Deposit being withheld

emmmmms

Hi. New to this site and hoping someone will be able to help / advise. We moved out of the property we were renting a couple of months ago and been chasing estate agent for the return of our deposit. We've only just been told to contact the landlord directly and he has told us that he is withholding our deposit. it seems that he didn't inform the utilities that he was no longer responsible for the payment of bills once we moved in. there was also no mail redirect set up so as tenants we had to forward on all post to the estate agent that was managing the property. As we apparently didn't forward the post in good time (which was utility bills), landlord has now incurred costs and CCJ''s and this is his reason (and scuffs on the walls) for not giving us the deposit back - can he do legally do this??
Thanks for any advice

Foxy-Stoat_3

Look at the deposit information pack you would of received by the Agents/Landlord when you moved in. It will state on there how to claim your deposit back, assuming the Landlord protected it, as the Law says.

As for Utility bills, did you not write to them and advise that you are now living there?

G_M

emmmmms wrote: »

Hi. New to this site and hoping someone will be able to help / advise. We moved out of the property we were renting a couple of months ago and been chasing estate agent for the return of our deposit. We've only just been told to contact the landlord directly and he has told us that he is withholding our deposit. it seems that he didn't inform the utilities that he was no longer responsible for the payment of bills once we moved in.
If, as I assume, the tenancy agreement makes you liable for utilities, then it was your responsibility
a) to contact the utility compamies and
b) to pay them,
there was also no mail redirect set up so as tenants we had to forward on all post to the estate agent that was managing the property. As we apparently didn't forward the post in good time (which was utility bills), landlord has now incurred costs and CCJ''s and this is his reason (and scuffs on the walls) for not giving us the deposit back - can he do legally do this??
No
Thanks for any advice

Mail forwarding is not your responsibility.

Is this England?
Is your deposit regstered?
Where?
Raise a dispute with the scheme.

benjus

Where are you? England, Wales, Scotland or NI?

Was the deposit protected as mandated by law, and the prescribed information sent to you (look this up if you're not sure what it means - it's a specific list of information stipulated by law).

As for the utilities, are they mentioned in the tenancy agreement? Are you saying that you did not pay for any utilities during the time you were there? Did that not strike you as a bit odd? The LL probably cannot deduct these from the deposit, but could potentially pursue you in the courts if you were liable to pay them.

As for the post, you're not a redirection service. The LL should give the utility companies his own address as a contact address if he's paying the utility bills between tenancies. Not your problem.

Pixie5740

Where are you living now? Did you take meter readings when you moved in and contact the utility companies or is history going to repeat itself?