Late deposit protection of my deposit by my landlady... Small Claims Court?

cloo

If you got most of the deposit back, don't bother, just move on. You gave her actual rent, don't let her live rent free in your head!

Jerome_TFB

Hi All,



I actually competely forgot to update this thread. Sorry about this.


So long story short: I dropped the case. I'll explain why below.


The No win / no fee company I used got a reply from my landlady, who included evidence that the deposit was protected in time, including bank statements provided by the DPS, as well as a letter from the DPS claiming that the deposit was protected in time.


This evidence was the total opposite to what the DPS provided me in the past (which I used as evidence). That is when I started a long communication with the DPS on the phone and by email, but I was receiving contradicting info from different people within the DPS.
Some people said that the deposit was protected when they received the money in their account, some when the money is actually allocated to the "file". I could not get a straight answer.
I therefore requested an official letter from higher powers at the DPS. One manager provided me with an email stating that deposit protection starts at allocation of deposit, not when money is received. This was in line with my original evidence. But I requested an official letter stating this, and that went above her, and the reply I got was that they refused to provide an answer, and that the judge in court would decide whether the deposit was protected in time or not.

I tried to argue, that the foundation of their "business" is deposit protection, so they should be able to tell when protection starts. But they simply did not want to get involved, and flatly refused to give an answer.
I find this appalling, but there is nothing I can do sadly.



At the end of the day, if protection started at allocation of the funds to my file, the landlady was 4 days late. If it was at reception of the funds, she was 1 day late.
So late regardless.
Based on this the no win / no fee company refused to go ahead, at it was considered a "technicality". They said they would go with it only if I was to pay for their service.


I felt like it was too much of a gamble to go to court, and let the judge decide whether the deposit was protected in time or not. I did not want to risk having to pay court fees should he void the case.
I am still within the 6 years I can claim, but it has now been so long, and I am in the process of buying a house, so I need to keep all my pennies.



So sadly it didn't go the way I wanted. Thos £2.5K definitely would have helped for our deposit, and I am gutted that this (insert expletive term of choice) landlady gets away with it. She is a horrible person, and will give hell to whoever rents her place.

theartfullodger

Shame references are not required by tenants of their prospective landlords from previous tenant.

No reason they can't demand them.

G_M

You could always bring the case against her yourself - it's not hard and would keep your costs down.

Based on what you've said it sounds like the deposit was protected late whichever definition of 'protection date' is used. And judges have no discretion as to whether to impose a penalty or not: if protected late the penalty must be awarded.

Judges do have discretion as to the amount of the penalty, and in a case where it is protected late by just a matter of days, and where there are no other relevant factors (eg dispute over deductions etc), then the minimum penalty is likely.

but if the deposit itself has been returned and/or otherwise agreed, then frankly I wouldn't put yourself through the time and effort of a court case.


As an aside, I do find the DPS response to you intreaguing. I've no knowledge or experience of a case where the protection date became critical like this, but common sense suggests that the LL should contact the scheme within 30 days to register the deposit. If the scheme takes days or indeed weeks for 'allocation of the funds to [my] file', that can hardly be a reason to penalise the landlord!

Jerome_TFB

theartfullodger wrote: »

Shame references are not required by tenants of their prospective landlords from previous tenant.

No reason they can't demand them.

Actually a website exists: https://asktenants.co.uk/
I have not written a review, as I was waiting for my case to be sorted in court, and then I forgot, might do that now...

Jerome_TFB

G_M wrote: »

You could always bring the case against her yourself - it's not hard and would keep your costs down.

I understand it is not difficult, but taking someone to court remains a daunting process, which I did not manage to bring myself to do on my own. I did fill all the required forms, but I do not know whether what I wrote is sufficient, appropriate "legal" lingo etc.

G_M wrote: »

Based on what you've said it sounds like the deposit was protected late whichever definition of 'protection date' is used. And judges have no discretion as to whether to impose a penalty or not: if protected late the penalty must be awarded.

Judges do have discretion as to the amount of the penalty, and in a case where it is protected late by just a matter of days, and where there are no other relevant factors (eg dispute over deductions etc), then the minimum penalty is likely.

but if the deposit itself has been returned and/or otherwise agreed, then frankly I wouldn't put yourself through the time and effort of a court case.

Whether the deposit was returned or not (most of it was in my case after dispute etc) is irrelevant for this type of case.

G_M wrote: »

As an aside, I do find the DPS response to you intreaguing. I've no knowledge or experience of a case where the protection date became critical like this, but common sense suggests that the LL should contact the scheme within 30 days to register the deposit. If the scheme takes days or indeed weeks for 'allocation of the funds to [my] file', that can hardly be a reason to penalise the landlord!

Well, they get the payment, but they need to allocate the money to a deposit. In her case the money was received on a saturday and was not allocated before the Monday or Tuesday (can't remember). She still sent it on the 30th day, and it was received the next day. So she was still late. Why the hell did she need to keep my dosh all that time before sending it off? 30 days is long enough... It even used to be 14 days a few years back... So there is really no excuse for this (or her despecable behaviour throughout the tenancy).

itwasntme001

As a landlord i have used DPS and i also got conflicting information from them. I also asked them some very basic questions about how to use their online application to which they said they can not give advice. Keep in mind my questions were to do with the online application that DPS created themselves - they couldnt even answer basic questions on that. Completely crazy how this scheme operates. To all those thinking of using DPS - DO NOT use them as customer service is very poor as a landlord.


I ended up having to use them as was already part way through the process and moving to another scheme would have meant delays in securing the deposit.

MEM62

Jerome_TFB wrote: »

Now, I am not a petty person, but since she actively made our life hell, and tried to keep our deposit in some nasty was, we sort of want blood.

You claim not to be petty but you seem to need the emotional satisfaction of 'sticking one on' your ex-landlord. If it's that important to you then do it. What we think is irrelevant.