Landlord wants to take my deposit money...

ojak

Hello,

I got myself in to a troubled situation. In October I rented a room with no contract, my room rent was of 550 pounds per month, and I paid a deposit of 750 pounds.

Last month I had an excellent opportunity to move to a better house with my friends. But to get the house I would have to move by the beginning of this month (this was requested by the agency) since I had no contract I did it.

But my old land lord said that half of the 750 pounds deposit belongs to her, wich I said that was absurd meanwhile I told her that the best I could do would pay half the rent (250 pounds) wich she agreed.

Meanwhile she still did not paid me back the 500 pounds from the 750 and I still did not give the key back... and I am afraid she will not pay me anymore as soon as I give her back the keys...

Could anyone help me with this? Does she deserves any money back?

Cycrow

if you didn't give her notice as defined in your contract, then technically, you still own rent for that period.

was there any agreed noticed when you took the room ?
you must have agreed to some kind of contract.
and almost every LL will want at least a months notice before leaving

is the deposit in a scheme?

ojak

We did not agree anything ever about when leaving the house. So there was no noticed agreement.

She now told me that I would have to give her a one month notice period, wich I understand.

Since I only gave her half month notice I proposed her to pay her only half month, which she agreed.

I do not believe the deposit is in a scheme

RAS

Can you clarify please?

Did you landlord live in the house/flat or was this an independent flat/house?

England, Wales, Scotland - the law is different?

ojak

No she did not live in the house!

This house is in London

[Deleted User]

No written contract, assuming payment in cash, no deposit protection, probably a tax evading landlady... if she has no intention of returning the deposit then you will not get it back unless you take her to small claims court. If you do that you'll have a hard time proving anything, although while verbal agreements can be legally binding tenancy agreements you did subsequently abandon the tenancy without notice.

You're both at fault and unfortunately for you replacing a lock is a job that can be done for a couple of quid, even if you refuse to return the keys she will be able to continue on by changing the locks, then if you take her to small claims she'll say you refused to return the keys and that is why she kept the deposit.

Your landlady has broken tenancy law by not protecting your deposit so you do have that on your side, you can take her to court for that and claim up to 3x the deposit amount back (although 1 or 2 times is more likely) but then abandoning the tenancy does not play in your favour.

Notice must be at least 1 full rental period, which means if your tenancy started on October 1st and you wanted to move out on June 1st you would need to have told her by May 1st at the latest, if you had told her on May 2nd your tenancy wouldn't have ended until July 1st. Potentially you may owe her more than the deposit value, so it may be worth dropping the matter and moving on, making sure in future to get a written contract and understand a tenants obligations.

What date did your tenancy commence?

ojak

Thank you citricsquid

RAS

OK

So you were a tenant not a lodger. Pity.

Regardless of whether you had a written contract or not, since you paid rent and she acccepted it, your tenancy is covered by statute law. Since you appear to have had no fixed term, you have a periodic statutory tenancy and are required to give one month's notice, dated to tie in with the rental period.

So if you paid rent on 1st of the month, you are required to give notice by 30 April in order to vacate the tenancy on 31st May. That is written notice to have been received by the LL by 30 April, not just a text or phone call.

If you informed her later than 30 April, she is entitled by law to rent until 30 June, unless she manages to rent out the property before that date.

Excited13

ojak wrote: »

Meanwhile she still did not paid me back the 500 pounds from the 750 and I still did not give the key back... and I am afraid she will not pay me anymore as soon as I give her back the keys...QUOTE]

You still have her key so I'm not surprised as you still technically have access to the property. I'm a tad confused you mention a room so were you renting a room in a house with other people?

Auticko1

What if you remind her that she needs to report income from property rental of more than £2,500.00 a year to the tax man? By renting the room out to you without a proper contract and not putting your deposit into a deposit scheme, it sounds like she herself has a lot to lose if she does not give you the deposit back. :-)