Spill the beans... on getting deposits back from landlords

IanMitchel

Lum wrote: »

I think that depends.

I used to know a guy who owned about 20 houses, mostly slums, and basically did no work. Farmed the management out to letting agencies and lived off the profits.

True - landloards with many properties can do that but there are lots of part-time landloards that will never get that luxury and cannot afford any hiccups.

I'm not pleading poverty but do spare a thought for landloards - good 'uns risk and invest a lot of money in to their property for little return.

Innys

IanMitchel wrote: »

I'm not pleading poverty but do spare a thought for landloards - good 'uns risk and invest a lot of money in to their property for little return.

I can't agree with this. After all, if you expect to get little return, why are you bothering?

Where you are correct is initially, the return is minimal, or in fact, negative. However, as rents inevitably rise, the mortgage a landlord pays doesn't fluctuate a great deal so, in the long term, you'll be quids in.

To state, though, that landlords are not wealthy is, a touch disingenuous, IMHO.

sharpee

We're currently struggling ot get our deposit back from our last LL. After many letters with no reposnse we raised a dispute with our Deposit scheme and within 2 days had a response from our LL.

Despite our requests he didn't let us know when the check out inspection was so we didn't get to attend. The Check out was not carried out in conjunction with the dual sugned inventory with all the amendments on. The check out report has many things we diagree with and the letter outlining the deductions the LL is propsoing contains mostly issues that are not even listed in the check out. :mad: LL has strongly insisted we drop our dispute. We have let him know we will if he returns our deposit minus the couple of issues we agree too. If he's not happy with that and doesn't want to use the deposit scheme arbritation then we are happy to take it to a Small Claims court.

We're still awaiting his reply

leftieM

We had to threaten court action twice to get our deposit back from our LL. He was very cross about that. His excuse was that he was 'busy'.
The irony is that we bought the house next door to where we rent and you'd think it would be in the LL's interests not to poop on the neighbours but that was not the case.

afm_2

Hello,

we have left our previous rented accomodation almost a month ago. On our last day there, we had someone from the estate agent come around and film the whole place and we gave her the keys. She then told us that we would receive the deposit back 2 weeks after that. It will be 4 weeks on Monday and we haven't received anything back. We sent them an email and they said they would look into it and get back to us but they didn't. Now I am starting to worry. Do I have to ask someone else (like the deposit scheme thing) for the deposit back? Is it normal for it to take this long to get the deposit back?

Thank you for any help!

katnoodle

We're due to end our tenancy in a flat at the weekend. Our landlords have been incredibly frustrating to deal with, as there have been a number of small issues, none of them urgent, with the property that haven't been resolved. The plumbing really needs sorting - the taps in the bathroom drip incessantly. As we're on a meter, we're paying for every drop wasted. The cold tap of the bath needs to be kept off because it really leaks otherwise - hence not a single bath since we moved in a year ago, and I like my baths! It's also caused limescale stains in the bath as it drips so much. Reported this several times, first time in October last year - they did send a plumber round but I just missed him as I had to stay late at work and LL didn't swap our phone numbers. (They also live round the corner and have a key but didn't think to let him in themselves.)

In the shed one of the plastic window panes popped out and a wasp's nest appeared - we handed over the shed keys to get this fixed in February and nothing's happened since. I've asked for the keys back several times so we can access our own property in the shed but to no avail.

There are a couple of wear and tear breakages - inside letterbox fell off (angry postman?!) and handle of one of the windows came off as we tried to open it. These two things haven't been reported because there's almost no point bothering. It's a husband and wife team and the husband can be pretty unpleasant on the phone - the last tenant told us (after we moved in) that he swore at her down the phone just for reporting a broken fence (broken again now, reported in May, nothing done ...).

We will clean the place thoroughly and we've never had any part of a deposit withheld before. Our last two LLs commented on what great tenants we were. :A The check-in, check-out inventory service is provided by the agent and is very thorough, we'll be with the chap who's inspecting it at the end of the tenancy.

Basically what I'm seeking advice on is, if the deposit is withheld for any reason (and we'll do all we can to get the place spotless) can we counter-claim as we haven't been able to use the shed or bath for all or part of the tenancy? The dripping taps have cost us money, and really don't think LLs are interested in maintaining anything at all.

totally_bonkers

Dragnfly wrote: »

I know that this is ethically unsound - but to guarantee getting your deposit back, simply withhold your last months rent, (or more if it is required to equal the deposit). This way, if any hoohaa arises, your landlord will have to go to court to pursue you for the owed rent - at which point the issue of deposit protection will obviously raise it's head.
Boot on other foot.

Please don't shout at me (I am a landlord, not a tenant). Lots of dodgier tenants already do this as a matter of routine anyway. If you consider yourself to be a good honest tenant with a potentially bad landlord, this is your answer.

Bear in mind, it is possible you might end up in court, so please be sure that your deposit has not been protected before doing this.

Any comments welcome.

I had this happen to me during my early days as a landlord. The agent I was using told me the tenant was waiting for assistance from various agencies so as to be able to pay his rent. Unfortunately, I have always taken people as being honest - how wrong could I be. This carried on for 2 months and then the tenant disappeared leaving an absolute tip of what was a beautiful cottage. I subsequently found out that the agent and tenant were colluding and they each took a share of my lost rental.
Now that I am older and wiser (I hope) I take an extra £100 over the month's deposit so if they do a runner leaving their deposit as rent at least I have a small sum to help out with repairs. It has worked so far.
With regard to deposit agencies - I used one through a notable estate/lettings agent (I paid for the privilege) and found that the tenants and I had so much trouble getting their deposit back that I refused to do this again and kept subsequent deposits in a separate bank account. I have now been in touch with DPS and I feel that they may be the right people to use so I am risking my deposits with them. Fingers crossed.

sharpee

So we've finally heard back from My Deposits Arbitration.

Out of the £660 our LL was trying to retain he was only awarded to keep £80!!!! :T:j:T:j

So glad they found in our favor as he was really trying it on with no evidence to support his claims.

Just so glad it's all over and hopefully will never have to go thru the process again now we own our home.

Firemunchkin

We too have had success with the Deposit Protection Scheme against our landlords. My earlier post outlined that the landlords had offered us to move out early but then tried to make us pay for rent beyond our move-out date. To be fair it was mainly the agents who were winding the landlords up and ruined what was otherwise a very good relationship between us and our landlords. The agents also tried to claim they had had to pay professional cleaners.

We fought them all the way. But even I - and I've studied law - was getting my confidence knocked and started to think we should just give up as we wouldn't win. That's how good estate agents are at getting you to give up your money.

I'm so glad we stayed strong. When I found my confidence, and looked back on some old contract law notes, I emailed the agents and the landlords directly to outline why they would not win at ADR (the arbitration process that the parties enter when a deposit amount is in dispute - this is why it is so important to make sure your deposit is held in a proper regulated scheme). I told them that it does not matter what it is in the contract, it matters what the parties say to each other and how they conduct each other throughout the duration of the contract. It matters what is IMPLIED by the parties. Any contract can be amended at any time by implied terms or conduct. It is called promissory estoppel. What is essential for this to win is evidence - and emails are great for this so keep proper records and keep correspondence to something you can produce as evidence at a later stage if needed. Telephone calls are much more difficult to prove.

I told them that they would not get any money awarded to them for the cleaning costs without evidence it was reasonably required, a reasonable estimate and a paid invoice. I said that it would be months before we get an answer from the arbitrator and throughout that whole time neither party is getting what they are owed from the deposit (it was about a 60/40 split between us) and that we could very well bring it all to a conclusion by settling early.

They responded by telling me to stop harrassing them and that they were determined to see the process through to the end.

To my absolute delight the ADR judgement came through and almost word-for-word repeated what I had said in my email to them. We won on the promissory estoppel ground. I was so chuffed. The really stupid thing was that it took 5 months to be reached, so they were missing over £700 for that period of time which is ridiculous. They were naive enough to actually follow the advice of estate agents on such an issue and not get a second opinion. It was incredibly satisfying for me, personally, not just to get our money back but to win on grounds I had told them we would win on. Victory is sweet!

:T

My advice to landlords who employ letting agents? For goodness sake watch yourself - they want to get as much money out of you as possible, as well as the tenants. Ultimately, if you feel you have good tenants that you trust then just deal with them directly. Responsible, professional people like us aren't interested in screwing you out of any money - we just want a home we can look after and take some pride in. Don't let these idiot agents stress you out more than necessary.

:rotfl:

Callie22

totally_bonkers wrote: »

With regard to deposit agencies - I used one through a notable estate/lettings agent (I paid for the privilege) and found that the tenants and I had so much trouble getting their deposit back that I refused to do this again and kept subsequent deposits in a separate bank account. I have now been in touch with DPS and I feel that they may be the right people to use so I am risking my deposits with them. Fingers crossed.

You do realise that with the changes in law that happened on the 6th April your tenants would now be entitled to claim up to three times the deposit from you because you have failed to protect their deposits within 30 days of the tenancy starting? And FYI, this ruling applies to both new and existing tenancies. You'd better protect the deposits quick-sharp and hope that none of your tenants are savvy (or annoyed ...) enough to realise what a weak position you've put yourself in. Either way if you try to keep any of the deposits at the end of the tenancies and the tenants dispute this, you've done yourself no favours at all.