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Landlord refuses to give back deposit

Youknow123
Posts: 3 Newbie

My grandad was renting a 1 bed flat in a retirement complex, he paid one month upfront and a £1500 deposit, shortly after he moved in he was admitted to hospital. Whilst in hospital he continued to pay his rent, then in January he was moved into a nursing home, made the landlord aware and carried on paying his rent. He has paid up until the 19th of February. The landlord messaged my dad on the 11th of February to inform him he has found new tenants and no further money is owed. Sadly my grandad passed away, so we have requested for the deposit back on the flat but the landlord has refused and said he is using the deposit to cover the subletting fees paid to the freeholder which totals £1480. The flat was in the same condition as when my grandad moved in, as he was only there for roughly 2 weeks before he went into hospital. The landlord has not been without money as he found new tenants which moved in on the 11th of February and my grandad had paid up until the 19th of February. His original contract was due up in April 2025. Can the landlord withhold his deposit for subletting fees paid to freeholders ? I have asked for proof of this and asked where it states it in his contract but have had no response as of yet. Any help would be greatly appreciated
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Comments
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First off, sorry to hear about your loss.
It's a little unclear exactly what your grandfather has agreed to, but when negotiating a mutual surrender of a TA during the fixed term the LL is usually entitled to claim any costs related to reletting the property. The alternative is for your grandfather to pay for the rent for the entire fixed term as they had agreed in the initial TA.
It's probably worth disputing the deduction through the relevant deposit protection scheme, as this will force the LL to justify their decision to withhold the deposit and produce all evidence of the costs they have incurred.1 -
Youknow123 said:My grandad was renting a 1 bed flat in a retirement complex, he paid one month upfront and a £1500 deposit, shortly after he moved in he was admitted to hospital. Whilst in hospital he continued to pay his rent, then in January he was moved into a nursing home, made the landlord aware and carried on paying his rent. He has paid up until the 19th of February. The landlord messaged my dad on the 11th of February to inform him he has found new tenants and no further money is owed. Sadly my grandad passed away, so we have requested for the deposit back on the flat but the landlord has refused and said he is using the deposit to cover the subletting fees paid to the freeholder which totals £1480. The flat was in the same condition as when my grandad moved in, as he was only there for roughly 2 weeks before he went into hospital. The landlord has not been without money as he found new tenants which moved in on the 11th of February and my grandad had paid up until the 19th of February. His original contract was due up in April 2025. Can the landlord withhold his deposit for subletting fees paid to freeholders ? I have asked for proof of this and asked where it states it in his contract but have had no response as of yet. Any help would be greatly appreciated
What on earth is a subletting fee?! Was it a fixed term rental? Have you officially given notice?Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)2 -
PRAISETHESUN said:First off, sorry to hear about your loss.
It's a little unclear exactly what your grandfather has agreed to, but when negotiating a mutual surrender of a TA during the fixed term the LL is usually entitled to claim any costs related to reletting the property. The alternative is for your grandfather to pay for the rent for the entire fixed term as they had agreed in the initial TA.
It's probably worth disputing the deduction through the relevant deposit protection scheme, as this will force the LL to justify their decision to withhold the deposit and produce all evidence of the costs they have incurred.
But yes, the OP needs to make it clear whether they agreed a surrender of the tenancy, in which case they should be paying admin and readvertising fees, or otherwise the estate would be liable for the full tenancy period.
A subletting fee sounds like they cannot surrender the tenancy the freeholder wants money to let it out to someone else for the remainder of the fixed term tenancy.
The OP needs to check the contract carefully for these fees (ask for a copy of the contract signed if you don't have it) and establish what is agreed. This situation must happen a LOT, so it sounds a bit of a money making scam trying to fleece the estate of dead people!Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)1 -
Lots to check here
Did the LL agree to terminate the tenancy on the 19th Feb? this is important to know. Your Gfather should have had a letter or email or even a text - some proof of it. Without that the LL could claim he's helping you out by not holding you to the April date to which your Gfather originally agreed
If this was agreed and your Gfather paid up to 19th Feb the LL had no right to install a new tenant before that date - the property was still legally your Gfather's home
Secondly, the LL is required by law to put any 'deposit' money into a registered Deposit Protection Scheme within 30 days of receiving it. You ( as executor) then request the money back from the scheme and if the LL disagrees he has to provide a good argument as to why he should have it and not you. If he didn't put the money into a DPS and kept it in his own bank account you have him over a barrel because you can claim in court up to three times the original deposit and he won't be able to keep any of it0 -
Hi, thank you all for the responses. So when my grandad first went in to hospital my father made the landlord aware and stated that they would continue paying the rent until either his contract end in April 2025 or if the landlord was to find new tenants. My grandad was then transferred from the hospital to a care home as he needed 24/7 care in January, again we made the landlord aware and they agreed they would start looking for new tenants, the landlord then text my dad on the 11th of February to inform him he has found new tenants so no further rent is due but my grandad paid up until the 19th. I am still sorting through my grandads paperwork so will be reading through his contract. The landlord said if my grandad had said in the flat until the end of his tenancy he would have got the full deposit back.0
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Youknow123 said:Hi, thank you all for the responses. So when my grandad first went in to hospital my father made the landlord aware and stated that they would continue paying the rent until either his contract end in April 2025 or if the landlord was to find new tenants. My grandad was then transferred from the hospital to a care home as he needed 24/7 care in January, again we made the landlord aware and they agreed they would start looking for new tenants, the landlord then text my dad on the 11th of February to inform him he has found new tenants so no further rent is due but my grandad paid up until the 19th. I am still sorting through my grandads paperwork so will be reading through his contract. The landlord said if my grandad had said in the flat until the end of his tenancy he would have got the full deposit back.
Also, is the deposit with a DPS? You need to find this out0 -
The landlord agreed to terminate the contract early if they found new tenants, if they were unable to, my grandad agreed to pay his rent until the end of his contract. I questioned the landlord yesterday and asked him to send over details of the deposit scheme my grandads deposit was paid in to, I am still awaiting this information too.0
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Youknow123 said:the landlord then text my dad on the 11th of February to inform him he has found new tenants so no further rent is due but my grandad paid up until the 19th.
Ultimately they are allowed to charge for reasonable reletting costs - whether that's what the LL and tenant actually agreed or not is unclear, but might be hard for OP to refute if grandfather is no longer here.
The reasoning is that while the LL didn't have a break in rent, they were supposed to have that continuous rent without the additional time and cost to readvertise, re check references, re do inventories, etc. They should be able to demonstrate that cost, either via agent invoices or a reasonable calculation. If it doesnt' eat up the whole £1500 then there might be some money due back.
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Youknow123 said:The landlord agreed to terminate the contract early if they found new tenants, if they were unable to, my grandad agreed to pay his rent until the end of his contract. I questioned the landlord yesterday and asked him to send over details of the deposit scheme my grandads deposit was paid in to, I am still awaiting this information too.
If the deposit wasn't protected (you can check the schemes yourself) then you can threaten to sue for 3X the amount unless they pay it back in full along with the week of rent.
If they didn't list any subletting fees in the contract they can't just go charging these. Check the contract signed.Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)1 -
Youknow123 said: the landlord then text my dad on the 11th of February to inform him he has found new tenants so no further rent is due but my grandad paid up until the 19th.
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Treasure the moments that you have. Savour them for as long as you can for they will never come back again.0
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