Housing Advice - Deposit Back

kittiwoz

My brother had to take his letting agency to the small claims court over an unfairly kept deposit and there was nothing simple about it. It could have been worse though. Have you seen EagerLearner's thread over on the buying and renting houses board? And a wrongfully held deposit is much more clear-cut than problems with the standard of housing or repairs. If you have to arrange for repairs to be done yourself you have to write to the landlord notifying them of the need for repairs, then write saying you will arrange it yourself it they don't do the repairs in a couple of weeks, then get 3 quotes, write to the landlord again with the quotes saying you will go ahead if they do not have them done within the next couple of weeks, then get the work done and pay for it (so you have to have enough money to do that), then write to the landlord including a receipt and asking him to reimburse you, if he doesn't then you have to write and say you will deduct the money from the rent and how much you will deduct over what period, then you can deduct the money from the next months rent. I would not describe that as a simple process myself and you would still have to live with the problem for a minimum of six weeks.

You're not supposed to have to go to the small claims court and spend time and money preparing your case or arrange repairs yourself or even chase the landlord to have repairs done and I think it is daft to move in somewhere were you actually anticipate that it is going to be the case. Far better to get a house where the landlord has signed an agreement , albeit a voluntary one, saying he will undertake to arrange urgent repairs within 5 days of their being reported and where you have the support of MSH to see that he does.

I did actually say that the OP shouldn't have put down a deposit when they weren't ready to sign the contract and if they had read the guides to house-hunting and renting on the MSH sites then they would have know not to.