Tenancy Deposit Return

zappeh

Hi All

I've recently vacated my rented property as a tenant.  Myself and my landlord have agreed on a small deduction for carpet cleaning, and he's asked me to start the process to reclaim my deposit on the Deposit Protection Scheme website. 

Having done this, I'm now at day 12 and my landlord hasn't returned the deposit.  Government legislation states the landlord must not take more than 10 days.  Given he's broken this, are there any repurcussions of this?

In 2 days I can start the next stage of completing the standard declaration form to return my deposit.  There will be a cost to me in getting this signed by a solicitor.  Although small, this is a fee that has been incurred due to the landlords inaction.  I do not believe I should be left of out pocket by his inability to follow process and legislation - can I reclaim this via the small claim courts from my landlord?

I've also noted that he has registered the deposit under my middle name, not my first name.  Can I use this to claim he has not protected the deposit correctly?

Regards

Matt

Bradden

Who is the deposit held with? The companies I've used previously have made the process pretty simple.

propertyrental

Since you've "agreed on a small deduction " what reason has he given you for not now releasing the deposit on the agreed basis?

As for name question - no, I seriously doubt a court would agree the deposit was not protected

Gavin83

zappeh said:

Hi All

I've recently vacated my rented property as a tenant.  Myself and my landlord have agreed on a small deduction for carpet cleaning, and he's asked me to start the process to reclaim my deposit on the Deposit Protection Scheme website. 

Having done this, I'm now at day 12 and my landlord hasn't returned the deposit.  Government legislation states the landlord must not take more than 10 days.  Given he's broken this, are there any repurcussions of this?

In 2 days I can start the next stage of completing the standard declaration form to return my deposit.  There will be a cost to me in getting this signed by a solicitor.  Although small, this is a fee that has been incurred due to the landlords inaction.  I do not believe I should be left of out pocket by his inability to follow process and legislation - can I reclaim this via the small claim courts from my landlord?

I've also noted that he has registered the deposit under my middle name, not my first name.  Can I use this to claim he has not protected the deposit correctly?

Regards

Matt

Well you sound reasonable.

Have you tried asking your landlord why the deposit hasn’t been returned yet? Might be more simple than jumping straight to legal action.

zappeh

propertyrental said:

Since you've "agreed on a small deduction " what reason has he given you for not now releasing the deposit on the agreed basis?

As for name question - no, I seriously doubt a court would agree the deposit was not protected

He's not given a reason - since the agreement was made I've had zero contact from him despite multiple attempts at contacting him.

zappeh

Gavin83 said:

zappeh said:

Hi All

I've recently vacated my rented property as a tenant.  Myself and my landlord have agreed on a small deduction for carpet cleaning, and he's asked me to start the process to reclaim my deposit on the Deposit Protection Scheme website. 

Having done this, I'm now at day 12 and my landlord hasn't returned the deposit.  Government legislation states the landlord must not take more than 10 days.  Given he's broken this, are there any repurcussions of this?

In 2 days I can start the next stage of completing the standard declaration form to return my deposit.  There will be a cost to me in getting this signed by a solicitor.  Although small, this is a fee that has been incurred due to the landlords inaction.  I do not believe I should be left of out pocket by his inability to follow process and legislation - can I reclaim this via the small claim courts from my landlord?

I've also noted that he has registered the deposit under my middle name, not my first name.  Can I use this to claim he has not protected the deposit correctly?

Regards

Matt

Well you sound reasonable.

Have you tried asking your landlord why the deposit hasn’t been returned yet? Might be more simple than jumping straight to legal action.

I am entirely reasonable.  I've not jumped straight to legal action - I've chased up my landlord with 4 emails and he's not answering my phone calls.  What is not reasonable however, is for my landlord not to carry out what he's legally obligated to do.  It's only fair that I explore what options are open to me to get what I'm owed.

Robbo66

Was it a custodial scheme or insurance based as that does make a difference, if custodial its a 2 part process. First landlord deregisters and then the tenant gets an email to either agree or disagree, has that email from the DPS gone to your junk mail. 

zappeh

It's with DPS (depositprotection.com).  There are no emails in my junk relating to this, and the status of the repayment request says "Repayment in progress - Awaiting landlord response to repayment request".  

_Penny_Dreadful

zappeh said:

Hi All

I've recently vacated my rented property as a tenant.  Myself and my landlord have agreed on a small deduction for carpet cleaning, and he's asked me to start the process to reclaim my deposit on the Deposit Protection Scheme website. 

Having done this, I'm now at day 12 and my landlord hasn't returned the deposit.  Government legislation states the landlord must not take more than 10 days.  Given he's broken this, are there any repurcussions of this?

In 2 days I can start the next stage of completing the standard declaration form to return my deposit.  There will be a cost to me in getting this signed by a solicitor.  Although small, this is a fee that has been incurred due to the landlords inaction.  I do not believe I should be left of out pocket by his inability to follow process and legislation - can I reclaim this via the small claim courts from my landlord?

I've also noted that he has registered the deposit under my middle name, not my first name.  Can I use this to claim he has not protected the deposit correctly?

Regards

Matt

I am happy to be corrected but I cannot see anything in the Housing Act 2004 that says a deposit must be returned within 10 days nor did I find anything in the Deregulation Act 2015.  Certainly the legislation says a deposit must be protected within 30 days of receiving it but I cannot see anything about timescales for the return of the deposit.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/34/part/6/chapter/4

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/20/section/30

Providing the landlord did protect the deposit within the 30 day period and serve you with the prescribed information I cannot see any claim for non-protection being successful just because the deposit is registered under your middle name.

When a landlord does not respond to the return request 14 calendar days after the end of the tenancy then the Deposit Protection Scheme will allow you to start the Single Claim Process to get your deposit back.

https://www.depositprotection.com/repayments/statutory-declaration-process-tenants

zappeh

Thanks for this, it's good information.  There is govt website which states it should be returned within 10 days (https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection) however if this is not law, I guess it's meaningless.

I plan to start the statutory declaration process, however this will incur a financial cost to me due to the requirement of  getting this witnessed by a solicitor.  Can I reclaim this from my landlord?  It's only a small amount, but it's a point of principle at this stage.