Private student shared house-deposit?

Mela322

Hello,

As a Uni student, my son lived in a private shared house. He moved out a few weeks before the lease ended but paid his rent up to the end of the lease. The lease ended the last day of June.

He has just been informed that the landlord will not be returning all of his £400 deposit. Landlord is keeping all but £20 to cover the cost of bills.

My son is going to pull out his old lease but all his bills were included. The landlord did this to the students that moved out last year.

He went through an estate agent and will be asking them tomorrow what he can do.

My questions are, with it being a shared house:

1. Do the rules still apply that the deposit has to be protected?
2. Can the landlord deduct for bills if included monthly? (he is
demanding £380 from each student for the year and only basis this
off his bank statements, no proof)
3. Any other advice?

I've told him to just count it as gone so he doesn't get angry about it but £400 is a lot to him. Thankfully, he's got a good job and new place.

Thanks guys.

Pixie5740

If your son has an Assured Shorthold Tenancy it doesn't matter whether it is a joint tenancy the deposit should have been protected.

See Deposits: payment, protection & return for more information.

G_M

Before we can really advise we need to know

a) what bills exactly and
b) what exactly the tenancy agreement says about bills.

However:

Mela322 wrote: »

Hello,



He went through an estate agent and will be asking them tomorrow what he can do.
Asking for advice from the EA, who is employed by the LL, is pointless! He needs to check his facts and tthen TELL the LL/EA what he is prepared to accept.

My questions are, with it being a shared house:

1. Do the rules still apply that the deposit has to be protected? yes
2. Can the landlord deduct for bills if included monthly? (he is
demanding £380 from each student for the year and only basis this
off his bank statements, no proof)
* see qs above!
* I thought it was £20. Now it's £380 pp?
3. Any other advice?

I've told him to just count it as gone so he doesn't get angry about it
are you mad? Naive? Or just very rich?
but £400 is a lot to him. Thankfully, he's got a good job and new place.

Thanks guys.

Please give us the facts if you want help.

Read also:

* Deposits: payment, protection & return for more information.

silvercar

G_M wrote:

* I thought it was £20. Now it's £380 pp?

£400 with all but £20 retained = £380.

seashore22

"I've told him to just count it as gone so he doesn't get angry about it but £400 is a lot to him."

It would help to know more about the bills and what the LL has actually said.

If it is a case of the LL with holding the money incorrectly then I would be doing all I could to get the deposit back and hopefully MSE can help you to do that.

Edit - Sorry that sounded more snippy than I meant it to, but students being taken advantage of really annoys me. It happened to one of my children. In fact it was so snippy that I've changed it.

Mela322

G_M wrote: »

Before we can really advise we need to know

a) what bills exactly and
Electricity and gas

b) what exactly the tenancy agreement says about bills.
He still has to pull out his lease agreement

However:

Please give us the facts if you want help.

I'm not mad, I'm not rich and I've not told him to give up. However, this appears to be the norm for this landlord but none have questioned it in the past. I just don't want to see him upset if he can't recover any of it.

His deposit was £400, landlord only wants to return £20. He is doing the same to the other students as well. I think there were 4 or 5 students and all are being charged £380 each.

Will come back after he finds his lease agreement.

Thanks

seashore22

I agree with G_M that asking the agency is pointless. It was the LA that lied to my daughter. The landlord was much easier to deal with. Obviously not the case with this particular LL

I wouldn't worry too much about protecting your son from upset. I know it's not nice to see as a parent, but this is a valuable life lesson in dealing with difficult situations. It won't be the last time that he will have to deal with this sort of thing and best to learn sooner rather than later.

Mela322

seashore22 wrote: »

"I've told him to just count it as gone so he doesn't get angry about it but £400 is a lot to him."

Why would you do that?

Is it because you think the landlord is justified in with holding the deposit?
Or
Are you trying to teach him that standing up for himself is pointless?

Not at all, he's not given up! I've told him to find his lease and then find out if his deposit should have been protected. I've only told him that because he's upset so was trying to calm him down. He is standing up for himself but we have seen his behaviour and we have seen other landlords behaviour as well.

It would help to know more about the bills and what the LL has actually said.

The only thing that was said is that he is keeping £380 to cover bills, gas and electric and that it was based off his bank statement. (I'm assuming he has it automatically paid each month). He has not shown any bills or any proof.

If it is a case of the LL with holding the money incorrectly then I would be doing all I could to get the deposit back and hopefully MSE can help you to do that.

Edit - Sorry that sounded more snippy than I meant it to, but students being taken advantage of really annoys me. It happened to one of my children.

I am annoyed too and we are not giving up,
I'm just trying to calm him down and that it's not the end of the world. I would never teach him to give up or not stand for something that has been done wrongly.

G_M

Well
* has the LL produced the gas and elecicity bills, showng a balance of £380 x number of tenants?

* and we'll await your quote of the relevant section of the tenancy agreement.

This seems a straightforward case though. Either

1) the bills are not included in the rent, and the TA states the tenants are responsible for the utilities.

In this case the accounts should have been in the tenants' names, in which case it is none of the LL's business - it is a matter between the tenants (or whichever one of them had the accounts in his name) and the utility companies. The deposit should be returned in full and the tenants should pay the utility companies

2) the bills are not included in the rent, and the TA states the LL will pay the utility companies and then bill the tenants.

In this case, provided the LL produces proper bills, the tenants' deposit can be used to reimburse the LL

3) the TA says the utiities are included in the rent.
In this case the deposit should be returned in full.

If the LL is deducting these amounts erroneously, the tenants should raise a deposit dispute and produce the TA as evidence. See the links.

* Was the deposit protected? If not sure, check. See the link.

Mela322

G_M

Thank you for your help. My son has found his agreement:

To pay for all bills relating to the property that apply during the period of the tenancy, including gas, electricity, water, council tax, and telephone bills, etc. (This clause may not be applicable if rent is inclusive of specific bills. It will be stated on the final page of the contract which bills, if any, are inclusive. If bills are included there is a cap set on the Gas and Electric of £5.00 per tenant per week. If tenants exceed this amount, they will be liable to cover any excess charges.

There were actually 7 students paying £45 each per month. My son said a smart meter was installed in November and he checked in June and they were paying slightly more. I'm not sure if that would fluctuate over winter.

Took till the end of July for his landlord to email him but landlord is saying that he can't get an itemised statement for the house and has offered a day for my son to go over and sit with him to look at the payments from his bank! Not sure if deposit is protected, they never got any notification.

If he owes it, fair enough but he should be able to produce bills to be fair on his side.

Thanks so much for your help, really do appreciate it.

[Deleted User]

What does the final page of the tenancy agreement say regarding bills? If it says nothing, then your son is due to cover the bills (as are other tenants). You are just misreading the TA.