH that sounds like an awful lot of student houses. My boyfriend's had no hot water or central heating in his house for a couple of months and we have mice nesting in the sofa. Most student landlords aren't overly quick to get stuff fixed.

£350 seems a lot for the deposit btw. It is usually 1 months rent, which assuming half rent July and August would equate to £74 per week which is a heck of a lot round here so I guess for that should get a nice house with all (functioning) mod cons, and ensuites.

I think you'll have difficulty getting the money back because myself because if the landlord would have been happy to give it you back if you pulled out then he wouldn't have asked you for it in the first place. Did you find it through manchester student homes? You'll be able to get your money back if so because it is against the code for landlords to make demands for deposits or rent before a contract is signed and exchanged (presuming it is a code property which I'm assuming it definitely would be with such a high rent).

Edit: If you didn't get it through Manchester Student homes and/or it is not a code property then consider it a lucky escape and learn from your mistake when you look for another house. There is very little protection for tenants so don't lay yourself open to exploitation any more than you have to. I think we're lucky to have MSH so make the most of it. Read the guides on their website (like the one where it says not to hand over any sort of deposit until you are ready to sign the contract) which give you a lot of good info about your rights and what to look for when you are house-hunting and get them to have a look over any future contract before you sign. You can still go to MSH for advice on housing problems if your landlord isn't registered with them but they won't hold the same sway as they would with a registered landlord who they could impose sanctions on. Also if the landlord isn't registered with MSH you might want to be asking yourself why that is. He might know he wouldn't meet their standards and have no wish to meet them or he might even have been kicked off.

Blacksheep1979

The £50 will be a holding deposit and you won't get it back if you don't take the house. If you do take the house then the landlord will be responsible for sorting all the problems and if he doesn't there are ways to get it sorted or claim compensation.

kittiwoz

Blacksheep1979 wrote:

If you do take the house then the landlord will be responsible for sorting all the problems and if he doesn't there are ways to get it sorted or claim compensation.

If the landlord didn't sort out the problems for the last tenants I wouldn't expect him to be in a hurry to do it for the OP. Could you expand on the topic of ways to get it sorted or claim compensation? As I understand it it is very difficult to get such problems sorted. It is possible to arrange repairs yourself and claw the money back by deducting it from the rent but it is a lengthy process, a lot of hassle and you have to pay for the work yourself before you can start making any deductions, otherwise you can be evicted. See here. I have never heard of any way to claim compensation but if one does exist I would be very interested to know about it.

Ultimately I don't think the OP should take the house though. The current tenants have said the landlord is a bad landlord, they have said the house is in a state which would not meet the code, the landlords actions in taking a holding deposit do not meet the standards of the code. So where else does it not meet code standards? Are the fire safety measures up to code standards? The security measures? Are you going to have problems getting your deposit back? If you have problems, like the showers not being fixed, then you have a landlord who hasn't agreed to MSH acting as an intermediary to sort them out. Ultimately there is a lot of crummy student housing in Manchester and a lot of dodgy landlords but there is also MSH to protect you so it makes sense to take a code property. The only sensible reason I can think of for taking a non-code property is if it is a lot cheaper than you can find a code property for, which doesn't sound at all the case here.

Blacksheep1979

kittiwoz wrote:

If the landlord didn't sort out the problems for the last tenants I wouldn't expect him to be in a hurry to do it for the OP. Could you expand on the topic of ways to get it sorted or claim compensation? As I understand it it is very difficult to get such problems sorted. It is possible to arrange repairs yourself and claw the money back by deducting it from the rent but it is a lengthy process, a lot of hassle and you have to pay for the work yourself before you can start making any deductions, otherwise you can be evicted. See here. I have never heard of any way to claim compensation but if one does exist I would be very interested to know about it.

Ultimately I don't think the OP should take the house though. The current tenants have said the landlord is a bad landlord, they have said the house is in a state which would not meet the code, the landlords actions in taking a holding deposit do not meet the standards of the code. So where else does it not meet code standards? Are the fire safety measures up to code standards? The security measures? Are you going to have problems getting your deposit back? If you have problems, like the showers not being fixed, then you have a landlord who hasn't agreed to MSH acting as an intermediary to sort them out. Ultimately there is a lot of crummy student housing in Manchester and a lot of dodgy landlords but there is also MSH to protect you so it makes sense to take a code property. The only sensible reason I can think of for taking a non-code property is if it is a lot cheaper than you can find a code property for, which doesn't sound at all the case here.

If the house isn't up to spec and or you were told it has xyz amenity then you can simply claim back through the small claims court. The process of getting (essential) things fixed is relatively simple too. Write to the landlord a couple of times get 3 quotes for the work inform the landlord that if he doesn't have it fixed within a reasonable period of time you will employ cheapest quote to get it done. Next rent day pay (rent - cost of repair).

Maybe the op shouldn't take the house but maybe they should also have checked it out before putting a deposit down as well...