Deposit held until bills are paid

anselld

Cognito wrote: »

I always paid my bills on time, the landlord said they would contact the providers to inform them that I moved out and they would send (me) bills for the remaining balance. I am waiting for those.

I moved out 2 weeks ago.

You should have contacted the providers yourself to inform them and provide a final reading as the bills were in your name.

Jules2012

Can you contact the company holding your deposit? Query with them, the bills and what is owed is between you and the utility companies.

Edit: Are you not actually suppose to contact the deposit holding company anyway?

Cognito

anselld wrote: »

You should have contacted the providers yourself to inform them and provide a final reading as the bills were in your name.

the inventory clerk took the readings and the very hands-on landlord insisted they contact the providers themselves.

now, please. what do I do NOW?

Cognito

Jules2012 wrote: »

Can you contact the company holding your deposit? Query with them, the bills and what is owed is between you and the utility companies.

Edit: Are you not actually suppose to contact the deposit holding company anyway?

am I? that's what I'm asking... the way I got it from what the secretary told me, the landlord will sit on the deposit until the bills have been paid... that's why I'm asking where I stand, and what shall I do?

Jules2012

Some info here and contacts.

https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection/overview

Cognito

thank you

G_M

Look:

1) YOU must pay YOUR bills. So

a) ring each company (gas, electric etc)
b) tell them you have moved and give the date
c) give them the final meter reading. If you don't have it
i) you are a fool and are now paying for the next tenants gas (or the LL's) so
ii) get it from the inventory clerk
d) give them your new address
e) ask them to send you a final bill based ont the meter reading
f) pay it

2) You must apply for your deposit:

a) contact each of the 3 deposit schemes (there are 5 now, but 2 are only from this month)(see Jules post above)
b) find out which one has your deposit
c) put in a formal request for it to be released (NOT via the agent)
d) if there is a delay, register a COMPLAINT

If NONE of the sshemes has your deposit, WRITE (letter) to the landlord plus a copy to the agent, asking for your full deposit with 4 waorking days or you will claim 3 times the deposit via the courts for non-registrationof your deposit as required by the Housing Act 2004

Cognito

ok, thanks, that looks like a set of directives I can follow... I think I have most of that information either from my initial contract or the documentation of the inventory clerk.

would you recommend contacting the landlord directly about releasing the deposit and letting me handle the bills ?

Werdnal

There is no such thing as "letting you handle the bills", they ARE your bills. As I said above, if you ring each utility, they can usually tell you on the phone straight away what the balance is, and offer you the chance to pay there and then by debit/credit card.

Your "Oh so Efficient" Inventory clerk as probably gone off to do 20 more inventories since yours, and left your meter readings on his desk until he has time to get back to the office and ring them through - you are mad not to have taken the readings at the time and dealt with it yourself on the same day. Five minutes on the phone could have sorted all the bills and saved you a whole evening of moaning about it here.

If you have the readings, ring them all tomorrow and sort it. Then check out the deposit links above, and find out whether you have to request release of your deposit - different schemes have different rules, but I know DPS require both LL and T to complete their own parts of the release process.

Cognito

I do have the meter readings, the problem is not the bills, but the landlord... will/would he yield and release the deposit if I sort out the bills? shall I even ask? should I be suspicious that he wants to keep the deposit until the bills are sorted? that's what I'm asking. I can sort out the bills, that's no problem (I think).

anyway, I will contact the deposit holders tomorrow and see what happens. thanks to everyone who contributed