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

Loretta

higgs wrote: »

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:

Did you LL do an inventory when you moved in?

JustJewels

Hi all,

I moved out of rented a year ago, and had to have a battle with my landlady to return the deposit. Unfortunately our tenancy started before the deposit scheme started. She held onto our full deposit of £850 for a year over the sake of a water bill. The building management of our new block of flats were unable to provide a water meter reading for at least a year, however this was really besides the point as the water meter for our flat was broken and thus recorded zero litres used during our stay anyway. This cased mass confusion with the building management until the landlady came up with a 'suggestion' that she hold £650 towards the water bill if/when the water company decided to charge her for the water we used.

I have no idea where she got this inflated and arbitrary figure of £650. I fired a letter off to her with copies of our current water bill, which is a similar sized property to the one we rented, which showed that the annual bill was only £104.

I also made the suggestion that if she didn't think this was reasonable, we could take the dispute to the small claims court and let the judge decide.

I got a cheque by return post, with alot of bluster about she had only tried to be reasonable, and would have defended any claim rigorously etc.. But as the cheque was for £746, she must have felt that the figure I proposed was 'reasonable'.

What annoys me is that she didn't know our circumstances, we could have desperately needed that money as a deposit for another property, but she held onto it for a year. And this is on top of all her other 'reasonable' behaviour, like agreeing to send someone to fix the washing machine by telephone and confirming a date/time, then cancelling that arrangement by letter which I didn't get until the day after, insisting on a viewing the day after we had a bereavement, refusing to let us go month by month, and charging us £15 to replace a 46p lightbulb.

All in all, I am grateful to be a mortgage holder at the moment, although unfortunately I have to be a tenant again soon. I've seen both sides of renting, but I hope I'll have the sort of landlord I will be (i.e. nice).

MissMoneypenny

clutton wrote: »

""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.

Just because you name the deposit scheme in the AST, does that make a section 21 served at the beginning of a tenancy, legal?

"Moreover, any s.21 Notice signed at the beginning of the tenancy, or with the tenancy agreement (as very many are) is invalid, as the deposit is not (yet) held in compliance with the scheme and the requisite information not (yet) provided to the tenant."
http://nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/index.php?s=shorthold

wthrelfall

My ex landlord paid me £200 but keeps stalling me over the remaining £400 of my deposit (moved out 1st july 2007). I am at breaking point over this as I am about to build a house and have just bought a new car so am really desperate for every last penny! I never signed a lease with him so not sure how that will affect my case.. anyway, I am ready to take whatever action is necessary - need advice on my next move.
ps. I wouldn't be surprised if he is 'illegally' renting his property, ie. not on the landlords register.. does this help me??
your help is hugely appreciated!.
william.

higgs

Hi,

Well, having given our landlady a Month's notice of our leaving date I got a call on Friday from the office saying that she is going on holiday and so could we take time off work to be around for an inspection two days before we move? No we can't. We will now have to move out on Friday and wait for her to inspect the property in two weeks time.

The plan is to take photos of everything (absolutely everything) with the days paper in them on Friday when we leave and hope she doesn't find anything to complain about (unlikely).

Just wish I had taken photos when we moved in!

Is there anything else we should do? And can anyone clarify the situation about inventories? We did not have one when we moved in and house was in a lot worse condition than it is now. So does this mean she is likely to have problems withholding any of our deposit?

Thanks!

clutton_2

Moneypenny - i dont think ANYone will know whether a Section 21s issued at the same time as the AST will be regarded as legal until we get a test cast on this very matter - i guess this depends on how a judge views things - as soon as the NLA report on the same, i will come back to the board here and report.

thebaroness

I need to be in this club.

I've just received a call from TDS stating that my Letting Agents haven't protected my deposit because they considered my tenancy a periodic tenancy not an AST. So if i can't go through the TDS i may end up going to small claims, not just for my deposit but also for the higher rent they've been charging me.

Full story is here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=679689&

pesky_princess

I think I will end up being a long term member to this club! :eek:

I have an update on my story today: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=751219

I am ready for the fight!!!! Hope everyone in this club sees an end to their misery soon! Keep on fighting!

higgs

Hi again,

Thought I would bump this thread instead of starting a new one - hope that's ok!

Well, moved out four weeks ago, spent two full days repainting entire house in magnolia and cleaning until it was shiny and new looking. Took photos etc.

We knew landlady was on holiday for two weeks after we moved, so have given her four weeks and have heard nothing. Sending a letter today to request return of deposit, but I was wondering, is there a requirement for her to return our deposit with in a specific time period from our moving out of the house?

I think she is just hoping that we will assume we are not getting it back and forget about it!

tbs624

higgs wrote: »

, is there a requirement for her to return our deposit with in a specific time period from our moving out of the house?

If ithe deposit was registered with one of the schemes, 10 to 14 days is enough time to sort it out unless there is a dispute. 30 days is the absolute maximum I would have been prepared to wait otherwise. Contact the Scheme and tell them there may be a dispute. The LL has to justify any deductions, and if you don't agree with them you can either go to arbitration ( if both parties say yes to this option) or you pursue the return of your deposit via the courts. Good luck.