Landlord withholding my deposit - Not scheme protected

Guy_Montag

olly300 wrote: »

You don't need to pay attention to his deadlines especially if he has written the letter with the title "without prejudice".

The LL is playing games with you to avoid paying any money to you.

If you haven't realised that from the beginning you should realise that now.

If you agree anything with him it is highly likely he will use it against you in any court case you have with him.

If you reply to him, which I wouldn't:
1. Acknowledge receiving the letter i.e write one line reply in the form of "I have received your letter dated xxxx."
2. Do not mention his deadline in the letter.

I suggest you then get a solicitor to write to him to inform him of your intent to take him to court for your deposit.

You should have a law centre in your area and I suggest either you or your wife go to the law centre and ask one of the legal advisers, who normally will have legal qualifications, to write a "letter before action" for you. http://www.lawcentres.org.uk/lawcentres/ (While they say they are for disadvantaged members of the community it's worth going to them.) The CAB and shelter won't do this for you as their volunteers don't have legal qualifications.

Once he realises you are not willing to put up with his wishes (game playing) and it's going to cost him money/trouble to fight with you he will either send you the money or make you take him to court.

As mentioned above one poster had complete success using these guys:

Community Legal Service Direct

If you live in England or Wales and want free high-quality legal information to help you deal with your legal problems, Community Legal Service Direct (CLS Direct) can help.

http://www.clsdirect.org.uk/

RickS_3

I haven't read through the entire thread, but you may be interested to know of a similar situation I had with my landlord. We accidently put a hot saucepan on one of the bedroom floors which resulted in a saucepan-shaped burn mark on the carpet. I knew the landlord would not repair this and would rent the property with the burn mark. It wasn't as bed as it sounds - it was quite a light burn mark in the corner.

Anyway, when he came to inspect the property he started ranting about the burn mark and how he would need to replace the entire carpet in the room at a huge cost. I said that the carpet was ok and the new tenants would probably not care, so he switched his attention to how grubby the rest of the carpets were. He said that he would forget about the burn mark but I'd need to pay £200 for carpet cleaning. I told him that I would clean them myself for FREE. He asked how I would clean them and I said a nailbrush. He pointed out that this would result in a patchy carpet with some clean bits (where I'd scrubbed with the nailbrush). He suggested renting a carpet cleaner for £25. I did this, paid for it myself and phoned him back four hours later. He was in the property showing potential new tenants around. I put in a good word about the property (quiet, friendly neighbours, decent landlord, etc - all true). They took the property and I got my FULL deposit back. Okay I had to pay £25 for carpet cleaning but I was happy!

lisababy2002uk

hello i no what you mean


ill explain

welll me and my partner was living in a spare bedroom and needed our own place so a friend said she was moving and said she would talk to her landlord about us taking over the tenancy well we did and we moved in on the 4th july 2005 and on the monday the landlord came to look at the property on cause we moved in early on the saturday well we told him about the damage to the house we found and he noted it all (plaster off the walls, hole in the bedroom door , carpet in main bedroom ripped , no carpet on stairs, and the last person who lived there (my friend) had a dog who munched on the stairs , hardly any wallpaper on the walls , leek coming through the celien.

well not even a year when we had been living there a esate agent came round sizing up the place (landlord hant even told us he was selling)
he even gave a key to them without us knowing so one morning we got a shock when someone was trying to get into the house .

well anyways the "for sale " sign went up so we phoned the landlord to ask weather we could have our bond back a bit early as living on benerfits we couldnt afford to pay out till we had ours back well we got a lot of asbuse not very nice i can tell you.


well we moved out on the 1st may 2006 and the landlord was supose to come and collect the keys but he didnt show so rang him and his secatary said he was on hoilday and to post the keys off to him (as we did by recorded delivery )

he then said he never recived them but someone had signed for them and he said we left the house in a state we left it clean (extra clean) painted and tidy and as you can see ive been billed for the last persons damage and he isnt budging and we anit covered by the scheme either

olly300

lisababy2002uk wrote: »

he then said he never recived them but someone had signed for them and he said we left the house in a state we left it clean (extra clean) painted and tidy and as you can see ive been billed for the last persons damage and he isnt budging and we anit covered by the scheme either

Well if you can prove that he or an agent received the keys then take him to court. There are enough links on this thread to give you pointers how to do it.

lisababy2002uk

after it beeing in despute since 2006 would it be ok to keep on going yes i can prove he got the keys royal mail kept the signature for me

ManchegoMan

HI again,

Well, I'm writing my LETTER BEFORE ACTION headed letter to the LL. Its taken a while to do this due to the fact my wife is pregnant, didnt want the stress, and we were away on hols for acouple of weeks.

Now, I understand I can give him 7 days from the date of the letter right?

Is there anything that I MUST mention in the letter apart from what I want from him, plus what points he's raised that I disagree with. Alot of those points have already been bulletpointed and disputed in previous letters but he seems to brush over them saying we're missing his points. Like he's thick or something, but he's surely not else he wouldn't be holding onto my deposit.

Anyway, here's what I've written...

In response to your previous letter dated XXXX is it disappointing to read that you have failed to return us the money we asked for, namely the £XXX that we offered to accept – a deduction of £XX for the replacement of a XXX XX, plus £XXX for carpet cleaning as a goodwill gesture from us. Your ‘without prejudice’ offer to return back a further £XXX is not acceptable. The disputed issues are detailed in the previous letters (for which you have already received). There are also several points you mention in your most recent correspondence which we disagree with, as listed below.

• Point1 - Dispute - Reason:
• Point2 - Dispute - Reason:
• Point3 - Dispute - Reason:

You have 7 days from the date of this letter to return our deposit. If we do not hear from you within that time we have no option, but to file for court.

Yours Sincerely,

XXXXXXXX & XXXXXXXX




How does this sound?

Many thanks! MM

ManchegoMan

Just another question: Can I deliver the 'letter before action' letter by hand to the LL? He only lives 10 minutes drive away from my house. Or do I have to use the same method as I've done previously (i.e. recorded)?

I'm a bit nervous delivering by hand as I have never met the guy so I dont know what he looks like. When we first moved into the house he stated in a letter that there was no need to meet face to face.

Any replies gratefully received. Thanks.MM

poppy10_2

Deliver it by hand - hopefully it will intimidate him a bit as he realizes things are hitting closer to home, and he will back done. He sounds desperate, and he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Clive_Woody

Send the letter recorded delivery, then you have proof he has received it, by hand he can claim he has never seen the letter before when it goes to court.

I don't have any experience myself, but your letter seems quite long. I would be as brief as possible, stating his offer was unacceptable, you wish for the return of £xxxx within 7 days otherwise you will proceed with legal action to recover the money owed to you.

clutton_2

put the letter thru his letter box and get someone who is with you to sign a witness statement which just says "they saw this letter dated xx being put thru the door on such a day at such a time" and sign it. a clever rogue refuses to accept recorded delivery letters.