Time limit for suing landlord?

davidkingston147

Hi everyone,

My wife and I moved out of a flat about 18 months ago and our deposit was securied with a government scheme through the letting agent. When we moved out there were no problems at check out but months later when we chased for our deposit (£2,100) we were told the landlord had taken all of it to pay for repairs. I emailed the landlord and she gave me a list of 'repairs' that she had made but these were things like new carpets and curtains and bathroom tiles which they had never mentioned during the checkout. The bathroom did have a large number of damaged tiles but the landlord had told us about these before we moved in and she had refused to repair them while we lived there. Similarly, the carpets were very old and damaged in places before we moved in, and the curtains were damaged with damp. So they seem to have charged us to replace them when they weren't new to begin with.

The letting agent said she couldn't contact me after we moved out because we hadn't left our forwarding address. I'm sure we gave her a piece of paper with our new address, but even if we can't prove that, I CAN prove that for months before we moved out, the same agent had emailed and phoned us on numerous occasions, and she had my work address which hasn't changed, so not being able to contact us seems like a flimsy excuse.

We had so many other problems with this flat and we were busy with our new place and a new baby, so we never got around to thinking about suing before now and to be honest, neither of us felt up to a legal fight, but I was wondering if it is now too late to appeal under the government deposit scheme?

Also, we had problems with the central heating not working in winter and had to buy and use electric heaters for every room. When there were more severe problems like having no water at all because of blocked pipes, we had to move out and stay in hotels or bed and breakfasts for several days at a time. The landlord always refused to compensate us at the time. If we wanted to claim for these sorts of things, would it also be too late? Under what legal reason would we be able to claim?

I'd appreciate any advice at all.

Thanks very much

David

agrinnall

You certainly haven't made it easy for yourself by leaving it such a long time. The deposit issue should have been dealt with by disputing the deductions with the scheme where it was registered, but it may be too late to use that route now (I don't know much about it as I'm in Scotland). I believe that in general you can take legal action up to 6 years later, and that may now be your only option. Whether you stand a chance of winning really depends on what evidence you now have to show that the deductions made were for betterment rather than repairs.

It may be possible to include a claim for expenses when you had to move out in the same action, but again it could be difficult to prove that you had a valid reason for moving out given the passage of time. I presume that you kept the electric heaters when you left the property and therefore you wouldn't be able to claim for them (although you could possibly justify a claim for extra electricity uses, if you were able to quantify it).

g_attrill

I think even if they couldn't contact you they should have sent a list of deductions to the deposit company within the time limit, so I would be contacting the deposit company to see what the agent/landlord sent to them them, when the money was released and under what circumstances.

DVardysShadow

Taking the matter to the deposit scheme arbitration is now out of the question. But you could sue in the small claims court.

But I have to question whether your money was with a scheme, because I thought you had to authorise the release of the deposit to the landlord. So if you did actually authorise this, then you probably won't get far with a court claim.

Not saying that a court claim is anon starter - on the face of it, you have a fair case if you have the evidence as to what the money was spent on. And if you have a fair case, you should take it forward.

dodger1

Were the damaged tiles and damaged carpet shown on the check in inventory when you first took the flat?