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Possibility of getting deposit back
kiss_me_now9
Posts: 1,466 Forumite
This is going to be a long one, sorry.
I was meant to move into a student house with my halls mates from year 1 last September but things turned sour and I had to very quickly find somewhere else. I managed to find a nice house with four other girls in my year but a dispute over the summer retainer meant that they no longer wanted to move in and in the end, I moved into the house at the start of September and lived alone for two weeks. Eventually the letting agency found a group of international (Asian) students and a contract was drawn up.
Before the international students moved in, I paid a £300 deposit, in cash, to my landlady which I was told would be sent to my letting agents and put into the deposit protection scheme. It transpires that someone in the letting agents office forgot to do this and my money has been hanging around their office for the last year. I was due the deposit back at the start of August.
Now a note about the house; I moved out in May because I couldn't stand living there any longer. I have an email stating that the letting agents had checked my bedroom and found it in immaculate condition with NO need for any repair and that the condition of the communal rooms would not be held to me. However the rest of the house is an absolute pig sty, there's mould in all the bathrooms, the kitchen is a health hazard and was all year I lived there, the other students didn't even bother telling the letting agents they were leaving and didn't take half their stuff with them (they just left and left the place in the condition it had been in all year - practically unlivable). I told the letting agents various times that the other students were leaving the place in such a fashion and that I didn't feel it was fair that I was being considered a part of it.
The landlady has now decided that it is indeed my fault that the house is in such a state and that all our deposits need to be used to repair the place. The more important twist is that the lead tenant is one of the Asian girls and they can't get hold of her. Apparently all the deposits need to go back to the lead tenant who then has to divide it up and pass it out to all the other tenants. How they think they're going to a) be able to communicate this to her effectively (I stood at her door for half an hour one night trying to explain about TV licences and why she shouldn't open the door to them as I came home one day to find an inspector on the doorstep threatening to fine us all even though we didn't have a TV or aerial) or b) expect her to get the money back to me when she lives in China?!
The letting agents aren't budging on it, and the landlady refuses to even answer me any more. Is my money gone completely? Is it true that the only person who can receive the deposit back is the lead tenant? What happens, if that is the case, if they can't contact her?
I was meant to move into a student house with my halls mates from year 1 last September but things turned sour and I had to very quickly find somewhere else. I managed to find a nice house with four other girls in my year but a dispute over the summer retainer meant that they no longer wanted to move in and in the end, I moved into the house at the start of September and lived alone for two weeks. Eventually the letting agency found a group of international (Asian) students and a contract was drawn up.
Before the international students moved in, I paid a £300 deposit, in cash, to my landlady which I was told would be sent to my letting agents and put into the deposit protection scheme. It transpires that someone in the letting agents office forgot to do this and my money has been hanging around their office for the last year. I was due the deposit back at the start of August.
Now a note about the house; I moved out in May because I couldn't stand living there any longer. I have an email stating that the letting agents had checked my bedroom and found it in immaculate condition with NO need for any repair and that the condition of the communal rooms would not be held to me. However the rest of the house is an absolute pig sty, there's mould in all the bathrooms, the kitchen is a health hazard and was all year I lived there, the other students didn't even bother telling the letting agents they were leaving and didn't take half their stuff with them (they just left and left the place in the condition it had been in all year - practically unlivable). I told the letting agents various times that the other students were leaving the place in such a fashion and that I didn't feel it was fair that I was being considered a part of it.
The landlady has now decided that it is indeed my fault that the house is in such a state and that all our deposits need to be used to repair the place. The more important twist is that the lead tenant is one of the Asian girls and they can't get hold of her. Apparently all the deposits need to go back to the lead tenant who then has to divide it up and pass it out to all the other tenants. How they think they're going to a) be able to communicate this to her effectively (I stood at her door for half an hour one night trying to explain about TV licences and why she shouldn't open the door to them as I came home one day to find an inspector on the doorstep threatening to fine us all even though we didn't have a TV or aerial) or b) expect her to get the money back to me when she lives in China?!
The letting agents aren't budging on it, and the landlady refuses to even answer me any more. Is my money gone completely? Is it true that the only person who can receive the deposit back is the lead tenant? What happens, if that is the case, if they can't contact her?
£2023 in 2023 challenge - £17.79 January
0
Comments
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I'm afraid I failed to follow the sequence - which house, which year, what happened....
but the bottom line is if you paid a security deposit against damage/rent arrears (NOT a 'holding deposit') then the landlady had a legal obligation to register it in a deposit scheme. She cannot pass the buck by saying it was the letting agents fault (though the LA is also liable).
You can sue the LL for non-registration. The courts will award you your deposit back in full (irrespective of damage claims) and can additionally award you between one and 3 times the value of the deposit as penalty.
Deposits (Rules on deposit protection)
Localism Act 2011 (section 184 - updates to deposit scheme rules) Plain English explanation!
What kind of contract do you have? An individual one in your sole name? Or a 'joint and several' one in the names of.... who? You and the asian students?0 -
Sorry. It's all the same house, in the last year (Sept. 2011 to August 2012).
I'm right in thinking I should have had some kind of notification/paperwork that my deposit had been entered into the scheme?
I think it was a joint contract. We all signed it (me and the four Asian students).£2023 in 2023 challenge - £17.79 January0 -
If you all signed the same contract then each of you can be held responsible for damage, no matter who caused it.0
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kiss_me_now9 wrote: »I'm right in thinking I should have had some kind of notification/paperwork that my deposit had been entered into the scheme?
the bottom line is if you paid a security deposit against damage/rent arrears (NOT a 'holding deposit') then the landlady had a legal obligation to register it in a deposit scheme. She cannot pass the buck by saying it was the letting agents fault (though the LA is also liable).
You can sue the LL for non-registration. The courts will award you your deposit back in full (irrespective of damage claims) and can additionally award you between one and 3 times the value of the deposit as penalty.
Deposits (Rules on deposit protection)
Localism Act 2011 (section 184 - updates to deposit scheme rules) Plain English explanation!0
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