landlady dispute

dorondj

Hi. I need help please urgently!! My old landlady has been withholding the deposit from our old house which we moved out of in July, and despite repeated requests has not given it back. Granted, we did destroy it a bit but what student doesnt. Anway, she took off damages and said she was going to give us 100 pounds back each, which she hasnt done now because one of our former housemates didnt pay for 8 weeks. basically she said that because he did not pay she is taking it away from us. i am pretty sure that is illegal??

also, she did not register us with the tenancy deposit scheme which is law. i am on money claim to make a claim against her, am i able to claim the 100 pounds she offered to us or the full amount that i paid in the beginning despite her taking money away for damages? the damages included things such as a kettle and to clean the garden, even though the builders were there anyway already...

Regards, Doron

Fire_Fox

Welcome! Were you in a joint tenancy? If so you are jointly and severally liable for the FULL rent for the house - so one tenant can be charged the whole amount if all the other tenants defaults. If you are liable for this rent you can take out a small claims action against your former housemate to recover their share.

Loads of students respect other people's property or put things right before they leave, plenty behave in a mature manner even if you chose not to. Bit rich not to respect your landlord's property then throw your toys out of the pram because the landlord has not respected your property (deposit).

If you run an advanced search you will see claiming for a deposit not lodged with one of the three schemes comes up several times a week. Also loads of information on Shelter http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/paying_for_a_home/tenancy_deposits/return_of_a_tenancy_deposit_when_a_tenancy_ends

dorondj

No we were not joint liable. She claimed we were, but she sent me a copy of the contract and it does not say anywhere that we were liable for it jointly. Also it states the agreement is between the tenant and the landlord (being singular)

Werdnal

Did you all have separate named contracts, ie each one of you had their own copy and sign it separately?

If not, then in a jointly rented house "The tenant" is everyone together, ie all joint tenants are equally responsible for paying the rent, covering the utilities and all the costs, damage or repairs.

Wrecking the property because you are students is hardly an excuse!

JuicyJesus

Not protecting the deposit means that she is not able to make deductions automatically, you can take her to small claims court and will probably win.

However the fact you admit yourself that you "destroyed" the place, but still want your whole deposit back, is morally utterly laughable in comparison. Plenty of students treat their rented properties with care, and being one is not an excuse to destroy others' property which you have been entrusted with.

Personally, although I dislike unprotected deposits as much as anyone, I think your attitude is shameful and rather hope you lose to be honest.

Fire_Fox

dorondj wrote: »

No we were not joint liable. She claimed we were, but she sent me a copy of the contract and it does not say anywhere that we were liable for it jointly. Also it states the agreement is between the tenant and the landlord (being singular)

Is it a joint tenancy or not? In law not in your opinion or the landlord's opinion because you are potentially ignorant/ biased. How many different contracts were signed between you and your housemates and the landlord? Did you have one each for each room covering your share of the rent, say £250pcm, or one for the whole house specifying the total rent of say £1000pcm? How many names were on the one document?

AFAIK it is fine to name Jane Jones, Fred Bloggs and Dave the Rave at the start, then refer to them as the tenant (singular) thereafter. In a joint tenancy all the tenants are one tenant so they are all liable for the rent, all liable for the damage and all liable for the bills - jointly and severally.

G_M

dorondj wrote: »

Granted, we did destroy it a bit but what student doesnt.
Regards, Doron

Disgraceful attitude. You deserve to have an appropriate deduction made from your deposit.

No we were not joint liable. She claimed we were, but she sent me a copy of the contract

As Fire Fox says, this is unclear. If as you say above there is a single contract which you all signed, then you are all, jointly, "The Tenant" by law.

If you each signed seperate contracts,of course, then you cannot be made to pay for another tenant's rent (since you did not sign his contract).

she did not register us with the tenancy deposit scheme which is law.

Sadly, because I do not believe you deserve this, you can claim not only your deposit but a penalty of up to 3 times the deposit.

to clean the garden, even though the builders were there anyway already...

What is the relevance of the timing? The landlady has to pay the builders whether now or next week or last week.

She is running a business so naturally wants to get on with the repairs etc, and make the property ready for letting again.

paso11

dorondj wrote: »

. Granted, we did destroy it a bit but what student doesnt.

Regards, Doron

Please don't generalise, plenty of students respected the properties the lived in. We had good relations with our landlords, treated the place like our own home and guess what we didn't have issues collecting our deposits the end.

V_Chic_Chick

paso11 wrote: »

Please don't generalise, plenty of students respected the properties the lived in. We had good relations with our landlords, treated the place like our own home and guess what we didn't have issues collecting our deposits the end.

Well, quite. I'm a student and we haven't destroyed our shared house. Fair enough, there have been some repair problems (e.g. a collapsed floor :eek:), but they haven't been due to us . . . just because you're a student it isn't an excuse to act like an idiot.

JuicyJesus

V_Chic_Chick wrote: »

Well, quite. I'm a student and we haven't destroyed our shared house. Fair enough, there have been some repair problems (e.g. a collapsed floor :eek:), but they haven't been due to us . . . just because you're a student it isn't an excuse to act like an idiot.

Having seen some of the students round here, I rather wish more of them didn't think it was their god-given right to act like braying selfish morons.