Landlord refuses to give back deposit

Youknow123

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 

PRAISETHESUN

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.

pinkshoes

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 

In which case you WRITE to the landlord (on behalf of his estate) thanking the landlord for advertising the property to be re-let due to your grandfather passing away. I'd then point out that the tenancy was paid for until 19th February, so as the new tenants moved in on the 11th February, you are seeking a refund of 1 weeks rent of £XXX (as the LL cannot have two tenants paying rent) as well as a full refund of the deposit (£1500) due to the property being left in immaculate condition as it was only lived in for 2 weeks. Say you are happy to pay the re-advertising fee and any admin in re-letting the property, so to please invoice you for this with the relevant receipts. 

What on earth is a subletting fee?! Was it a fixed term rental? Have you officially given notice?

pinkshoes

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.

We posted at the same time!

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!

FlorayG

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 it

Youknow123

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. 

FlorayG

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. 

Did the LL agree to early termination of the contract? That's the deciding point here.
Also, is the deposit with a DPS?  You need to find this out

Youknow123

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. 

saajan_12

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. 

What date did the new tenants contract actually start? Its not clear from the above whether the above means "new tenants starting today, 11 feb" or "new tenants found and will starting on X future date". 

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. 

pinkshoes

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. 

In which case, go back to my earlier post and WRITE to the landlord asking for the deposit back in full, one weeks rent refunded, then an invoice for the admin fee to re-advertise and re-let.

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. 

FreeBear

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.

Make copies of those text messages and print out a few hard copies. Do it now just in case you lose access to the phone.