Landlord withholding deposit - am I responsible for this bill?

diavolina

DRP wrote: »

Op why are you giving him 4 weeks to return your deposit?

I thought someone had said to give him four weeks, or maybe I saw it somewhere else.

With the 3x your deposit thing, isn't that a different process that costs a lot more? I think someone mentioned above it cost a grand - I absolutely don't have that sort of money. That's why I'm so desperate for my deposit back, it's my last 650 quid in the world after just buying my first home!

There is no estate agent unfortunately, the letting was done directly with the landlord.

ValHaller

You have to allow a 'reasonable' length of time. 4 weeks is in my book 'reasonable'. 10 working days is cutting it fine and over Christmas is injecting unwanted ambiguity.

rpc

DRP wrote: »

Mention that the judge will award you with 3x the deposit for his failure to protect it.

UP TO 3x. The penalty is actually 1-3x.

diavolina

Something else has just occurred to me. The original bill included charges dating back 7 months before I moved into the flat. So the tenant before me hadn't paid any heating charges either, and the landlord obviously never requested that the previous tenant paid them or deducted money from his deposit, or they wouldn't still be unpaid now after over 2 years.

MamaMoo_2

Mallotum_X wrote: »

Just pay what you owe. Sorry but you give tenants a bad name.

Jeez, are you the landlord?
It's entirely debatable as to whether OP owes this.
And even if OP is liable for the bill, they certainly aren't liable for the months prior to their tenancy!

This landlord is clearly a dodgy bloke. Didn't protect the deposit, didn't include provision for this heating system in the TA, and considering that they haven't bothered to give permission for the management company to bill OP then it seems as if, in doing that, they have accepted responsibility for the bill.
Not only that, they've also taken money for the usage of the system for a significant amount of time prior to the commencement of the tenancy.
Sound well dodgy to me!

dancingfairy

Apparently some courts/judges are allowing a court case for the non-protection of a deposit to go through the small claims track (significantly less fees). It may be worth a quick phone call to the court to clarify which track these types of cases are allocated to
This is seperate to suing for the return of the actual deposit.
df

jazabelle

diavolina wrote: »

I thought someone had said to give him four weeks, or maybe I saw it somewhere else.

With the 3x your deposit thing, isn't that a different process that costs a lot more? I think someone mentioned above it cost a grand - I absolutely don't have that sort of money. That's why I'm so desperate for my deposit back, it's my last 650 quid in the world after just buying my first home!

There is no estate agent unfortunately, the letting was done directly with the landlord.

But the landlord doesn't know you can't afford to pay the fees. You could state something like:

"As I'm sure you're aware it is the law that landlord must protect the deposit in one of the recognised schemes and provide the tenant with the prescribed information within 30 days of the tenancy commencing. Failure to do so can result in a penalty of up to the three times the amount of the deposit.

If the full amount is not received in ten days from the date on this letter, I will pursue a claim via the courts to recover my deposit in full."

Which you will. Just perhaps not the 3x sum.

jazabelle

dancingfairy wrote: »

Apparently some courts/judges are allowing a court case for the non-protection of a deposit to go through the small claims track (significantly less fees). It may be worth a quick phone call to the court to clarify which track these types of cases are allocated to
This is seperate to suing for the return of the actual deposit.
df

That's good. Not many people can afford the higher court fees, so it's good they are allowing this - particularly if the amount of the 3x deposit comes to less than the £10k small claims limit.

anotheruser

Svenena wrote: »

G_M wrote: »

I suspect the judge would rule you should have known the heating was not free....

He didn't think it was free, he thought it was covered by his electricity bill (he said above) as there were electric heaters in the flat.

Yes but as the person you quoted posted before the OP replied then your point is null and void.

OP: I would sue him anyway. It may make him change and you'd then be helping other tenants. It will also be an experience for you and from the looks of the evidence supplied, it's very strong in your favour.

However if you lose, the LL will keep the deposit for the heating bill but they will still have to pay up to 3 times the deposit, which would pay for the court costs. Therefore it's sort of a win-win for you either way as you are unlikely to lose any money. It's whether you want to chance it getting potentially a lot more, with gained knowledge/experience.

It won't be an easy time to go through but I would.

diavolina

Thank you to everyone who has given me advice in this thread, you've all been really helpful. I've sent my ex-landlord a letter before action now, asking him to return my full deposit within 4 weeks, so all I can do now is wait to see if anything comes of it. If not I am definitely going to go ahead with filing a claim through the courts in January.

A bit scary but I'd be kicking myself in a year's time if I let this go. At least if I lose I know I'll have tried!