Is it possible to claim for an unprotected deposit while I'm still a tenant?

Marmotta_2

My current situation is that I'm renting (along with 7 other people) in a student household managed by a property agent and have been so since August last year. Everyone else in the house provided guarantor details in lieu of having to pay for a deposit, something I couldn't do because I couldn't find a UK based guarantor, so I paid a £690 deposit.

According to the contract, it should have been protected with MyDeposits, but I can't find any reference of it having been so on their website search facility.

I know it's opportunistic, but I could do with a bit of money as I'm paying for my own uni tuition fees;). What I wanted to know was if it was possible to make a part 8 claim through a no-win-no-fee solicitor while I'm still occupying the premises or do I have to wait until my tenancy period has ended? I have taken legal action over an unprotected and unreturned deposit before, but dealt directly with the landlord and started to go through small claims, although they settled as soon as they got court papers.

Also, if I contact the agents directly to confirm whether the deposit has been protected or not, would this exonerate them? I read deposits should be protected within 30 days, which obviously elapsed some time ago.

00ec25

if the LL (or his agent) cannot prove that they issued you with the proscribed information within 30 days of taking the deposit from you then it is officially late and cannot now be retrospectively protected

note the requirement is issue to, not receipt by, you so proof of posting would serve their purpose

that said you can sue for non protection but it is at the court's discretion iof they award a penalty (ie the x1 - x 3 extra) on top of your claim for the return of the actual deposit money itself. Your action will go via county court but under the small claims route so fees are reasonable and the expectation is that you will represent yourself.
Under the small claims route the costs of a solicitor are NOT awarded so it is very unlikely you will get a disgusting no win no fee parasite to help you since their fees would have to be paid by you rather than by the LL (assuming you win)

Guest101

Just curious what areas of the house does your deposit cover? And yes as above you can do, but check the other schemes too and be prepared to receive a s21

tbs624

OP - is your tenancy agreement an individual one or have all Ts signed one contract with joint and several liability.

Have you also checked with TDS, and DPS? ( also Capita whose scheme took registrations between Apr 1 2013 and Sept 14 2013).

Do you have the LL's address? LA is legally obliged to provide you with this within 21 days of you making a written request for the info.

You may find it useful to read Shelter's guidance on tenancy deposit regs here

Marmotta_2

I need to have a detailed look at the tenancy agreement. We all pay rent individually, but have signed the same agreement. However, as I mentioned, I'm the only one who has paid a deposit which should have been protected with MyDeposits. The contract does mention that I am the only one to have paid this deposit.

As for an S21, doesn't that only apply at the end of a tenancy agreement? It wouldn't really concern me, as I'm not going to be staying beyond my current agreement anyway. This is also the main reason I want to try and sort this out sooner rather than later, as I'll be in China over the summer and in France next year.

I've had a quick look at other deposit protection schemes, but can't help but feel that the fact that I have a double-barrelled surname, as well as there being 7 other tenants means they could have made some sort of error when submitted the deposit for protection.

I've never dealt with the landlord, only with the agency. The landlord's particulars on the tenancy agreement are:

"REAL ESTATE ASSOCIATES (GP.) LIMITED (Co. Regn. No.04862610)
as the General Partner of CAMPBELL PROPERTY SOUTH WEST LIMITED PARTNERSHIP (Regn. No. LP012480)
c/o Campbell Property UK Limited at 44 High Street Pewsey Wiltshire SN9 5AQ"

The housing licence (which incidentally only covers the property for 5 people) has also been issued to Ms. Campbell of Campbell Properties.

Are the agency not obliged to provide me with evidence that my deposit has been protected within 30 days? Asking for it would make it obvious what my intentions are, but it would mean I wouldn't have to proceed despite not being 100% sure about whether the deposit was protected.

I assume no-win-no-fee lawyers advertise their services for PPI and the like because they're such straightforward cases? Surely a local solicitors who offer no-win-no-fee would take my case on such basis if the agency couldn't provide details of a protected deposit.

Ideally though, wouldn't it be cheaper and more responsible within the eyes of the court if I was to mediate with the agency for a sum beforehand in order for them to avoid potentially having to pay my legal fees?

Pixie5740

Asking for the details of where your deposit is being held won't necessarily alert the LL or LA as to your intentions. You could just say that you're sorting out your paperwork and that is seems you have mislaid the copy they originally gave you, that's what I did when I knew full well my LL hadn't bothered her !!!! to protect my deposit.

Also, if I had gone down the route of suing for 3 times the deposit I would do it myself and not give any business to leeches like a no win no fee solicitor.

Marmotta_2

Actually, I'm not overly bothered if they know what I'm doing.

Another question though - as I believe they are legally obliged to provide details of my deposit within 30 days, is it safe to assume from a legal standpoint that they haven't protected it if they fail to provide such details within this time frame?

G_M

Marmotta wrote: »

Actually, I'm not overly bothered if they know what I'm doing.

Another question though - as I believe they are legally obliged to provide details of my deposit within 30 days, is it safe to assume from a legal standpoint that they haven't protected it if they fail to provide such details within this time frame?

As ooec25 explained above, the LL must serve the information. Whether you pick up/read the post is your problem. For example a house-mate may have picked up and binned the letter, but the LL would still have complied with the law.

You can check online with each of the schemes yourself to see if the deposit is registere - again, as advised previously:

Deposits (Rules on deposit protection)

Localism Act 2011 (section 184 - updates to deposit scheme rules) Plain English explanation!

Prescribed Information (RLA links to various deposit schemes' documentation)

Voyager2002

Even a No-win no-fee lawyer would probably make you pay the court fees up-front. If you won then you would have to pay a chunk of your winnings to cover their legal costs, and since this kind of case is normally heard under the 'small claims' track, the help of a solicitor is unlikely to be necessary.

00ec25

Marmotta wrote: »

Are the agency not obliged to provide me with evidence that my deposit has been protected within 30 days? Asking for it would make it obvious what my intentions are, but it would mean I wouldn't have to proceed despite not being 100% sure about whether the deposit was protected.

The LL is obliged to protect the deposit, whether the LL himself chooses to check up on what his agent has or has not done is his problem. The LL is the person you are chasing, not his agent

Marmotta wrote: »

I assume no-win-no-fee lawyers advertise their services for PPI and the like because they're such straightforward cases? Surely a local solicitors who offer no-win-no-fee would take my case on such basis if the agency couldn't provide details of a protected deposit.

please check the amendments I have made to my earlier post - you are going via small claims, solicitor costs are therefore not part of the award and so any solicitor fees you incur would have to be paid from your own winnings, as a minimum therefore your pot of money from which to fund said fees would be the deposit + x1 penalty (ie total = deposit value x 2) with the maximum being deposit x4. You could end up out of pocket if you engage a no win no fee as they are rather good at pricing their service at the upper end of the price range

Marmotta wrote: »

Ideally though, wouldn't it be cheaper and more responsible within the eyes of the court if I was to mediate with the agency for a sum beforehand in order for them to avoid potentially having to pay my legal fees?

the court will expect you to have made some attempt , if that attempt fails then this will not affect you being able to go forward:
ie you must have issued a letter before action but if the LL ignores it then you go to court having established that the LL is being confrontational and this would count against them in the eyes of the judge.
If the LL had made an offer that you refused then again the judge will take a view as to how unreasonable was your refusal
eg:
- LL refuses return at all, judge gives max award of return + x3 penalty.
- LL offers return of deposit in full, you continue the action because you want the penalty on top, the judge may award return only with no penalty

Kynthia

The penalty is 'up to three times the deposit' so a judge may not award that. If the landlord protects the deposit late but still with the tenancy then judges tend to be more lenient. So other than ensuring the return of your deposit I'm not sure you'd make anything else.