Early Surrender of Fixed Term Contract

Guest101

ARLA don't rule on deposit dispute, so their guidelines on this are fairly meaningless.


You're best looking up 'betterment' and the scheme which holds your deposit.


£6,000 in surrender seems a lot, it could be argued this covered the state of the property 'as was' (though sensibly counter argued that if it did, then the deposit would be a sensible place to retrieve those funds from)


Either way I cant see it being 3,000.

McTaggus

It was two months rent…. The deposit is held with the DPS and I found this as guidance:

https://www.depositprotection.com/documents/a-guide-to-tenancy-deposits-disputes-and-damages.pdf

I remain optimistically / naively hopeful - let's see what happens from here. So far the LL hasn't acknowledged the request through the online system at all - even to say they dispute the claim - and has only responded via direct email. I'm guessing LL will go down the route of making life as difficult as possible - i.e. not coming to a resolution through direct communication, not acknowledging or responding to the online deposit return request in any way and forcing us to go through the single claim process (and then likely also refusing the dispute resolution process to force us to go to court to reclaim the deposit).

Edited to add: Thank you for your comments in relation to ARLA! I forgot to thank you in my original post!

Guest101

McTaggus wrote: »

It was two months rent…. The deposit is held with the DPS and I found this as guidance:

https://www.depositprotection.com/documents/a-guide-to-tenancy-deposits-disputes-and-damages.pdf

I remain optimistically / naively hopeful - let's see what happens from here. So far the LL hasn't acknowledged the request through the online system at all - even to say they dispute the claim - and has only responded via direct email. I'm guessing LL will go down the route of making life as difficult as possible - i.e. not coming to a resolution through direct communication, not acknowledging or responding to the online deposit return request in any way and forcing us to go through the single claim process (and then likely also refusing the dispute resolution process to force us to go to court to reclaim the deposit).

Edited to add: Thank you for your comments in relation to ARLA! I forgot to thank you in my original post!

No probs


1: If the LL doesn't respond, eventually, as you may be aware the deposit will be released automatically to you (it is a right hassle, and I had to do it one. The DPS customer service person even had the cheek to tell me they had nothing to gain by holding on to it. I did explain their whole business model is to get interest from the money they hold, but she was (possibly a bit dim) not having any of it. )
2: If the LL refusing ADR and you go to court, the judge will be looking to rip into the LL for wasting the courts time. This typically means no costs for the LL awarded and being a bit more lenient to your evidence.

McTaggus

I didn't realise it would be automatically released! I thought it would only be released if both parties agree to the release when in England & Wales (and only automatically in Scotland) - I've had difficulty finding anything concrete on it online - will give the DPS a call and find out more!!! THANK YOU!

On your second point, good to know. Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that and it turns out the LL is just trying it on and hoping a) we'll be suitably intimidated / cowed by the aggressiveness of the emails that have been sent to us and b) not armed by the good advice and guidance of the lovely people on this site!

Miss_Samantha

Guest101 wrote: »

2: If the LL refusing ADR and you go to court, the judge will be looking to rip into the LL for wasting the courts time. This typically means no costs for the LL awarded and being a bit more lenient to your evidence.

Have you got references to back that claim, by any chance?

franklee

McTaggus, I recommend you have a read of the case studies so see how the adjudicators weigh up the evidence and to improve what you submit.

DPS case studies:
https://www.depositprotection.com/case-studies

TDS have case studies which are more detailed and so IMO more helpful than DPS:
https://www.tds.gb.com/case-studies.html

PS I think the ARLA guidelines are useful as although they don't rule on the dispute they give a good indication of what to look out for.

FBaby

you have to squint to even see it in the picture against the cream carpet!!!

Well since that's all the adjudicator will get to see, you are in a very good position. Have you made an counter offer yet? That is normally expected before it goes to adjudication.

Have you got references to back that claim, by any chance?

I certainly remember reading this legal advice before. Courts should be the last resort, so they certainly don't hold high in consideration those who decide to ignore the service that is available to them.

Miss_Samantha

FBaby wrote: »

I certainly remember reading this legal advice before. Courts should be the last resort, so they certainly don't hold high in consideration those who decide to ignore the service that is available to them.

That does not answer my question...

Guest101

Miss_Samantha wrote: »

Have you got references to back that claim, by any chance?

What kind of references would you like?


It's widely known that courts prefer people to settle matters outside of court where possible. These schemes were set up with that in mind.


Costs are always discretionary and the judge will see the LLs behaviour as unreasonable and (probably, as judges are unpredictable) not award costs.


The judge is likely to be lenient as the LL is expected to be the professional in the matter and the tenant is protected by certain consumer laws.

Guest101

McTaggus wrote: »

I didn't realise it would be automatically released! I thought it would only be released if both parties agree to the release when in England & Wales (and only automatically in Scotland) - I've had difficulty finding anything concrete on it online - will give the DPS a call and find out more!!! THANK YOU!

On your second point, good to know. Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that and it turns out the LL is just trying it on and hoping a) we'll be suitably intimidated / cowed by the aggressiveness of the emails that have been sent to us and b) not armed by the good advice and guidance of the lovely people on this site!

Once you start single claim process, you need to make a declaration (a court or a solicitor will need to stamp it) and then there is (I believe) 4 weeks for the LL to respond, otherwise its released to you