The 'my LL has withheld my deposit' club- help/support/place to vent!

clutton_2

until a few months back, the LL mortgage application was also available on LR - but a few clever scammers had remortgaged other peroples properties fraudulently (they had copies of the LL signature from LR documents) - and these cases are still under review. LR is saying it is not responsible, and the original owners are being asked to pay mortgages they never applied for. its a real can of worms.

now, such privata data has been withdrawn.

higgs

Hi,

I would love t join the club, we move out next week and I am convinced that our LL will try very hard to withold our whole deposit. She has already done an inspection last year which we were not warned about and while we were not in!
After that she wrote complaining about loads of things including a lack of carpetting in the upstairs rooms (only one room in the whole house was carpetted when we moved in - and that was rotten!! We had laid carpets throughout the house!!) and there being 'no evidence of ventilation in any rooms (apart from the fact that the windows which were painte dshut when we arrived are now working and the mould that covered the bathroom when we arrived is gone!!) She even had the cheek to assume that our dog was left alone all day (none of her business and not true!).

I wish we had taken photos when we moved in as it was in a state, and we have no inventory to back us up either, so I am sure she will try to keep our deposit.

If she does I have no way of proving that the house is actually in a better condition than when we arrived! :mad:

DGJsaver

higgs wrote: »

we have no inventory to back us up either, so I am sure she will try to keep our deposit.

It`s the LL thats going to wish there was one...not you;)

roguebrogue

Hello!

Here's my story:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=756409

I would love to fight it but we have no evidence and I doubt we would win and we certainly couldn't afford to pay the costs if we lost!

higgs

Is she not able to withold our deposit without a signed inventory? :T

Is that applicable in Scotland?

DGJsaver

roguebrogue wrote: »

Hello!

Here's my story:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=756409

I would love to fight it but we have no evidence and I doubt we would win and we certainly couldn't afford to pay the costs if we lost!

If you lose at the small claims court you dont pay any extra costs than you already paid (ie £30 to claim for under £300)

D

angelesque

mlz1413 wrote: »

Have any of the tenants on here had dealings with the tenancy deposit schemes yet?

Has it made getting an agreement on value of deposit to be returned easier?
Has it made it quicker to receive money?

Or are all the LL you are dealing with ignoring the new rules?

Our letting agent was very proactive in letting us know about the new rules back in 2007, but when it came down to it no mention was made of the protection scheme when we started to encounter problems. Luckily for me, it seems that I will get my deposit back on Monday, but I did feel like there's a lot of talking about the scheme but no moves to actually implement any of the protective emasures for tenants...

clutton_2

""protective emasures for tenants""

the setting up of the Deposit scheme was the protection - if a LL still chooses to ignore legislation and not deposit it - the tenant is in exactly the same position as they were before the legislation came into force - tenants will have to take bad landlords to court.

We landlords always knew that "good" landlords would deposit, tenants would get their money back, or the Dispute part of the Schemes admin would help mediate a solution if deductions became necessary.

the deposit schemes have no legal teeth to sanction a landlord who does not comply - nor should they - the only body which should oversee transgressions against any law is, and should only be, the Courts.

So, tenants still have to take landlords to court to get their deposit back (if unprotected) - but they may well get 3times their deposit back as some sort of compensation for their trouble.


Tenants now have many more rights than before - they cannot be issued with a Section 21 if the deposit is not lodged .... so much more security of tenure ........

If landlords have to take a vexatious tenant to court - we do not get a reciprocal payment - and we usually end up paying our own costs !

i guess you can't please everyone .......

MissMoneypenny

clutton wrote: »

So, tenants still have to take landlords to court to get their deposit back (if unprotected) - but they may well get 3times their deposit back as some sort of compensation for their trouble.

The tenant must be given 3 times the deposit. The judge can then instruct the LL to either put the deposit in a scheme or the judge can rule that the tenant must be given the deposit back. From reading that other thread, the LL has to inform the tenant within 14 days of taking the deposit, not just protect it in a scheme.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=675601

clutton wrote: »

Tenants now have many more rights than before - they cannot be issued with a Section 21 if the deposit is not lodged .... so much more security of tenure ........

That's not really giving the tenant more rights, it is more to do with making sure that LLs comply with the law. If they don't, then they can be penalised.

From reading that other thread and links, both of the following points have to be complied with, for the LL to be allowed to issue a Section 21:-

The LL must inform the tenant about the deposit scheme within 14 days of the deposit being given.

The LL has to give the tenant the 'prescribed information' within 14 days of the deposit being taken.

Also, any Section 21 issued when the contract is signed, is not legal as the deposit has not yet been protected.

clutton_2

""Also, any Section 21 issued when the contract is signed, is not legal as the deposit has not yet been protected.""

i have recently read a lawyers take on this - and she certainly did not mention timings of SEction 21 - but what you say Moneypenny does have a kind of "timings-common-sense" about it.

Since the beginnig of the scheme i i have included the name of the deposit scheme i use in my AST and attach the prescribed information to the AST as an appendix - much easier.