Landlord reneged on our agreement

breaking_free

Congrats OP.

Now spend some of that hard fought for money on xmas cheer :beer::beer:

mrginge

To be honest I don't understand why there was any doubt that the deposit would be returned in full.

R997

RAS wrote: »

Amazing story.

If you had actually listened to the initial advice on here, people would have guided you through the process you have taken.

But having put everyone's backs up and wasted their time sniping, no-one had the opportunity to even cover matters like betterment.

I did listen. Some good advice is dispensed here, and it helped me understand how the deposit system works, the terminology used and what I needed to do.

This forum is also full of people who feel superior, making snap judgements based on limited facts and less knowledge.

I've thanked the people who helped, and I meant it. As for those with a chip on their shoulder, who get stropy when their "wisdom" isn't accepted without question, that's there problem, not mine.

R997

Guest101 wrote: »

I'd suggest your ex LL was (clearly by your description of his evidence) was inept, and had the evidence pack been more robust, you would not have won.

You're still sore that I didn't listen to you, aren't you?

I'm sorry that my manner offends you so. Have a Happy Christmas.

Guest101

R997 wrote: »

I did listen. Some good advice is dispensed here, and it helped me understand how the deposit system works, the terminology used and what I needed to do.

This forum is also full of people who feel superior, making snap judgements based on limited facts and less knowledge.

I've thanked the people who helped, and I meant it. As for those with a chip on their shoulder, who get stropy when their "wisdom" isn't accepted without question, that's there problem, not mine.

But if you don't supply all the facts, how can you expect to get the answers you seek?

Guest101

R997 wrote: »

You're still sore that I didn't listen to you, aren't you?

I'm sorry that my manner offends you so. Have a Happy Christmas.

Honestly I'm not sore at all, good for you that you got your money.


But as you suggested yourself:


"His only evidence took the form of some random receipts from B&Q and a scrawled hand-written note, in which he threatened to take me to court if the TDS didn't find in his favour."


Hardly a proper evidence pack.


Had he instead supplied emails, texts, letters etc....

R997

Guest101 wrote: »

Had he instead supplied emails, texts, letters etc....

..... he'd have helped me to prove that I was a good tenant, who paid the rent on time, maintained aspects of the property at my own expense and grudgingly accepted that he usually didn't fix things when they broke??

Oh, and that he'd lied about the state of the property when we moved in, and when we moved out?

He did provide an invoice for a cleaner too. Not the one we'd booked and agreed to pay for, but a different one..... My 10 year old nephew could have made a more convincing forgery. At least he might have printed it on the computer rather than handwriting it on a piece of A4 with no date or address.......... but, he tried his best, and that's what counts.

The fact that I got the deposit back isn't about his ineptitude. It's about the fact that he lied and acted in an underhand way. He didn't do things properly, and he tried to be greedy, and he got found out.

Nobbie1967

Good to hear a bad landlord getting their just desserts. Well done R997 for persevering and putting the time in to put a good case to the TDS.

You do get a bit of a mixed bag of responses on here, some real nuggets of information, some misinformation and some downright rude posts or those trying to belittle you. If you can sift through it without rising to the bait, you can generally get some very usefull answers.

mrginge

Obviously this is with hindsight, but my take on this is as follows.

The question of the LL not having to prove that any work is carried out in order to receive an award from the TDS is a moot point. The compensatory nature of any award as pointed out by G_M and others is IMO correct.

However, in this case we are talking about a secondary agreement between OP and LL whereby OP's agreement to a negotiated deduction is conditional. LL fails to carry out required conditions so the negotiated agreement is void. The TDS shouldn't penalise the OP in this case. They cannot rule that an agreement was reached and should be enforced because an agreement was NOT reached. Therefore they should ignore this and only consider the usual factors like condition at start vs condition at end....etc

So, hardly a surprise that OP gets a full return if the quality of evidence provided by LL is as stated.

wolfplayer

R997 wrote: »

My top tip - take professional advice if you can. There's plenty of information out there from Shelter or the TDS. Most of the advice I received here was judgemental and just plain wrong, and I'm glad I didn't follow it, because I'd be £642 worse off now if I had.

Merry Christmas.

Great outcome.

Stick it to the greedy people farmers.