Deposit protected 9 months late

HH94

grumiofoundation said:

Not really clear what you are trying to say here?
Obviously it is 'might' in the link since citizens advice cannot guarantee that the deposit has been incorrectly protected. 


You post seem to be implying that in the event of a deposit not being correctly protected the judge can throw the case out if the landlord provides a 'decent' reason. This is not the case. Have you read the actual legalisation?

If the landlord is found to have not complied with the rules the court does not have discretion to throw the case out. They must award between 1-3 as a penalty (this is separate to return of deposit). 


What do you mean by 'they'd be going to court'? Who is they?
It costs £308 for tenant to bring the case. Although landlord would have to pay that as well if they lose. 

thanks, do you think I should offer 2x in my letter?

canaldumidi

HH94 said:

canaldumidi said:

3 times deposit is awarded in most serious cases. In this case, the deposit was protected, albeit late, so likely to receive 1 (or 2) times the deposit.

Just refer to the Housing Act and request appropriate payment else you will go to court.

1) your contract is with the landlord. Write to him at address "for serving notices" on him. Copy to agent

2) does the contract say email is acceptable? If not, send a letter

3) ?? nothing to do with the depost

4) No

Thanks, my tenancy agreement has the landlord's company name c/o the property management and the latter's address. So I've written the letter like that. But do you mean send a separate copy addressed to the lettings agent too or put all three after "Dear"?

Yes address letter to landlord company at management company's address.

At bottom of letter to landlord, put "cc xyz management company"

Then send separate letter addressed to the management company.
I'm just wondering how it's going to work with getting my deposit back when there are damages

Getting the deposit itself back is a separate matter. If there is damage, deductions can be made. You don't get a free pass to walk off with the washimg machine!

If you disagree with deductions, you can use the deposit arbitration process, or add it to the penalty court claim

and if it will form part of the negotiation with this compensation/penalty.

It's a penalty, not compensation.

There's no negotiation if it goes to court - the judge decides how much to penalise the LL. Prior to court, of course, you and LL can negotiate on both the damage and an amount to avoid going to court.

E.g. they might give me 1x compensation but try and take the full deposit back to balance it out! They're a terrible company and I don't trust they're going to be fair. 

well if they offer you 1x to persuade you not to claim the penalty, but then make unjustified deductions from the deposit, you decline!

Robbo66

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

HH94 said:

SpiderLegs said:

1. The landlord at the address on your contract, cc to the management co.
2. physical letter, not signed for,  backed up by email.
3. not relevant
4. no.

Thanks SpiderLegs. Should I offer a lower compensation than the 3x, e.g. my deposit returned in full plus 2x deposit?  Also, since I am moving out in one week should I tell them to write to the new address if they respond after one week but write to my current address if responding within a week?

It's not automatic. The law says 1-3x your deposit. The 3x is for an unscrupulous landlord that makes absolutely no attempt to protect the deposit and spends it so can't return it. 1x is for cases like this where they clearly intended to, but forgot and put right the wrong. In fact, if they could give a decent reason (particularly for a company - they might say they were trying to do XYZ to the business and this got overlooked) a judge might throw it out.

Read what the Citizens Advice say. It's "Could"

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-privately/ending-your-tenancy/taking-your-landlord-to-court-if-they-havent-followed-the-deposit-rules/

You'll not get 3x back. I'd be highly surprised if you get 2x back. They'd be going to court first as it's a lot of money. And any gripes you might have regarding what they did or didn't would be cast off as "whataboutery" by a Judge.

That most definitely wont happen, legislation states 1 - 3 x and the judge has no discretion other than the amount so most probably 1x plus return of original deposit would be give irrespective of any excuse

newsgroupmonkey_

Robbo66 said:

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

HH94 said:

SpiderLegs said:

1. The landlord at the address on your contract, cc to the management co.
2. physical letter, not signed for,  backed up by email.
3. not relevant
4. no.

Thanks SpiderLegs. Should I offer a lower compensation than the 3x, e.g. my deposit returned in full plus 2x deposit?  Also, since I am moving out in one week should I tell them to write to the new address if they respond after one week but write to my current address if responding within a week?

It's not automatic. The law says 1-3x your deposit. The 3x is for an unscrupulous landlord that makes absolutely no attempt to protect the deposit and spends it so can't return it. 1x is for cases like this where they clearly intended to, but forgot and put right the wrong. In fact, if they could give a decent reason (particularly for a company - they might say they were trying to do XYZ to the business and this got overlooked) a judge might throw it out.

Read what the Citizens Advice say. It's "Could"

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-privately/ending-your-tenancy/taking-your-landlord-to-court-if-they-havent-followed-the-deposit-rules/

You'll not get 3x back. I'd be highly surprised if you get 2x back. They'd be going to court first as it's a lot of money. And any gripes you might have regarding what they did or didn't would be cast off as "whataboutery" by a Judge.

That most definitely wont happen, legislation states 1 - 3 x and the judge has no discretion other than the amount so most probably 1x plus return of original deposit would be give irrespective of any excuse

Fair enough, but there's far too much emotion about the whole situation.

I'm trying to understand what the OP is trying to get out of this. It seems to me like they're just trying to make the agent/landlord "pay" for the gripes they have about the tenancy.

And if the Landlord does indeed get fined 1x plus the deposit, it still doesn't stop them then countersuing for any damage that the tenant caused or rent that they may not have paid (I'm not saying that any of this is true, but hypothetically - we only see one side of the coin here).

GDB2222

The obvious thing to do, IMHO, is NOT to send a letter at the moment. Wait until after you have left, and see what the landlords want to deduct from your deposit. If they try to make large and unwarranted deductions, that improves your case. If they don't, you have little to worry about. 

Where the deposit has been secured, albeit late, the court is clearly not going to award you anything like the 3x penalty. Most likely, you'll get 1x. 

There's a bit of a learning curve, bringing cases like this to court, and there's around a 1 year backlog due to Covid. If you can negotiate a sensible settlement without issuing proceedings, that's probably your best bet.

People on this forum are wonderfully gung ho, recommending court proceedings, although I expect that few of them have any experience of actually doing so. I have quite a lot of experience, and I strongly prefer to avoid it.

Robbo66

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

Robbo66 said:

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

HH94 said:

SpiderLegs said:

1. The landlord at the address on your contract, cc to the management co.
2. physical letter, not signed for,  backed up by email.
3. not relevant
4. no.

Thanks SpiderLegs. Should I offer a lower compensation than the 3x, e.g. my deposit returned in full plus 2x deposit?  Also, since I am moving out in one week should I tell them to write to the new address if they respond after one week but write to my current address if responding within a week?

It's not automatic. The law says 1-3x your deposit. The 3x is for an unscrupulous landlord that makes absolutely no attempt to protect the deposit and spends it so can't return it. 1x is for cases like this where they clearly intended to, but forgot and put right the wrong. In fact, if they could give a decent reason (particularly for a company - they might say they were trying to do XYZ to the business and this got overlooked) a judge might throw it out.

Read what the Citizens Advice say. It's "Could"

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-privately/ending-your-tenancy/taking-your-landlord-to-court-if-they-havent-followed-the-deposit-rules/

You'll not get 3x back. I'd be highly surprised if you get 2x back. They'd be going to court first as it's a lot of money. And any gripes you might have regarding what they did or didn't would be cast off as "whataboutery" by a Judge.

That most definitely wont happen, legislation states 1 - 3 x and the judge has no discretion other than the amount so most probably 1x plus return of original deposit would be give irrespective of any excuse

Fair enough, but there's far too much emotion about the whole situation.

I'm trying to understand what the OP is trying to get out of this. It seems to me like they're just trying to make the agent/landlord "pay" for the gripes they have about the tenancy.

And if the Landlord does indeed get fined 1x plus the deposit, it still doesn't stop them then countersuing for any damage that the tenant caused or rent that they may not have paid (I'm not saying that any of this is true, but hypothetically - we only see one side of the coin here).

as would be the landlords right, the deposit is now registered so the OP would need to follow the dispute process if they disagree with any proposed deductions

grumiofoundation

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

Robbo66 said:

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

HH94 said:

SpiderLegs said:

1. The landlord at the address on your contract, cc to the management co.
2. physical letter, not signed for,  backed up by email.
3. not relevant
4. no.

Thanks SpiderLegs. Should I offer a lower compensation than the 3x, e.g. my deposit returned in full plus 2x deposit?  Also, since I am moving out in one week should I tell them to write to the new address if they respond after one week but write to my current address if responding within a week?

It's not automatic. The law says 1-3x your deposit. The 3x is for an unscrupulous landlord that makes absolutely no attempt to protect the deposit and spends it so can't return it. 1x is for cases like this where they clearly intended to, but forgot and put right the wrong. In fact, if they could give a decent reason (particularly for a company - they might say they were trying to do XYZ to the business and this got overlooked) a judge might throw it out.

Read what the Citizens Advice say. It's "Could"

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/renting-privately/ending-your-tenancy/taking-your-landlord-to-court-if-they-havent-followed-the-deposit-rules/

You'll not get 3x back. I'd be highly surprised if you get 2x back. They'd be going to court first as it's a lot of money. And any gripes you might have regarding what they did or didn't would be cast off as "whataboutery" by a Judge.

That most definitely wont happen, legislation states 1 - 3 x and the judge has no discretion other than the amount so most probably 1x plus return of original deposit would be give irrespective of any excuse

Fair enough, but there's far too much emotion about the whole situation.

I'm trying to understand what the OP is trying to get out of this. It seems to me like they're just trying to make the agent/landlord "pay" for the gripes they have about the tenancy.

And if the Landlord does indeed get fined 1x plus the deposit, it still doesn't stop them then countersuing for any damage that the tenant caused or rent that they may not have paid (I'm not saying that any of this is true, but hypothetically - we only see one side of the coin here).

Not sure where what emotions you are referring to? 

OP gets penalty because the landlord was too lazy to bother to follow the law. Why shouldn't they?

The landlord of course has the right to sue for damage/lost rent. As said above this is unrelated to the deposit protection issue. So thats now the second misleading/unhelpful/irrelevant post you've posted on this thread. 

grumiofoundation

GDB2222 said:

The obvious thing to do, IMHO, is NOT to send a letter at the moment. Wait until after you have left, and see what the landlords want to deduct from your deposit. If they try to make large and unwarranted deductions, that improves your case. If they don't, you have little to worry about. Would second this.

Where the deposit has been secured, albeit late, the court is clearly not going to award you anything like the 3x penalty. Most likely, you'll get 1x. 

There's a bit of a learning curve, bringing cases like this to court, and there's around a 1 year backlog due to Covid. If you can negotiate a sensible settlement without issuing proceedings, that's probably your best bet. 

People on this forum are wonderfully gung ho, recommending court proceedings, although I expect that few of them have any experience of actually doing so. I have quite a lot of experience, and I strongly prefer to avoid it.

OP this is a very sensible post. First suggestion removes the issue you asked about earlier re 'unfair' deductions as retaliation. I would also agree that trying to settle out of court would certainly be the best course of action. If offered 1x deposit I would certainly take it. 

allypally26

I have literally just gone through this. I got confirmation of my returned deposit a couple of hours ago. 

Timeline
14/7/17 paid the letting agent my deposit. 

19/5/19 deposit protected 

31/8/21 tenancy ended 

6/9/21 request full deposit from DPS 

20/9/21 no response sent template letter on shelter’s website asking for full deposit and reasonable offer to avoid court (link to letter if in England https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/tenancy_deposits/how_to_make_a_tenancy_deposit_compensation_claim) 

21/9/21 1pm spoke to letting agent said I’d happily not claim if I received my deposit back in full. 

21/9/21 1.30pm received DPS email saying my full deposit was released. 

Notes

I had a demanding but not crappy LL. The letting agent was at fault although the LL should have checked. I suspect my LL will want to deduct for something maybe a for speck of dust but the LA will have to deal with this not me. 

I’m a happy camper. 

HH94

allypally26 said:

I have literally just gone through this. I confirmation of my returned deposit a couple of hours ago. 

Timeline
14/7/17 paid the letting agent my deposit. 

19/5/19 deposit protected 

31/8/21 tenancy ended 

6/9/21 request full deposit from DPS 

20/9/21 no response sent template letter on shelter’s website asking for full deposit and reasonable offer to avoid court

21/9/21 1pm spoke to letting agent said I’d happily not claim if I received my deposit back in full. 

21/9/21 1.30pm received DPS email saying my full deposit was released. 

Notes

I had a demanding but not crappy LL. The letting agent was at fault although the LL should have checked. I suspect my LL will want to deduct for something maybe a for speck of dust but the LA will have to deal with this not me. 

I’m a happy camper. 

Interesting thank you. I wonder then if I should send it now but put the return of my full deposit as part of the negotiation/offer. Maybe that will stop them from trying to take big deductions in the first place and save me a lot of hassle. It's difficult to predict what they'll try and do