Landlord asking for proof of paid utilities before release of deposit

Trixsie1989

cooltt wrote: »

Landlords often write lots of nonsense clauses into tenancy agreements, whether their legally enforceable or not is quite another question.


The one about "proof of final bills" etc is one of the more common nonsense clauses which, has been tested numerous times in county court and guess who the loser is? Yep, Mr "I've been to the online forum school of law" Landlord.



A landlord has no legal right (even more so now with the new GDPR rules), to your personal information held by utility companies or any right to know the current status of YOUR contractual obligations between ANYONE.


The landlord is not responsible for the tenants utility bills and cannot use that an excuse to withhold the deposit, period!

Thank you! This is what I keep finding as I'm searching online but I can't find anything official to back it up. It's not even in the agreement, all the agreement mentions is that we have to pay for services etc while we live in the property. Nothing about needing to show proof before deposit release.

As it happens it also transpires the deposit was protected late so while we weren't going to pursue that, I think we will now be 👍

Marvel1

Trixsie1989 wrote: »

As it happens it also transpires the deposit was protected late so while we weren't going to pursue that, I think we will now be 👍

I never understood why it takes them over 30 days! Go for it

Smodlet

Cooltt's mention of the GDPR is a good point to raise with Mr. Cleverclogs LL, I think. He sounds like a typical bully. As soon as you stand up to him, I bet he folds. Who knows, you might even teach him to treat his next unfortunate tenant better. OK, that's asking for a cherry on top, I know.

If things keep breaking, do you have contents insurance yet? Accidental damage? Just a thought.

Trixsie1989

Smodlet wrote: »

Cooltt's mention of the GDPR is a good point to raise with Mr. Cleverclogs LL, I think. He sounds like a typical bully. As soon as you stand up to him, I bet he folds. Who knows, you might even teach him to treat his next unfortunate tenant better. OK, that's asking for a cherry on top, I know.

If things keep breaking, do you have contents insurance yet? Accidental damage? Just a thought.

Well we have written to the landlord requesting immediate deposit repayment stating that we have no obligation to provide proof of paid utilities and have stated that all accounts have been settled and correspondence address changed for that address for us. This has so far been ignored so tonight I am drafting a letter before action in regards to this and also in regards to the deposit not being protected until 14 months into the tenancy and our compensation entitlement.
If they continue to ignore I will be contacting the estate agents that they are using to re-let the property and involving them in this because I'm sure they don't want rogue landlords on their books!
We do have contents insurance which we can now claim on but at that point we were in the cool off period and couldn't claim.

Trixsie1989

cjdavies wrote: »

I never understood why it takes them over 30 days! Go for it

It took them 14 months. I've sat on the compo claim till we left the property thinking they would be less than cooperative if we were still living there and we didn't want to get evicted with nowhere to go. Now tho, we are secure in our own house so I can go to town

FBaby

Such a stupid game to play. The reason why LL do that is because if tenants lie and claim to have left the property earlier than they have, the utility company will go with that datecand won't care what the contract states. Not their problem. So LL is left with the bill and only option to take tenant to court which is often not worth for the amount due.

Sadly its because too many tenants have taken advantage of this and not paid their bill that such clause have started to appear in contracts. No legal standing but what LL can do is delay returning the deposit to see if something comes their way because if it does and the tenant should have been responsible they can then claim it through the deposit scheme and delaying the process is something LLs can legally get away with.

mrginge

FBaby wrote: »

Such a stupid game to play. The reason why LL do that is because if tenants lie and claim to have left the property earlier than they have, the utility company will go with that datecand won't care what the contract states. Not their problem. So LL is left with the bill and only option to take tenant to court which is often not worth for the amount due.

Sadly its because too many tenants have taken advantage of this and not paid their bill that such clause have started to appear in contracts. No legal standing but what LL can do is delay returning the deposit to see if something comes their way because if it does and the tenant should have been responsible they can then claim it through the deposit scheme and delaying the process is something LLs can legally get away with.

If that’s your view then I would recommend tenants who see clauses like this simply don’t pay their final months rent.

Trixsie1989

FBaby wrote: »

Such a stupid game to play. The reason why LL do that is because if tenants lie and claim to have left the property earlier than they have, the utility company will go with that datecand won't care what the contract states. Not their problem. So LL is left with the bill and only option to take tenant to court which is often not worth for the amount due.

Sadly its because too many tenants have taken advantage of this and not paid their bill that such clause have started to appear in contracts. No legal standing but what LL can do is delay returning the deposit to see if something comes their way because if it does and the tenant should have been responsible they can then claim it through the deposit scheme and delaying the process is something LLs can legally get away with.

But they shouldn't be able to get away with that! It's not their money to be delaying! I don't have the formal proof of the account closures and settlements yet anyway but they will start getting their copies soon because I have named the landlord as owner/current person with liability for the property.
The landlord hasnt responded on the actual deposit scheme account, they've just sent text messages so I am on the understanding that at some point the deposit scheme just refund the money back to me if they continue to ignore it. Which will take a while and we could really do with that money back now but it'll come back eventually at least!

Trixsie1989

mrginge wrote: »

If that’s your view then I would recommend tenants who see clauses like this simply don’t pay their final months rent.

There isn't a clause in our tenancy agreement that states we have to show proof, if there was I would happily comply but as it stands there's nothing to say we have to do anything to get our money back except do check out and agree deductions for damage, which there were none.

FBaby

mrginge wrote: »

If that’s your view then I would recommend tenants who see clauses like this simply don’t pay their final months rent.

Many do that anyway. Do you think it is right that utilities companies go after the landlords when the tenants have fsiled to give the correct last day of using such utilities even when they show the contract.

If utility companies didn't do that it wouldn't be an issue but sadly they do and landlords rightly don't want to be left with unpaid utilities.

Personally I fail to understand why it is such an issue when tenants had to show a lot more personal information to get the place in the first place.