Live-in Lanlord not returning lodger deposit

Boylegend

Okay, gonna try and make this as concise as possible giving you the essentials. I'm looking for some advice on how I should proceed going forward.


I moved into a property I found on spare room.com in Brixton after starting a new job. The land lord seemed okay for the most part and no red flags appeared to begin with. Upon moving in the only thing I agreed verbally with him was that it would be a minimum of 3 months that I would stay for and that I would pay £650 per month including bills along with another tenant who moved into a separate room in the property as well; and also pay a 1 months rent deposit.

No tenancy agreement was signed, deposits were also not protected in a scheme. Though I found out that lodgers deposits aren't required to be placed in a scheme. I don't know if it's worth a damn, but no inventory was done upon us moving in the property. And I only had a glancing look at the furnishings before moving in, but upon moving in I found the bed to be a shoddy divan, years old and not joined and a shoddy wardrobe with bowing panels.

During my time there a panel on the corner of the bed broke, merely as I got out of bed (no jumping on the bed or vigorous amorous affairs, I promise). I attempted to just DIY it and tape to panels up myself. The corner panel of the wardrobe also broke when a female friend stood on the base in order to reach something on the top (she's not a big girl). That's it for damage.

In the end, the job I started didn't work out and I found a cheaper and much more likeable and safer environment to live in and moved out giving 9 days notice. (No notice period was agreed verbally prior to me moving in). I left the room clean, and with the keys in the room. Before moving out he said to me he will give the deposit back before the end of the month.

when that time came, he said he needs another two weeks as he's spent the money. He has made no effort to re let the room according to my old housemate who's still there and it just sits empty, 32 days after my leaving. After i started to apply pressure he had said well I have to repaint, and fix damages and give you whatever is left etc.

He says this after all this time!? I then send him repeated messages asking him when he's going to pay and how much and he reads my messages on whatsapp and ignores them. I tried my hardest to negotiate with him by saying half the money can be paid now and the remaining half in two weeks as I'm really hard up and need the money. But no reply, so I sent a letter before action as Shelter advised me to stating for money to be paid Come the 1st or I would proceed with court. I hoped that would work (he had 5 days to comply with this as I sent by recorded delivery). That day has been and gone, and he even ignores my follow up messages asking if he's received it when I know he has.

How should I proceed with this? I'm currently broke, though I am starting a new position in a few weeks. The idea of court sounds exasperating with the turnaround an average of 6 months to get my 650 back. Feel really cheated, if it were the Wild West we could sort this out by other means but I've tried to be nothing but fair and courteous to him.

Any advice is appreciated and thanks for reading this far.

anselld

Looks like you have done enough research to know the answer... Court claim is the next step.

booksurr

Whether you are "broke" or you are not does not alter the fact there are only 2 options

1. walk away and forget about it
or
2. take him to court

Mulder00

From your post, it appears that you technically know exactly what to do.

Depends on whether you want to waste the energy to take this to court or just walk away and learn from this:

• Get things in writing
• Always get a check-in and check-out inventory done or at least take some photos. Glancing around is not sufficient - do a detailed check.
• If required, give your landlord proper notice or stick to the agreed timescale for living there
• If things are broken, report it to your landlord in writing. As a lodger, your landlord doens't have to fix it if it doesn't really pose a danger, so you can tape it together if they don't do anything about it, but report it first!
• What your landlord does after you leave (or doesn't do), doesn't matter - he is under no obligation to continue renting out the room if he doesn't want to

Maybe the above is worth the £650. I am hoping your landlord will give you at least some of it back, but don't put your hopes on it. It's entirely up to you whether or not you want to pursue it.