DPS not re-protected

axbhat

I have a question for which I couldn't find much information online. So I thought will check with you all:

I have a friend (tenant) who was on fixed term tenancy starting 06/2014 till 09/2015. The deposit was protected From: 06/2014 to: 09/2015 under insurance scheme with MyDespoit. The contract was not renewed at the end of tenancy and the deposit got un-protected from end of September 2015. My friend continued to stay in the same property till end of June 2018.

After vacating the property, the landlord has made unreasonable deduction from the deposit. Tenant is unable to go to MyDeposit for Alternative Dispute Resolution as the deposit was un-protected long time ago. The tenant as sent a Letter before action stating that the deduction was unreasonable and he was the deposit back.

The landlord says:

Under the Deregulation ACT 2015, there is no requirement to reregister the deposit or protect it again, if there is no changes and the contract rolls over to a periodic tenancy.

Tenant didn't remember receiving an email from MyDeposit in 2015 about deposit being un-protected. But upon searching now, he was able to find that in his spam folder.

We aren't sure how to proceed in this case. Any guidance in this matter would be really helpful.

Thanks once again!

Comms69

To be honest whether protected or not the deposit can be used to settle any damages; but you’re right that a court can decide the validity of those.

But the landlord is wrong to claim that the deposit can in effect be unprotected. Insurance based schemes require payment; so had he used the custodial scheme he would not be required to reprotect it. But clearly he stopped paying and mydeposits stopped protecting it.

G_M

Landlord is wong.


Tenant applies to court for 1) return of deposit and 2) penalty of 3 times the deposit.


Landlord may counter-claim for damage/loss to the property, and defend the claim for the penalty (on some spurious grounds)


Judge will consider the claim for damage and award if the LL provides evidence (you can dispute this of course), and will award the tenant from 1- 3 times the deposit for failing to maintain the deposit protection.

DontBringBertie

Exactly the same thing happened to me last year! I questioned whether it had been protected and he said “Your deposit protection would have expired on the end of the original term but we have no intention of withholding your deposit.”

Landlord tried to claim £500 deductions from the deposit for cleaning and damage which was already there when we moved in (and clearly visible on the inventory).

We then sent an email asking him to either return the deposit in full or we would be claiming to up to 3x deposit as compensation as he hadn’t protected it.

He returned it in full the next day.

silvercar

Something wrong here. Mydeposits don't charge when a contract becomes periodic after it has been protected on an initial fixed term.

The landlord must have chosen to un-protect the deposit, rather than the protection lapsing.

DontBringBertie

Doesn’t it automatically become unprotected after the initial term though? That’s what our letter from mydeposits said.

tom9980

silvercar wrote: »

Something wrong here. Mydeposits don't charge when a contract becomes periodic after it has been protected on an initial fixed term.

The landlord must have chosen to un-protect the deposit, rather than the protection lapsing.

I believe the DPS at least during 2014 you had to reprotect it and issue all the paperwork again when a tenancy lapsed into periodic. There was lots of debate and confusion about this so the government added guidance a few years ago. I cannot remember the details anymore, but believe I am roughly correct.

silvercar

tom9980 wrote: »

I believe the DPS at least during 2014 you had to reprotect it and issue all the paperwork again when a tenancy lapsed into periodic. There was lots of debate and confusion about this so the government added guidance a few years ago. I cannot remember the details anymore, but believe I am roughly correct.

Ours has been periodic since about 2008, so mydeposits may have changed their rules. Particularly if there are a lot of long periodic tenancies that they aren't earning money to protect!

axbhat

That's for all the response:

MyDepost provided the below information for our query:

The DPC confirmed below was automatically unprotected 31/10/2015 as your Landlord failed to update the status of your deposit protection within the schemes stipulated time frames.

Having searched our systems I am unable to locate a new deposit protection for you based on the below details you have provided.

The scheme your deposit was initially protected by is our insurance scheme which means your Landlord paid a fee to us to insure your deposit for as long as it is protected so they do not give us the money, therefore it cannot be withdrawn.

As the deposit was unprotected in 2015 and there is no protection in place since we cannot offer the use of our ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) and would refer you to contact your Landlord to obtain proof of reprotection and in the mean time you are able to contact the other Tenancy Deposit Schemes which are DPS & TDS.

The query we have is:

Is there any other ADR that we should approach first? Or it has to go to court. If it has to be court, can we go to small claims court or it has to go to the court? Do we have to hire a solicitor? We do not want to incur very heavy court costs (like his solicitor charges etc.,), if we don’t follow the correct procedure and make an incorrect claim.

Thanks again for all suggestions & help!

Pixie5740

silvercar wrote: »

Ours has been periodic since about 2008, so mydeposits may have changed their rules. Particularly if there are a lot of long periodic tenancies that they aren't earning money to protect!

I think the re-registration depends on whether it's a custodial scheme or an insurance backed scheme.

Pixie5740

axbhat wrote: »

That's for all the response:

MyDepost provided the below information for our query:



The query we have is:

Is there any other ADR that we should approach first? Or it has to go to court. If it has to be court, can we go to small claims court or it has to go to the court? Do we have to hire a solicitor? We do not want to incur very heavy court costs (like his solicitor charges etc.,), if we don’t follow the correct procedure and make an incorrect claim.

Thanks again for all suggestions & help!

There are 2 other schemes your landlord could have registered your deposit with.

No you don't have to hire a solicitor, the whole point is that you should be able to do it yourself. Shelter even provide tenplate letters you can use.

See also G_M's Deposits: Payment, protection and return.