My landlord hasnt protected my deposit, Wanting £500 to Replace Sofa HELP!!!!!

nickroberts

Hi im seeking some advice

We have been living in our rented property for 6 years and are moving out

We have informed the landlord and he visited the property to inspect the property so he could give us a reference

He gave us a reference ok but now he is sending us texts saying he wants to keep £500 of the deposit to replace the 2 faux sofas that we had already replaced 2 years ago

We replaced the sofas ourselves 2 years ago as the ones he provided we cracked and worn out, we texted him and he was ok with this and said as long as there are 2 sofas when u leave that would be ok

He is holding a £1100 deposit from us and we could do with as much as we can from it for furnishing are new property and i have to pay for a months rent as our contract isnt up till the 29th of may and were moving to are new property on the 3rd of may so i have to pay for 2 rents

We have also found out that it is not in a government deposit scheme and he has kept it in his bank over the 5 years we have been in the property

Over the 5 years he hasnt done anything to the property not even visited it

I also replaced his old worn out boiler for a new one because we were eligible for a grant and our gas bill was huge due to the old boiler being inefficient

Any advice would be great

Thxs

marliepanda

Just send him a letter reminding him of his obligations to protect your deposit, and that if he does not return it in full you will be taking him to court for a possible 3x the deposit.

If he has any sense your full deposit will be in your bank days later.

Improvements, deductions etc do not matter, he has to send you it all back if he has not protected it.

antrobus

See s214 Housing Act 2004
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/34/section/214

lighting_up_the_chalice

Shelter has some very good info/advice on their website.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/tenancy_deposits/tenancy_deposit_protection_schemes/tenancy_deposit_protection

nickroberts

Thanks for all the replys

''Improvements, deductions etc do not matter, he has to send you it all back if he has not protected it'' is that correct as that was another thing we were worried with little deductions here and there ie a mark on the kitchen work surface etc

Thxs

marliepanda

He has to return it. If he wants money for the kitchen too he would need to take you to court. Then you could take him to court for 3x deposit.

Basically if he has any sense, he won't.

nickroberts

marliepanda thxs for the replies one last thing what do i do about the sofas? Do i leave the ones i already have here which im happy to do

thxs

Twiggy_34

If the sofa's were part of the rental agreement, and the old one's had become unreasonably "tired" why did you buy new ones out of your own pocket and why should the landlord keep them without paying you something for them? IMO, if the property were fully or part-furnished and the sofa's were no longer suitable for the job then it was up to your landlord to replace them (it's difficult though if you carried on and got rid of them without consulting the landlord first as it ought to have been agreed with him/her before disposing of their property). However, as you managed to acquire a new and more efficient boiler installation at no cost to the landlord that, again IMO, ought to have been a perk that would have compensated for the loss of their sofa's - As a landlord myself I've encouraged our tenants to see if they're eligible for a new boiler as part of the scheme you mentioned, in part because I know it would be more efficient for the tenants and in part because the boiler at the property is getting on in age now and likely won't last for many more years before we're unable to replace parts.

WRT the deposit not being put into a protection scheme, they're also in a tricky position regarding this. I believe that, if you wanted to, you could submit a claim against the landlord for this and that they might be required to pay you back up to 3x the deposit sum

"You can apply to your local county court if you think your landlord hasn't used a TDP scheme when they should have.

Get legal advice before applying to court.

If the court finds your landlord hasn't protected your deposit, it can order the person holding the deposit to either:
- repay it to you
- pay it into a custodial TDP scheme’s bank account within 14 days

The court may also order the landlord to pay you up to 3 times the deposit within 14 days of making the order."

G_M

marliepanda wrote: »

Just send him a letter reminding him of his obligations to protect your deposit, and that if he does not return it in full you will be taking him to court for a possible 3x the deposit.

If he has any sense your full deposit will be in your bank days later.

Improvements, deductions etc do not matter, he has to send you it all back if he has not protected it.

Not quite so straight forward.

Assuming the LL does not return the deposit, it would be up to the tenant to take the LL to court, either to reclaim the deposit, and/or to claim the 3 times penalty.

The LL could then enter a counter claim for any damage.

Court would award a penalty of 'up to' 3 times the deposit (for failure to protect), and then assess the counter claim. If the court found that the tenant had caused damage, that would be deducted from the deposit before it was returned.

But I agree that the threat of the penalty, which is likely to be greater than the claimed £500 damage, may be enough to make the LL return the deposit.

Trouble is, the LL may realise that tenant could still go to court for the penalty even after the deposit was returned in full. Having returned the deposit, he'd have implicitly accepted there was no damage, thereby undermining any counter-claim he might make at that point.

nickroberts

Twiggy_34 thxs for the reply

The landlord was aware of the sofa situation, and we were happy to replace them for something we liked and leave them when we left as agreed with the landlord but he doesn't want them now and would prefer the cash hence the problem

Thxs

nickroberts

G_M Thxs for the reply

I wouldn't do a claim if i got my money back, im even happy to give him £100 still for the sofas but £500 is a bit steep for 2 six year old faux sofas