This is the bazillionth time I've looked and asked on Mumsnet for advice and you haven't let me down yet! specialsubject and others have always been particularly helpful on the landlord and lease stuff.
I am drafting the content for a claim form and wondered if someone that knows can read what I'm proposing and tell me if it's OK or needs changing? Or is anything unclear? I'm planning on sending the info as an attachment, and appendices as detailed. Not sure how much hope I have of getting compensation. Our landlord lives outside of the EU (apparently) although the person we thought was our landlord who now 'manages' it lives in London.
Thank you!
Anyway, here it is:
We believe that our landlord has failed to protect our deposit in accordance with Section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 and in accordance with our lease (attached as appendix XXX).
We paid a deposit of £xx before taking up our tenancy on (date). A receipt for this deposit is in our lease, attached as appendix xxxx.
The deposit was paid to the property management company, and the lease details that the landlord should protect it as per the law.
When undertaking our lease we were told (name) was our landlord.
We were then emailed by the property management company on (date) saying there was a change in contact details for our landlord. We were then informed that the property owner had always been (another name) but that (original name) managed it. This email is attached as appendix xxxx.
These two men are both listed as defendants.
Having received a Section 21: Notice Requiring Possession eviction notice on (date) we (the claimants) checked our lease and tenancy agreement.
We checked with the three government-backed deposit schemes and found that our deposit had not been protected in line with the law. We did also therefore not receive the required information about the scheme being used within 30 days.
We took advice from Shelter, the housing charity, who informed us of our rights in this case and advised that as a result of failing to protect our deposit, the Section 21: Notice requiring possession eviction notice was invalid.
However we began searching for a new home anyway.
On (date) we wrote a letter before action to the defendants, copying in their property management estate agent, explaining that they had failed to protect our deposit in accordance with the law (attached as appendix XXX).
This letter was sent via email to the defendants and their property management company. It was also sent recorded delivery and proof of that delivery is attached as appendix XXX.
In the letter, we asked for a response within 14 days. The defendants have failed to respond.
However a contact at the defendants’ property management company emailed within the 14 days on (date), saying ‘I can confirm we have the deposit and this will be returned to yourselves once you have vacated’ (attached as appendix xxx). This is further proof that the deposit was not put into, and is now not in, an approved tenancy deposit scheme. It is also in contrast to a note from the property management company while talking about our tenancy becoming a periodic one on (date) saying ‘As your landlord holds the deposit and has previously registered the deposit they have been advised that they should arrange for it to continue to be registered.’ Attached as appendix xxx.
We are therefore launching a tenancy deposit compensation claim with the court totalling three times the deposit paid, plus our original deposit, plus interest from (date of beginning of tenancy).
We believe, having taken advice, that this compensation should comprise:
Three times our deposit totals: £xxx
Plus interest at 8% per annum (rate as set in Section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984) for three and a half years total: £xxx
Plus deposit paid: £xxxx
Total: £xxx
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Claiming against landlord who hasn't protected deposit - is this OK?
16 replies
depositdonut · 19/07/2015 19:57
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