Landlord not protecting deposit

Wail

My landlord appears to have not protected my deposit in a housing deposit scheme. Do I have to do anything about it now or can I leave it until the end of the tenancy. Do I lose any rights to take ffurther action.

England
Contract signed after 1st May 12
6 month AST

BitterAndTwisted

Have you checked with all three deposit-protection schemes yourself yet? You should be able to enter the property address on the sites to verify: DPS, TDS and MyDeposits

Wail

Yes I have.

We have a good relationship and I don't see the point of cutting my nose off to spite my face.

bryanb

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Have you checked with all three deposit-protection schemes yourself yet? You should be able to enter the property address on the sites to verify: DPS, TDS and MyDeposits

Surely the LL is obliged to supply details of the deposit scheme he is using.

Wail

bryanb wrote: »

Surely the LL is obliged to supply details of the deposit scheme he is using.

Yes the LA provided the T&C's of the scheme but they said the LL was responsible and the contract backs this up.

I have checked all three schemes

jjlandlord

By not protecting the deposit, your landlord has lost the possibility to evict you through the s.21 route (aka. no fault route).
This means that, apart from very specific cases, as long as you pay your rent he cannot evict you.
He is also liable (along with agent if you paid the deposit to the agent) for a penalty between 1x and 3x deposit if you specifically sue for it
I would not raise the issue, and just withheld the last rent(s) if concerned that deposit is not going to be easy to get back.

It_can_get_better

jjlandlord wrote: »

This means that, apart from very specific cases, as long as you pay your rent he cannot evict you.

All they have to do is return the deposit to be able to serve a valid s21.

G_M

Wail wrote: »

My landlord appears to have not protected my deposit in a housing deposit scheme. Do I have to do anything about it now or can I leave it until the end of the tenancy. Do I lose any rights to take ffurther action.

England
Contract signed after 1st May 12
6 month AST

* If deposit is not protected, then you cannot use the scheme's arbitration process if there is a dispute about its return (ie the LL says you damaged something which you think you did not). This is why the schemes were set up.

So it may be worth writing to the LL and insisting he registers with a scheme

* If deposit is not protected the LL cannot issue a valid S21 Notice, so cannot evict you (unless you stop paying rent etc) (see this post for how your tenancy can be ended)

So it may be worth you doing nothing!

jjlandlord

It_can_get_better wrote: »

All they have to do is return the deposit to be able to serve a valid s21.

Yes, that's 'all' they have to do... Once they are actually committed to evict and have discovered that fact. At which point the landlord may be ready to consider negotiating with his tenant.
So best to keep quiet.

G_M

It_can_get_better wrote: »

All they have to do is return the deposit to be able to serve a valid s21.

Which gives the tenant another 2 months......

Werdnal

It_can_get_better wrote: »

All they have to do is return the deposit to be able to serve a valid s21.

If the LL is even aware of this. Any S21 issued without returning the deposit would be invalid, and tenant could choose to keep quiet about this and allow LL to fall flat on his face when trying to apply for court possession order!

I cannot see why LLs are still so shy of protecting deposits. Its not difficult, it can prove advantageous to them in the long run and its free. Just cannot be doing the LLs who cannot be !!!!!d to comply!

OP, if your LL is flouting this part of the regs, are you sure he is doing eveything else correctly?