Can I take my landlord to court?

Notlob

My understanding is, now that the LL has complied you are unable to commence proceedings. Only if after 14 days and had still not complied could you take the LL to court.

Mr_LoL

Notlob wrote: »

My understanding is, now that the LL has complied you are unable to commence proceedings. Only if after 14 days and had still not complied could you take the LL to court.

He didn't comply within 14 days of me moving in though (I moved in on the 21st of December). He only complied when I told him of it today 6 months later.

clutton_2

read www.landlordzone.co.uk - there are in depth threads on there about the cases that have been to court already

Notlob

Your missing the point! the 14 days is just a timeframe. Obviously you cannot take the LL to court within the 14 days, only after. There has to be a cut off date. If the LL belatedly protects the deposit before you go to court then there is no reason to go to court as the deposit is now protected.

If you could still sue the LL after the deposit has been protected then why should the LL bother protecting it after the 14 days has lapsed. What would be the point if you are still going to sue!

teeni

Notlob wrote: »

Your missing the point! the 14 days is just a timeframe. Obviously you cannot take the LL to court within the 14 days, only after. There has to be a cut off date. If the LL belatedly protects the deposit before you go to court then there is no reason to go to court as the deposit is now protected.

If you could still sue the LL after the deposit has been protected then why should the LL bother protecting it after the 14 days has lapsed. What would be the point if you are still going to sue!

they are two different issues really the point of protecting it late is to reinstate the right to issue a s21 notice which can not be relied upon if deposit is not protected.
o/p is right and may have a case through the small claims court for failure to protect deposit and advise of scheme used in 14 days( i assume 3 times deposit is less than £5000.

But as has been pointed out as sure as night follows day once proceedings have begum a s21 will be issued and followed though on. O/P needs to consider if he wants to stay where he is or if the sole purpose was to protect the deposit for the future.

Notlob

Teeni,

I accept the issue of Section 21's. You and I however have opposing views about the rest! I will need to see more test cases before changing my view. Hmmm, Mr_LoL, why don't you be a test case and prove me wrong?

teeni

I agree more test cases would be beneficial,but in Stankova v Glassonbury the judge found that the fine was a strict liability penalty and the deposit had been protected all be it late. I have a couple of clients in court in the next month with cases so it will be interesting to see how they work out, up to now I have managed to negotiate with landlords for return of the deposit and the fine without going to court.

Mr_LoL

Notlob wrote: »

Teeni,

I accept the issue of Section 21's. You and I however have opposing views about the rest! I will need to see more test cases before changing my view. Hmmm, Mr_LoL, why don't you be a test case and prove me wrong?

I will. I just need to wait for the tds form from the landlords accountant tomorrow. I will be suing for non compliance of the tds laws. Tired of unscrupulous landlords to be honest.

SquatNow

Snooze wrote: »

Very naive of you to think that and your argument is severely flawed. For a start, how do you know the landlord is who s/he says they are? Secondly, most tenants don't know where their landlord's live and thirdly, the contact numbers they provide will usually be either a PAYG mobile number or a VOIP PSTN number if they have no intention of giving you your deposit back.

It doesn't matter. You can go to court and sue in absence. As long as the LL owns the property they have an asset you can seize.

If they run around saying "I don't own it" you can just say OK you wont mind me renting it out to someone and keeping the cash then.

10 seconds later your deposit re-appears.

If you own land, you can't simply up and disappear without losing it.

1 Good reason not to buy a house/land... if the police catch up with you you can just vanish without losses!

teeni

Mr_LoL wrote: »

I will. I just need to wait for the tds form from the landlords accountant tomorrow. I will be suing for non compliance of the tds laws. Tired of unscrupulous landlords to be honest.

Let us know how you get on.