Taking landlord to court for not protecting deposit

Watto30

Dear all,

Sorry in advance for the lengthy post but am hoping someone can shed some light on this situation if possible

Been privately renting a property since June 2007, asked landlord verbally several times about protecting the deposit in one of the schemes, never got a satisfactory respsonse and kind of forgot all about it. Landlords (married couple in their 60's and lived in house next door to us) always fine, never had any problems etc skip forward to us buying a property and giving a months notice...the week we were moving our things out and cleaning they turned into landlords from hell!

I will keep it short but removing our bins so we could not use them to get rid of any rubbish during clean up, asking us to sweep up leaves from the driveway which we had planned to do on the last day as leaves kept blowing in from the main road but they pre-empted us and swept them up themselves etc and then moaned they had to do this!! on the final day we did the inspection they ticked everything and signed off the inventory and told us we had kept the house in good order, just as we were about to leave the landlady opened the freezer and noticed a drawer was cracked and I grabbed another drawer which had frozen into place and cracked it in front of them, we said we would need to discuss the replacement of these items, 2 days later I get an email saying she had ordered 2 plastic replacement drawers and the cost was £160! I replied said I wanted to dispute this as given that we had never discussed or agreed cost that it was high and that due to betterment that we should not be expected to pay the full £160 for two brand new replacement drawers given that we had been living in the property for over 5 years, I also asked again if she could tell me what scheme the deposit had been put into ( I know full well she never did this or if she did she never gave us the details).

This all happened just before Christmas as our check out date was Thurs 20th Dec and noow she will not answer calls or emails disputing this cost and today we received the following through the post, the cheque for deposit minus the £160 for drawers, a note saying any further correspondence would need to be done through a solicitor, a signed inventory upon check out and then a four page typed report slagging us off as tenants stating that we left the house in a disgraceful state blaming us for things such as gloss paint turning yellow, five years of dust was left on top of door frames, which is absolute rubbish as I am a clean person and did regular cleaning and did a huge thorough clean before moving out! to say I am rather annoyed would be an understatement and she has contradicted herself in sending a signed copy of satisfactory inventory but then taken it upon herself to type a "report" on supposed things we have done or not done!

I am so sorely tempted to pursue this in court given the fact that she never protected our deposit in a scheme but do I have a leg to stand on on this and do I run the risk of having a counter claim against us even though her report is false as she had signed the inventory? also to my knowledge she was not declaring the rental income to the taxman....

If i need to pursue this in court then I will but should I hold back on cashing the cheque at the moment given that it is in dispute? I am scared that if i dont cash this cheque soon that we will never get our money back

Any advice would be greatly appreciated thank you

franklee

Can you break that big paragraph into smaller chunks.

SecondTimeBuyer

I recently had a similar problem when renting after the landlord struggled to find someone to replace us when we left in October after 3.5 years. She tried to deduct 25% of the deposit for things we clearly hadn't done.

I wrote to the landlord with a letter headed 'Notice Before Action' and stated the requirement for the landlord to protect the deposit, and if the deposit wasn't returned in full then we would sue them for 3 times the full deposit. She returned the deposit in full within 2 days after that!

Watto30

Thanks for the reply, I have broken original post into smaller chunks.

Sorry to hear that you had problems with your landlord secondtimebuyer, I honestly think that some of them think they are above the law and can just take tenants deposit money and do as they wish with it!

Glad to hear you got yours back after sending a letter, I am thinking of doing the same but doubt I would get any response from her as she had sent a note saying any further communication to be done via a solicitor, but might be worth my while doing this and sending it recorded delivery and if no response then I shall take it down the court route.

Tbh I am a bit stunned at how they have turned as we never had any problems with them before we gave in our notice, in the five years we lived there we got on fine and I even helped with viewings for potential new tenants! I was polite in my communication but simply stated that £160 for 2 drawers was quite high and that she should have spoken to us first, no response whatsoever and she has taken the money anyway and has taken it upon herself to write a 4 page report on us and basically making out we are dirty people and left the house in a state! grrrr!

SecondTimeBuyer

See this link below for information on deposit protection scheme. Forward it on to your ex-Landlord.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adviceguide.org.uk%2Fengland%2Fh_tenancy_deposits.pdf&ei=A5SmUKayBKnO0QXD0oEQ&usg=AFQjCNE0_U7wLqEmJsxZ_Nz3s1H2nSgvfg&sig2=G_JVSdNXJiUE83u6lF90Dg

dimbo61

right she is talking rubbish and if she did speak to a solicitor she would know that by not protecting the deposit she is breaking the law and needs to return it straight away.
You need to write a letter and make 3 copies ( keep one) send the 2 letters from 2 different post offices, send first class and keep proof of posting.
Ask for your full deposit back within 7 days and as others have said mark letter before action and point out the 3X deposit.
Check with the 3 deposit schemes that your deposit has never been registered !!!

keyser666

I would be going after them full stop after pulling that fast one

Watto30

Thanks very much for the replies, b***r it am going to send the letter before action and take them to town! I think they are playing at being landlords with no clue what they are supposed to be doing legally and need their heads examined!!

Now my question is this, technically she has in her mind returned the deposit (minus £160 for 2 drawers which I am disputing) as she sent the cheque recorded delivery which we picked up today so am I right in presuming that I should not cash this cheque until either I get a response with a cheque for the right amount or take her to court for not protecting the money in a scheme? what I am trying to say is will putting the cheque in the bank (even though the amount is disputed) mean I cannot then proceed with taking her to court for not protecting my deposit? hope that makes sense, boyfriend is saying just cash cheque and keep quiet for an easy life but I am thinking no way am I taking this lying down!! thanks for any advice, much appreciated

lambourne

You could cash the cheque but write saying it is being accepted as part payment of the full amount owed and head the letter 'Without Prejudice'.

How far you pursue this is up to you but you - we all need to pick which battles to fight and you might find it easier to just walk away from it, if not be prepared to be tenacious.