Advice required: Deposit not returned to me (tennant)

Megalomaniac

Man this is confusing. Seems like there's two ways of interpreting it, one from shelter which says I am due my deposit, and yours moneysavingmonkey and others.

The thing is, the landlord (person who owns the place) has stated my contract was with my housemate in writing. She obviously didn't consider us to have an agreement, she didn't even manage to spell my name correctly! Therefore if you are saying my contract was with her, not my housemate, and she has said I didn't have one with her, therefore I don't have one?

I've asked for some clarity from shelter. I don't think I will ever rent again without a proper contract and knowing where my rights lie.

Thanks for your help though... I think it's just a matter of figuring it out properly!

Loretta

Megalomaniac wrote: »

Hi all,

I need some advice as to what happens next. I'll set out the information, and then the situation. It's a little long but please bare with this.

I moved into a property last September, with another guy who was living there before. I gave him a £300 deposit and paid him the remaining rent of the month until the day when he pays his rent to the landlord. It was then agreed that I would pay the landlord half the rent on the same day as him to not complicate matters. He also gave me a 'contract' signed by him stipulating among other things I need to give him one months notice. Importantly, I did not sign this contract (half a page of A4).

He then returned the £300 deposit to me, and told me to pay it to the landlord which I duely did as I felt this was best. I then went away for a couple of months, came back and met the landlord for the first time. After a 10 min conversation, I left her house having not organised a contract and lived there happily for a year.

I confirmed to my housemate I would move out in September and gave my month's notice then, but because of a long letting process for the flat, I didn't move out until November, only giving him a day's notice that it was to happen (was at the end of the rental month).

Now, I have written to my Landlord for return of the deposit, but have been told because I didn't give a month's notice to my housemate (and supposedly my contract is with him) I have subsequently lost my deposit. This has been used to pay half the rent for the month after I moved out.

So what steps should I take? I also realise the deposit should have been help by a third party as of April this year. So, am I right in saying that if I went to court and the deposit was not protected through a third party (which it wasn't) I could lawfully ask for a refund of my deposit? It states on the following website:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TenancyDeposit/DG_066373

that "If your landlord or agent has not protected your deposit, they will be ordered to repay three times the amount of the deposit to you".

Do you think I should do this? Also, who is my landlord in this case? The actual landlord for the property who held the deposit or my housemate? Are there other steps I should take prior to this? Am I to blame here?

Really need help in this, as £300 is a lot of money!

Thanks

You know you are trying it on don't you? of course you had a contract you lived there and you paid rent, a contract does not have to be in writing.

You gave 1 day's notice, this is neither acceptable legally or even good manners

Your landlord is running a business, I would think that your flat mate is just someone who is trying to get through life, paying their way

Of course your landlord is trying to shift the blame, people do if they think they can get away with things, after all that is what you are trying to do isn't it? Your landlord has your deposit, if you want to argue with someone argue with the landlord and leave the poor flatmate alone

There are tenants and landlords on here with real trouble without people like you who are trying to be clever