Deposit not protected. Not Returned. Private Tenent

nicolamarywyatt

Hi There

A month ago I moved out of a property that was privately rented. The deposit was never placed in a scheme. I checked at the time, and no information was ever provided.

I thought my land lord was a nice guy so didnt pull him up on it at first.

From the day we moved in there were astonishing noise levels coming from the flat below. We have a young baby and there was no way we could have lived there.

The private landlord tried to resolve the issues but then agreed (via text message in writing) that we could move out after 6 week.

At the time I was just setting up a business, myself and partner both working and could not move out as quickly as we had liked. It took us a further 3 months to find the right property and inform the land lord we were going to leave as agreed.

We gave him a months notice and didn't think this would be a problem due to prior conversations, agreements and seeming understanding.

To cut a long story short, the land lord informed us that unless we found replacement tennants he would deduct any losses from our deposit.

He became very abusive, un reasonable and we were truly shocked as his true colours became clear.

The man retained our entire £1350 deposit, which I stress, had never been protected.

I have scans of the shorthold agreement, emails and text messages to back this up.

We left 1 month before our 6 month break clause, I assure you as we believed this was an understanding.

Do we have any rights here? Is there any way of claiming any of the money back from him?

i would really appreciate any advice as I have put many hours into trying to research occurances such as this and have found nothing. There have also been cuts to legal aid so am ineligible for any assistance.

Many thanks in advance for any light that can be shed.

[Deleted User]

The landlord is absolutely in the wrong for not protecting your deposit. Your landlord has a legal responsibility to protect your deposit with an approved scheme and provide you the prescribed information within 30 days. If a landlord does not protect a tenants deposit they can be liable to pay up to 3x the deposit as compensation (on top of the initial deposit amount) to the tenant. The amount is at the courts discretion.

A tenant has a responsibility to abide by their contract, by leaving before your tenancy came to an end and without the written permission of your landlord you have broken the tenancy agreement and will continue to owe rent for the remainder of your tenancy. There is no excuse for doing this, your landlord not protecting your deposit will not absolve you of responsibility.

You have a right to sue your landlord for not protecting your deposit. However, in this case your landlord also has a right to withhold part of the original deposit -- if it had been protected -- as you left your tenancy with arrears, these arrears can be cleared from the deposit (after the tenancy has ended).

I believe small claims court is the place to start if you want to sue him for your deposit, it should cost around a hundred pounds to file a claim and you can represent your case yourself. I would recommend that you contact the deposit protection service as they will be able to tell you how best to proceed, whether or not small claims is the correct place etc.

Your landlord will probably sue you over the unpaid rent and breach of contract by the way, if you believe your landlord to be vindictive it may be best financially to just walk away from this. Depends if you want to fight, I guess.

nicolamarywyatt

I very much appreciate your response, thank you!

He indeed is very vindictive and would no doubt attempt to sue me for breach of contract. I just feel incredibly wronged as he broke the law by not protecting it AND told us we could leave. I presume a text message wont stand up in court :think:

Also to leave an even more bitter taste in my mouth - stupid nice girl over here did some consulting for his business (actually AFTER i handed our notice in) for which he now refuses to pay the invoice. Double burn.

I hate to lose. Especially when I feel so wronged and he is so callous in his demeanor.

G_M

As above.

You left a month before the tenacy's break clause could be implemented, so you owe this rent.

OK - you had an informal agreement earlier (next time get it confirmed in writing, not text) to leave after 6 weeks, but this obviously lapsed as you did not leave.

When you decided to leave after 5 months, you should have discussed this again, reached a new agreement, got it confirmed in writing, and then left.

How much rent doyou owe? And does it equel/exceed the deposit the LL has witheld?

If the same, why not simply let this go and move on. I understand you feel hard-done-by, but actually the LL started off being understanding, you messed him about, & then you broke the contract.

Having said that - yes, the LL has also failed to comply with the Housing Act, so you could use the courts to claim the penalty.

nicolamarywyatt

This is true G-M, I can see how it would seem as though we messed him about... Although certainly not my intention!

I guess I will need to take up meditation to learn how to let go of my anger

The invoice thing really gets my goat though, and keeps that fire burning. The business is completely unrelated. If he paid that then I could forgive and forget - it's such a nominal fee but its the principle. He thinks he can do as he pleases, treat me as he wishes with no consideration or consequence. Alas, the little guy always gets screwed.

G_M

The business invoice could also be pursued through the courts ifyou wished.

lawriejones1

You should be able to find a draft letter here, but I would certainly threaten to take the landlord to court over this.

theartfullodger

Can we just check: Does the landlord live in the same building?? If so is it purpose-built-flats or conversion.

If in same building & conversion then the tenancy is not an AST (regardless of what the paperwork says..) & the deposit does not need to be protected...

Assuming it is AST good advice here...
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/paying_for_a_home/tenancy_deposits/getting_an_unprotected_tenancy_deposit_back

dodger1

G_M wrote: »

As above.

You left a month before the tenacy's break clause could be implemented, so you owe this rent.

OK - you had an informal agreement earlier (next time get it confirmed in writing, not text) to leave after 6 weeks, but this obviously lapsed as you did not leave.

When you decided to leave after 5 months, you should have discussed this again, reached a new agreement, got it confirmed in writing, and then left.

Assuming this was a twelve month tenancy would the tenant owe one months rent or seven months rent as they left before the break clause date?

G_M

dodger1 wrote: »

Assuming this was a twelve month tenancy would the tenant owe one months rent or seven months rent as they left before the break clause date?

Impossible to say as we do not know the terms of the Break Clause.

But yes, potentially the tenant may owe several months rent eg

if the BC requires 2 months notice which can only be served at the 6 month point, then earliest tenancy could end would be at 8 month point.