Should we go to court - deposit protection

Paul_iow

It's a long story so I will summarise below.

Moved into property 1st September 2012 on a 6 month AST. Deposit and one months rent paid in advance, 28th August 2012.

Deposit wasn't protected, despite asking numerous times and being told it had all been sorted (but never given any evidence of this).

Notice given by agent December 2012 but re-negotiated to go on to a rolling contact January 2013.

February 2013 advised the landlord had sold the house and the letting agent would be going back to the original agreement of notice given in December 2012.

Numerous letters to letting agent saying we would not be moving out and notice had not been properly given as deposit not protected.

Deposit gets protected 24th February and a copy of the email from the DPS to letting agent is sent to us as "proof"

Letter before action sent to letting agent stating that deposit had not been protected within the legally obliged 30 days and no proof had been sent, copy of certificate, signed by landlord, landlord address etc. stated we would be looking to take them to court if an agreement could not be reached.

Letting agent responded saying we had been sent the evidence, referring to the copy of the email, and that it was within our right to take this further if we chose to.

Now my question is, if we took the agents/landlord to court what would be our chances of winning? After speaking to Shelter, the woman wasn't very interested or helpful this time despite previous excellent help, she said the judge would most likely rule in the favour of the agent/landlord and put it down to an oversight on their behalf.

Is this correct? We cannot afford to go to court and pay the fees if we lose so would only do so if we have a high chance of winning.

Any help most appreciated and sorry for the long post

Lokolo

You seem to be doing it for the sake of doing it and no other reason.

So why? If the landlord has been a massive pain, or you had massive problems then OK, but I can't see anything as to why you want to, apart from greed.

julieb1987

I can see why. The OP obviously wanted to leave the property, sounds like the LL/LA wanted them to stay so agreed a SPT. Then, because the house was sold, didn't want the backlash of serving invalid notice to the tenants, so decide they want to go with the original notice served by tenant. Tenant is now homeless/in a huge rush to find a new property. The only reason they have protected the deposit now is because they need notice to be valid.

OP, do you have proof of your requests to LL/LA to protect the deposit. The deposit hasn't been protected in the time specified, and I gather that you haven't been given the full prescribed information (just an email confirmation?). I'd think you'd have a good case, as they knew the deposit should have been protected and chose not to do it. But, I'll leave that to the opinions of people who have had more experience. I'd do the same if I was being messed around like you have.

martinsurrey

Regardless of if the deposit is protected now the s21 notice is invalid as it wasn’t protected within 30 days of reciept yet they held the deposit when issuing a s21.

As such, as provided by Section 184 of the Localism Act 2011 they need to return the deposit in FULL to you and then reissue a s21 notice, so they have a long wait on their hands for the house back.

Quote section 184 of the Localism act 2011

Use this in your bargaining.

G_M

1) what do you want to achieve? To stay? How long? To get extra cash? To delay moving out? to 'punish'?

2) If deposit was not protected AND the 'precribed information' (not the same as an email) within 30 days, the S21 Notice is invalid and should be rejected if it went to court. Protecting late (as done here) USED to solve the problem for the LL, but not since April 2012 (Localism Act). The only way the LL can make the S21 valid now is to
a) return the deposit to you IN FULL
b) then reissue the S21 giving you the requisit 2 months (aprox) notice

3) you can take the LL to court for late registration, and claim 1 - 3 times the deposit penalty. As the depsoit is now registered, the judge will reduce the penalty. If you have, and submit, all the emails showing the LL consistantly failed to register despite your requests, and only did so when he wanted to evict, the judge may increase the penaly.

4) Not sure why you are helping the LL so much (eg by tellng hime what he needs to do). If you want to stay/delay, why not let him find out the hard (slow) way by taking you tocourt and failing....?

5) or threaten to take LL to court for the penaly in order to achieve your aim (whatever it is)

newsgroup_monkey

Lokolo wrote: »

You seem to be doing it for the sake of doing it and no other reason.

So why? If the landlord has been a massive pain, or you had massive problems then OK, but I can't see anything as to why you want to, apart from greed.

You haven't read the OP....

OP wrote:

Letter before action sent to letting agent stating that deposit had not been protected etc.....we would be looking to take them to court if an agreement could not be reached.

OP is looking to make an agreement. LA is calling him on it.

martinsurrey

G_M wrote: »

4) Not sure why you are helping the LL so much (eg by tellng hime what he needs to do). If you want to stay/delay, why not let him find out the hard (slow) way by taking you tocourt and failing....?

Yup, he files for a court date tomorrow based on the original s21, 6 weeks to wait for that, it gets thrown out, has to pay costs (you can also bring up the none protection issue).

A week to repay deposit and issue a new s21, then say 11 weeks before that s21 date rolls around (2 full rental periods plus the period from s21 to the end of the one its issued in) then a new court date is applied for, 6 more weeks.

And we’re already up to 23 weeks or almost 6 months from today.

Paul_iow

To answer you a few questions. We have now found a new house and will be moving in from 1st April. We would have stayed and made it hard for the LA/LL but just want to get out now. The LL has moved to Australia and the house has been for sale since we moved in, we knew and accepted this. However we have been messed around with viewings for the past 6 months and even now the house is sold they are trying to arrange a viewer for the new buyers even though an offer has been excepted.

With regards to our reasons for doing so the LA has been a massive pain and it would be nice to make them realise they can't just do what they want when they feel like it. Yes the money would be nice but that is not the sole reason for court action. Hopefully they won't do this to other people and will do what is legally required from them.

We do have an email, from when we were on speaking terms, regarding the rolling contract when we asked for the deposit protection evidence, but all other enquiries were verbally when the LA has been round to do viewings. It was confirmed each time that the deposit had been protected.

It does seem that the only reason for now protecting the deposit is so they can move us out. We have discussed staying and making it difficult for them but have found a nice house and just want to get out of the current house.

Paul_iow

martinsurrey wrote: »

Yup, he files for a court date tomorrow based on the original s21, 6 weeks to wait for that, it gets thrown out, has to pay costs (you can also bring up the none protection issue).

A week to repay deposit and issue a new s21, then say 11 weeks before that s21 date rolls around (2 full rental periods plus the period from s21 to the end of the one its issued in) then a new court date is applied for, 6 more weeks.

And we’re already up to 23 weeks or almost 6 months from today.

If it was just me I would stay in the property and wait for the LA to figure out what to do. But my other half gets stressed easily and wants out so we have found a nice new house.

julieb1987

Does your other half want the stress of going to court over the deposit? Or now you've found somewhere nice to live would you both rather just move on and live a (hopefully) peaceful life?

G_M

OK. You've found a place to go. You want to move in on 1st April.

Have you given notice and was it the correct notice? If not, the LL (or his agent) can demand rent off you. Yes, you can claim deposit penalty off him, but far better for YOU to get things right!

Just because you've received a S21 (whether valid or not) does not mean you can just leave when you want.