deposit return from the deposit protection service - advise

[tryme]

as some of you may remember i had alot of trouble with my landlord not being willing to carry out necessary work on the flat we were renting from him.

well 2 months after moving out. you guessed it. hes disputing our deposit being returned to us.

please see below. any advice would be welcome:

Deposit is currently being held by the deposit protection service.

landlord deposited it when i was private renting.

if anyone is familiar with how getting a deposit back it would help to understand my story.

firstly, i applied for a joint claim - both parties come to a matual agreement who the deposit should be returned to. (as i caused no damage and left no unpaid bills it should have come straight to me no questions).

landlord did not respond.

stage 2 - single claim process. had to get my form witnessed by a solicitor and then the landlord had 14 days to respond with weather or not he agrees the monies should be relseased to me.

landlord had until the 2nd of oct to do this. he actually responded on the 1st of oct stating he does not agree. the "evidence" as to why is being sent to me as we speak and i have to respond with my evidence to back my claim the deposit should be entirely returned to me.

key points:

we moved out of the flat we were renting from him on the 7th of august. he did not respond to the claim process until the 2nd of october. this leaves almost 2 whole months where he was free to do as he pleased to the property. weather it be creating damage or messing things up/inventing a story!

he did not take an inventory with us present upon entering or leaving the property.

we did not cause any damage. we have pictures to prove this. we also laid 2 new carpets with his permission as he had just floorboards in there. thus adding value to the property (in our opinion).

there are no unpaid bills at the property.

work was carried out in default by a council contractor as he left us without a boiler for 3 months over the xmas period. (he had several oppertunities given to him by the council to carry out the works which he did not do - we have evidence for this).

is it just me or does this guy seriously not have a leg to stand on?

i'm sick of being messed around with this. as far as i am concerned we should of had this money returned to us ages ago.

the stage we are at now is we have to supply our evidence to back our claim which will be analysed by an independant adjudicator and then they will decide where the money goes.

to me, i feel as if it is for him to prove i did cause damage rather than me to prove i did not!

anyone else been through something similar or have some advice?

 

[calorific]

Is he disputing the whole of the deposit of just part of it. If the latter then he must (by law) return the residue within a given timeframe (you should be able to find out from the DPS website, or a phone call to them), or whatever company he used, which you should have received details about within a few days of you handing your deposit over at the beginning.

As to whether he can withold any of the deposits at all, unless he had made a full inventory listing the state of the rooms highlighting both positive and negative aspects (eg, "freshly painted", "new carpet", "chipped work surface") with photographic evidence which has been countersigned in its entirely on every single page by both you and him, then he hasn't got a leg to stand on. If he supplied furniture then any soft furnishings should have had a fire safety tag on it, logged and photographed. FYI landlord gas safety check, electrical testing certificates, regular fire detection system checks are among the other things he should legally have had carried out.

If he is claiming for example that he has had to get cleaners in, then he has to provide evidence that you left the place in a worse state than you moved in as.

What you have to make sure that you do is to keep the DPS informed of your whereabouts so he can't claim that you've gone AWOL and thus make a claim for the deposit to be returned to him by default. As it stands, assuming that an accredited deposit company has been used (suchas the DPS that we use), which he had to by law anyway, then he can;t get the money either. That's the whole purpose of the thing.

If he wants to make a claim, then it might go to adjudication or small claims court, but without evidence he'll lose out. Sadly, it might be a bit of a waiting game for you which is a pest if you need the cash to repay whoever you've subbed money for you new flat's deposit, but if he hasn't done things by the book then you should be confident of getting it all back.

 

[JohnD]

he does not agree. the "evidence" as to why is being sent to me as we speak

well, rather than guess, have a look at what he says.

 

[tryme]

Thanks for the replies.

Indeed, I'm looking forward to receiving it.

 

[tryme]

LL refused to use the DPS adjudication process.

Next step is small claims court.

How do i do this? IMO him not willing to use the Adjudication process speaks volumes to me. (He knows he will lose) i think he is just trying to make things as hard as possible for me.

I doubt he would even show in court but of course that will be to my favour in the long run.

 

[calorific]

Has he given you details of why he is witholding the deposit?

Phone the DPS and speak to an advisor on there, as you can be sure that you're not the only person who this has happened to.

 

[peterperfection]

AS LONG AS YOU ARE TELLING THE TRUTH (nothing personal) -you will be ok.
Does the landlord own any more rental properties ?.

 

[peterperfection]

LL refused to use the DPS adjudication process.

Next step is small claims court.

How do i do this? IMO him not willing to use the Adjudication process speaks volumes to me. (He knows he will lose) i think he is just trying to make things as hard as possible for me.

I doubt he would even show in court but of course that will be to my favour in the long run.

Like I said - 'if you have adhered to the terms of the contract' you have nothing to worry about .
Read through the contract thoroughly.

If you go the small claims route- instigate a 'counter claim' for the amount of time you have spent dealing with this issue--days off work, phone calls, letters etc. You will have to name a figure ££s.

ps- I am a Landlord- and I detest certain landlords who always keep the deposits--because they see it as their bonus ..

 

[tryme]

Hello,

thank you for the replies.

I'm not sure if the landlord owns any more rental properties. When we viewed the flat first time he said he owns another property "down the road" he is renting. I also believe this could just be a ploy to tempt us into renting the property.

We have adhered to the terms. I am still waiting for his evidence. The DPS said it is in the post. So we shall see.

thanks again.

 

[Inky Pete]

If you find he's now claiming damage to the property simply refute his evidence by sending your own photos to the DPS. Also send them the evidence you have of the new carpets you fitted and the 3 months you were without a boiler, along with evidence of rent being paid on time etc.

All of the tenancy deposit schemes always end up coming down very heavily on the side of the tenant, the presumption is always that the deposit WILL be returned unless the landlord has overwhelming proof of really excessive damage.

Mrs Inky is a Lettings Manager and she's had cases where there has genuinely been thousands of pounds worth of damage and rent arrears - and yet the tenants still only had relatively small amounts of their deposits with-held.

Just follow the DPS process through to the end and you'll get your money.