Tenancy Deposit Protection Penalty Claim

bunkersoldier

Hi,

Does anyone know if a tenant is permitted to issue a court claim against a landlord for a tenancy deposit protection penalty of less than the maximum 3 times the amount of the deposit, eg 2 times the amount, in order to reduce court fees?

All the guidance I have found about claiming a penalty under Section 214 Housing Act 2004 mentions issuing a claim for 3 times the amount of the deposit, and the court then decides whether to award between 1 - 3 times the deposit.

For example, in the case of a private landlord who had protected the deposit with an authorised scheme, but who had failed to provide the prescribed information, it is almost certain that any award would be at the lower end of the scale, so it would seem to be a waste of money claiming for 3 times the deposit, with a £455 court fee for a claim above £5,000, rather than a £205 fee for a claim below £5,000.

Thank you for any advice.

theartfullodger

Dunno: But you may find this interesting...

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?72186-Deposit-Protection-Court-case-won-against-Landlord
& this..
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/tenancy_deposits/tenancy_deposit_protection_schemes/penalties_if_a_landlord_breaks_tenancy_deposit_rules

Are you tenant, landlord, agent, someone doing research??

agrinnall

Surely the fee would be awarded in addition to the claim if it's successful so it wouldn't matter how much was paid (that's assuming you have a good expectation of winning).

G_M

I assume you have a cashflow problem so paying the higher court fee is difficult? As aginnall says, you'll get the fee back assuming you win.

However, yes, you can claim a lesser amount and pay a lower fee.

bunkersoldier

theartfullodger wrote: »

Dunno: But you may find this interesting...

landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?72186-Deposit-Protection-Court-case-won-against-Landlord
& this..
england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/tenancy_deposits/tenancy_deposit_protection_schemes/penalties_if_a_landlord_breaks_tenancy_deposit_rules (had to remove links as a new user)

Are you tenant, landlord, agent, someone doing research??

It's my student daughter and her joint tenants who will be claiming. As a consequence of not receiving the prescribed information, they were unaware of the my|deposits adjudication scheme, so missed the 3 month deadline to challenge the landlord's unreasonable deductions.

That first link is very useful thank you. The second link doesn't seem to work for me.

theartfullodger

Try this - sorry...
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/tenancy_deposits/tenancy_deposit_protection_schemes
-then go to penalties...

Suggest they take advice: The legalities of this are tricky...

[Deleted User]

From the first link in artfullodgers post, with clear instructions on how to proceed with a case like this, the tenant only paid £80., but was aware the defendant could (but didn't) ask for the case to go on another track of the court system with higher fees.

bunkersoldier

agrinnall wrote: »

Surely the fee would be awarded in addition to the claim if it's successful so it wouldn't matter how much was paid (that's assuming you have a good expectation of winning).

It's a little confusing and I'm not sure if we do get the court fee back if it's assigned to the Small Claims track?

bunkersoldier

G_M wrote: »

I assume you have a cashflow problem so paying the higher court fee is difficult? As aginnall says, you'll get the fee back assuming you win.

However, yes, you can claim a lesser amount and pay a lower fee.

Thank you! Assuming it is correct that we would get the fee back if we win, then we would want to appear reasonable in our claim too.

bunkersoldier

deannatrois wrote: »

From the first link in artfullodgers post, with clear instructions on how to proceed with a case like this, the tenant only paid £80., but was aware the defendant could (but didn't) ask for the case to go on another track of the court system with higher fees.

This claim must have been for a deposit of less than £500, to be below the £1500 threshold for the £80 fee. Unfortunately my daughter's is a joint tenancy of 6 students which would bring the claim of 3x the deposit to a fee of £455. If it goes to another track, fees could be over £1k!

FBaby

Before you even go that route, are you absolutely certain it wasn't sent? Was your daughter the lead tenant? If not, it might very well have been sent to one of the other tenants, and being a student didn't pay much attention to it, or even got rid of it.

Might be worth being 100% certain before taking the landlord to court. Also not sure about the argument that it caused them to fail the deadline by which to challenge as it is all explained very well on the deposit scheme website.