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Deposit not placed into a deposit protection scheme
JustUsSix
Posts: 7 Forumite
Hi all,
This will be long so i apologise & I'll try to cut a very long story short! We moved out of our last rented property last november, we rented privately, not through an agent and we paid an £850 deposit which the landlady said was placed in a protection scheme. Knowing nothing about this, we just assumed she had done it and didn't realise that if she had, we'd have received correspondence from the company. When we moved out, the landlady wasn't happy as we'd told her upon signing that we were looking for a long term property, as it turned out, i fell pregnant again shortly after moving in. As it was a small 2 up 2 down house, we were already struggling for space as a family of 5 so knew we'd really struggle when the 6th arrived.
We handed in our notice after 12 months but gave her 2 month's notice instead of the required 1 month to assist her in finding new tenants and we eventually moved out 14 months after moving in. Unfortunately, things got a bit strained after she accidentally text me saying, "I'm sure we'll find something wrong with the place when they go - nudge nudge, wink wink!". Anyway, she asked when we would be leaving and we told her we were hoping to move on 14th but we had paid rent up until the 16th so planned to do it over 2 days. We did start the move on 14th and stayed at the new house that evening. On the morning of the 15th, the landlady called at 8am screaming down the phone that the house was a mess, why had we left so mch stuff and so on. We went straight round and explained that we were paid up until the 16th and started to remove the rest of our belongings. After our 2nd trip, she refused us further entry to the property, she had called 3 male friends to stop us entering. My waters broke at that exact moment so we obviously left it there and went to the hospital. The point of the story is, she threw out over £2,500 worth of things including a brand new cot, a 3Dtv, wardrobes & the children's trampoline.
She has since refused to pay the deposit back and has admitted not using a protection scheme. I wrote to her in november requesting the return of said deposit, she replied with a long list of things we'd apparently damaged/left in a mess - she even had the cheek to say she had to pay for removal of property we 'left'! This wasn't an issue as we had taken photos on our last trip to the house as we expected this so i wrote back and sent photos of how the house was when we left (with a hubby in most of them holding the paper with the date on!). She didn't reply so i wrote again in december, again, no reply.
I'm not sure what to do now? If it's not in a scheme who do we go to for help? I've checked on the deposit scheme databases and it's definitely not there. Do we just have to accept that we've effectively lost £3.5k?
Sorry for the rambling, just wanted to give as much background as possible as i'm not sure what will be relevant (this really is a slimmed down version of events though!).
Thanks in advance, guys
This will be long so i apologise & I'll try to cut a very long story short! We moved out of our last rented property last november, we rented privately, not through an agent and we paid an £850 deposit which the landlady said was placed in a protection scheme. Knowing nothing about this, we just assumed she had done it and didn't realise that if she had, we'd have received correspondence from the company. When we moved out, the landlady wasn't happy as we'd told her upon signing that we were looking for a long term property, as it turned out, i fell pregnant again shortly after moving in. As it was a small 2 up 2 down house, we were already struggling for space as a family of 5 so knew we'd really struggle when the 6th arrived.
We handed in our notice after 12 months but gave her 2 month's notice instead of the required 1 month to assist her in finding new tenants and we eventually moved out 14 months after moving in. Unfortunately, things got a bit strained after she accidentally text me saying, "I'm sure we'll find something wrong with the place when they go - nudge nudge, wink wink!". Anyway, she asked when we would be leaving and we told her we were hoping to move on 14th but we had paid rent up until the 16th so planned to do it over 2 days. We did start the move on 14th and stayed at the new house that evening. On the morning of the 15th, the landlady called at 8am screaming down the phone that the house was a mess, why had we left so mch stuff and so on. We went straight round and explained that we were paid up until the 16th and started to remove the rest of our belongings. After our 2nd trip, she refused us further entry to the property, she had called 3 male friends to stop us entering. My waters broke at that exact moment so we obviously left it there and went to the hospital. The point of the story is, she threw out over £2,500 worth of things including a brand new cot, a 3Dtv, wardrobes & the children's trampoline.
She has since refused to pay the deposit back and has admitted not using a protection scheme. I wrote to her in november requesting the return of said deposit, she replied with a long list of things we'd apparently damaged/left in a mess - she even had the cheek to say she had to pay for removal of property we 'left'! This wasn't an issue as we had taken photos on our last trip to the house as we expected this so i wrote back and sent photos of how the house was when we left (with a hubby in most of them holding the paper with the date on!). She didn't reply so i wrote again in december, again, no reply.
I'm not sure what to do now? If it's not in a scheme who do we go to for help? I've checked on the deposit scheme databases and it's definitely not there. Do we just have to accept that we've effectively lost £3.5k?
Sorry for the rambling, just wanted to give as much background as possible as i'm not sure what will be relevant (this really is a slimmed down version of events though!).
Thanks in advance, guys
0
Comments
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Don't worry. You need to go to court, after a letter before action.
You will win, and be awarded the deposit back plus 1-3x penalty. Probably the higher end given this was not an honest mistake.
Got to run but more answers will be coming0 -
she legally had to protect the deposit, (i know as we rent a house out and we sent the deposit from our tenant straight into a scheme)
Im sure if you threaten court etc she will change her mindDFBXMAS15 £6600/£6600 100% #1430 -
See Shelter's guide for getting your deposit back. It gives a sample letter before action and explains how to take your LL to court if necessary.
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/tenancy_deposits/getting_your_deposit_back/tenancy_deposit_compensation_claims0 -
Uhm this is illegal eviction. Even if only for two days.
Speak to a housing law solicitor.0 -
Uhm this is illegal eviction. Even if only for two days.
Speak to a housing law solicitor
Didn't even read that far in. Fair point.0
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