Our deposit has been deducted without notice

furryvision

My partner and i were informed that we could not renew our tenancy. As we wanted to stay in the area we found a property and asked if we could move out before the end of the tenancy.
It was agreed we could leave early but were responsible for all bills until new tenants found.
We left on the 7th and were informed new tenants entered on the 24th.
We paid all bills water, electricity and council tax. We were never asked for the rent for the time from the 7th to the 24th.

We have received our deposit back minus the rent, although we were never informed that the rent was owed and never asked for it. We were also never informed the deposit was coming back minus the rent, giving us chance to dispute the deduction.

The contract stipulates any deductions must be informed in 10 days, this did not happen.
We were also not given the opportunity to dispute the deduction.

Where do we stand on this matter?
Please help (thank you)

anselld

Did you get early surrender agreement in writing?
It might not be what you were expecting but you seem to have got off fairly lightly. It is fairly normal in early surrender to pay rent and bills until new tenants are found and usually re-letting fees on top.

sulphate

What anselld said. This is normal practice.

furryvision

but do we not get a chance to dispute it?

We did get a deed of surrender.

And they never gave us details of the deposit scheme until after they returned the deposit

anselld

If you wanted to do things by the book you should have stayed, waited for formal s21 notice etc.

It presumably suited you to leave early and the LL has facilitated this at a fair cost. If you though you had negotiated better you should have had it put in writing.

If you can prove the LL failed to protect your deposit you can still sue for 3x deposit over that issue if you feel inlined.

G_M

What date is on the Deed of Surrender?

You cannot be charged rent beyond that date.

Having said that, I suspect that when you asked to leave early, and the LL said "we could leave early but were responsible for all bills until new tenants found." he meany all bills -including the bill for rent.

And they never gave us details of the deposit scheme until after they returned the deposit

Was the deposit in a scheme?
Is this England or Wales?

You may be able to sue for 3 times the deposit.

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)

Re-issuing PI (when renewing a tenancy - Superstrike Vs Rodrigues - legal guidance)