Private student shared house-deposit?

G_M

Mela322 wrote: »

So after a few more rude emails, landlord finally gave up the dps information.
Sorry - do you mean he is telling you the deposit is protected?

Have you checked for yourself yet? Sigh!

He has now added that he is going to charge £5 per day that rent was late in the past and they you won't have any deposit left. The late rent was agreed upon a few times via email/phone due to when my son got his loan payments.
Does the tenancy agreement have a clause specifying what penalty, if any, the LL can charge for late payment?
* if not, he cannot charge £5 pd
* if yes, you can still contest it - it has to be 'reasonable'

The lease is a joint lease and all have signed together.
OK

Landlord has not given any amount for the bed but now it's down to just one broken bed and not a missing bed. The emails contradict themselves a few times but come off very threatening, not in a harming way but as to say if you dispute the deposit, I will make sure to take it all and has pretty much said that.

Ignore the LL's threats.

Don't communicate by text (though keep his texts - and submit them to the arbitrators if you use that route. they don't take kindly to threats by LLs!)

WRITE a LETTER, contesting what you believe is unreasonable and requesting the info you need, with a deadline.
* I still don't know if the bed is broken and/or if it was on the inventory
* need to know about the £5 charge in the tenancy agreement
* you still need to request documentation regarding the utility bills, ideally the bills themselves or failing that his bank statements.

Putting these reasonable requests in writing will help your case when it goes to arbitration.

I'm just going to stop now. Some of the replies have been quite harsh. I thought this was a place to seek help, not to be rude to members.

Moi? Yeah - sometimes I'm harsh. But I offer information and suggestions too!

saajan_12

Simple steps.
1) Check the deposit is protected (use the details LL gave you, if that doesn't work, check all 3 schemes yourself)

2) Write to the LL requesting the full deposit to be repaid or a written breakdown of deductions and the balance repaid within 10 days.

3a) If you get a breakdown, reply with whether you agree / disagree with each item and the resulting total deduction you agree with. Ask for the balance to be repaid.

3b) If you don't get a breakdown or the LL doesn't agree to and return the figure you suggested, stop going back and forth, and just file a claim for the deposit with the scheme. Present your evidence of the tenancy agreement, photos of how it was left.

3c) If the deposit wasn't actually protected, file a Money Claim Online stating the same evidence as 3b) and requesting the full deposit. You can also file a county court claim for upto 3x the deposit as a non protection penalty.

As for the actual damages claimed so far:
- bills: your agreement states the excess above £5 per person per week is paid by the tenants, so ask the LL for proof that the bills exceeded this.
- late rent: check if there is a clause in the tenancy agreement for late charges. If not, the LL can't impose one now. If yes, check your rent payment records and calculate the charge for those.
- missing/broken bed: ask the LL for a breakdown on the cost of this. You can only be charged for the lower or the repair cost, or value of a second hand bed of the same age. The cost can be deducted from the total deposit, it's then up to the tenants to agree how to split anything returned (eg deduct the bed cost from the person who's room it was in)