End of Tenancy - return of deposit, still not received after 4 weeks

saajan_12

The_Phantom said:

They have now raised a dispute but said there is a huge backlog due to high demand and looking at it could take up to 20 weeks.... ?
They also told her she could have requested the 'undisputed' amount back and just leave the balance of £150 in dispute, but now that she has raised the dispute they will hold on to all the money until it is resolved.

This is also something that nobody told her and is nowhere in the small print.

Why is this something that needs to be told? Before even getting to the scheme, if you're arguing with someone about refunding £X or £X-150, why wouldn't you just ask for the £x-150 to be paid while the discussion continues? If you decide to bypass the negotiation and escalate to the arbitration, which might be necessary at some point, but its not surprising that the other side will dig in. 

What you have is an amount daughter is due that isn't paid. If this was anything else eg unpaid rent, then the recourse to actually recover the money would be a court claim, which would likely take longer than 4.5 months. 

The_Phantom said:

Someone is earning interest on this money and it's not my daughter.

Its not the Landlord either. The deposit scheme might do, but that would at most offset the cost of running and arbitrating for free. If the deposit is held physically by the landlord in an insurance scheme then they pay a fee to the deposit scheme which usually exceeds any interest earned.