assured shorthold tenancy- Tenancy deposit scheme

stinky_5000

Hi can any one give me advice??

I recently rented the house i was about to buy for 1month whilst all the searches etc went through, I signed a assured shorthold tenancy for the month and paid the vendor/landlord a deposit, once all the paper work etc had gone through for the house purchase I recieved my deposit back minus a sum of money that the landlord had charged me because when a guy from a homeless charity came to collect all the vendors furniture from the house I assumed he was doing the house clearance so pointed him in the direction of every thing that was not mine, he had to pay at the tip to dispose of some of the stuff...I got charged! anyways to cut a long story short, should my deposit have bene protected by the tenancy deposit scheme? I did not know anything about this untill last week (rented the house in july) but a friend said they thought i would not be covered because it was only a month rental contract? please help??

olly300

If you had an AST then your deposit should have been protected in a tenancy deposit scheme. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TenancyDeposit/index.htm

However if you wrongly pointed someone to furniture that should not have been taken then the landlord is in his rights to make you pay for it. The tenancy deposit scheme would not have protected you from that and actually the landlord may have got away with making a bigger deduction.

silvercar

Minimum term for an AST is 6 months, so I would guess that your contract was a mock-up based on an AST and not a formal AST. As such the deposit was probably not registered.

stinky_5000

I assumed that as the landlord was not going to come up to the property before we exchanged contracts for sale (he lives at the other end of the country) That he had paid this guy to do the house clearance other wise I was going to be left with all his ex student rental junk!! my bill he claims is for a couple of half open rusty paint cans that where in the shed (left for me to use on my new house!) and some bin bags? I don't recall what was in them as I just loaded all the stuff of his in bags ready to go, the guy from the charity seemed to go along with this so I assumed all was well, untill i received my cheque back!

I read somewhere that AST do not have a minimum or maximum term since 1998? Did I mis-read this??

Gorgeous_George

Once the house legally belongs to you , I would assume that any effects that are in the house become your's. Either that or he should have asked you to keep them and you could have asked him for a storage charge.

If you dumped the stuff before the house was yours, you're stuffed.



GG