Dodgy landlord

snakepitt

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

Are you asking morally? Or legally? In fact, either way the answer is that you should have done just that the moment you realised. The fact that you have absolved those responsibilities for your own personal gain makes you complicit in any offence committed. You knew it was dodgy, but you still lived there. You can hardly be too surprised at the outcome. Threaten what you like, he will call your bluff. So the real question is.... WILL you report him?.... And WILL you report him even if he DOES give the deposit back? Answer NO to either, and you are morally bankrupt. Otherwise, you have your answer.

1.8 MILLION households are on the waiting lists for Social Housing.

Of course we will report him if he does give the deposit back. We have only both moved to this country early last year, and were not aware of the systems until now. We both felt rather uncomfortable living in this situation as our house mates are rather unsavoury company anyway, but unfortunately we are both young and have only just been able to afford to get out now. I think a lot of this situation came down to ignorance and naivety and taking the wrong advice when we first moved here. Because a friend of mine had lived in this very flat and said to us that it was fine to live in. As we have now found out, he was sorely mistaken to our detriment.

lighting_up_the_chalice

Yet you still have to ask "should we threaten to report him"?

No! Of course you shouldn't threaten him with anything.. You should just report him!!

But I'm sure you knew that already.

snakepitt

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

Yet you still have to ask "should we threaten to report him"?

No! Of course you shouldn't threaten him with anything.. You should just report him!!

But I'm sure you knew that already.

We were both unaware of what a council house was until very recently. As in both our countries we have nothing of this type of thing.

PasturesNew

If you don't have a receipt to say you paid a deposit and he won't pay you back, then it's your word against his in court.

If the flat is a council flat, his daughter is not allowed to sub-let to anybody. Report her and she will have it taken off her. It is illegal for her to do what she is doing.

If he is taking cash from you then there is a strong possibility that he is not declaring it for tax - although he may be passing it to his daughter, but she might also not be declaring it for tax.

Report, report, report.

I'd let this man know that I intended to report him - as close to my moving out date as possible ..... in case he turns nasty. . . and even if he repaid the £600 I'd STILL report him .....

Scum deserves it.

lighting_up_the_chalice

snakepitt wrote: »

We were both unaware of what a council house was until very recently. As in both our countries we have nothing of this type of thing.

And I came down with the last shower.

You have enough advice to know what you SHOULD do.

crisp

snakepitt wrote: »

We were both unaware of what a council house was until very recently. As in both our countries we have nothing of this type of thing.

and thats an example of how the UK should go to avoid gross abuse like this and other forms.

Coopdivi

snakepitt wrote: »

We were both unaware of what a council house was until very recently. As in both our countries we have nothing of this type of thing.

I must congratulate you on your standard of English.

I couldn't help noticing your use of British English in your opening post ie 'dodgy' and 'quid'. Which countries do you and your partner come from if you don't mind me asking?

Yorkie1

OP, sandsni's post contains lots of useful info.

Keep the piece of paper 'receipt' which you got that once.

Also look for bank statements which demonstrate the withdrawals of cash at regular intervals. Did you withdraw a larger amount when you first moved in, to reflect the deposit as well as the first month's rent?

These are all good pieces of evidence that you have been paying.

No court in the land would believe that he let you live there without paying anything in rent. I doubt they'd be that naïve to believe that he let you move in without any deposit for rent / damage, particularly as you had just arrived from another country and therefore had no UK credit record or LL's reference.

It might be worth getting statements from the two other tenants if they either had to pay a deposit when they moved in, or witnessed any conversations between you and the LL when he has previously admitted receiving the deposit, or witnessed you paying a deposit over.

I would not threaten him with reporting etc at the moment because you don't want to antagonise him too much. However, I would tell him that you will go to court to retrieve the money - the court only has to be satisfied that it's more likely than not that you paid the money and are entitled to it back.

If you can demonstrate the rent payments on time every time, and that the property was not left in a worse condition when you moved out, then you are likely to win. You could also choose to sue for a penalty of up to 3x the deposit because he hasn't protected the deposit, but that costs a lot more up front and is more hassle.