Can a landlord demand this?

[Gracelet]

Dd is about to move out of her student flat and the landlord is refusing to return the deposit until they have proved that they've paid all the bills. Is this allowed? There have been no issues with the bills. He has however been a bit of a nightmare LL, not responding to messages for weeks, not keeping the property in a reasonable state, asking them to buy a vacuum cleaner to replace his old one and saying he'll pay them back and not doing, etc etc.

Any guidance appreciated!

Their contract is with the bill providers, not him, so can't see how he could enforce this.

Is their deposit in a protection scheme? If so they just need to go through them to get it back. Landlord n eds to justify deductions and your DD can appeal against unfair deductions through the scheme.

Is there anything in her contract that says she has to do this?
The deposit will be with a protection scheme anyway so she can apply for the return and her LL can apply to keep it, the scheme will probably side with her.
However, if she has easily accessible proof in the interests of a speedy return i would just share it with the LL

Landlord here. We’ve had tenants in the past who’ve left a property, we’ve returned their deposit and have subsequently found that they had bills outstanding. The responsibility to pay those is not ours as a landlord and the companies have to chase our former tenant.
Speak to the letting agent they should help you. Landlords of student accommodation do often seem to be less than ideal. 😡

What is the process for settling the final bill? Do they need to give the provider the new name (likely the landlords) so they become responsible for the bill and their contract ends with the utility company?

Sometimes it’s in the contract that you have to provide proof of payment for the bills or similar.

Just show the last electricity & water bill and payment of it if that works? I wouldn’t bother doing every one as that’s unreasonable.

Thanks for your post! How does she go about claiming the deposit from the scheme? If there even is a scheme....

I actually don't know the final bill process as it's never been mentioned before.

There had better be a scheme! Landlords are not entitled to keep deposits themselves. Speak to the letting agent, they should sort this for her.

Well if there isn't the LL/Agent is in trouble.
Your DD should have been provided with details of it when she started her Tenancy - most common company is TDS or similar, its usually sent by email

Ok, thanks everyone, it's massively appreciated.

Surely it’s not an issue unless they plan on not paying the bills?

Our tenants send us the photo of the meter readings, the confirmed zero balance and council tax has been paid or exemption.
no issues ever with this.

All bills already paid.

So I don't really understand the issue unless you feel you shouldn't provide the proof on principle or something daft

Because at no point should the bills be the Landlord's responsibility to pay anyway, so why should it matter whether they're paid or not?!

The landlord will be liable for any bills for the period after the tenancy has ceased, which can be a bit of a pain, as you often don't know which electric provider a tenant has used, for example. DH is a landlord and ended up with some threatening letters from an electric company because the tenant had told them that they'd moved out, but had left the property address as the landlord address, so the bills weren't ever getting to DH. Thankfully the new tenant passed the bills over to the estate agent when they moved in, but sorting the bills out in the intervening period was a pain.

The landlord could possibly be trying to make his life easier in terms of picking up the later costs, but there's no reason he should be withholding the deposit in the meantime.

OP - take a look here - www.sulets.com/advice-and-support/deposits/

Thank you.

So it turns out that there's nothing in their contract about showing bills or proof of student council tax exemption. They've spoken to the council and they've said no to providing a letter as proof.

LL has apparently used something called MyDeposit. They've already contacted the lettings agency who have said they can't help, it's nothing to do with them.

Hopefully they can go through MyDeposit and claim the deposit back 🤞🤞

You could presumably 'prove' council tax exemption by proving student status. The dates for universities and for councils vary sometimes (e.g. some councils charge you council tax from the date of submission of your PhD, even though you have not completed your PhD and you remain a student from the POV of the university), but it's an approximate. Some? councils also send out nil bills to exempt households. However, either way, it shouldn't be needed now.

Would you be willing to provide your bills and confirmation of payment (hopefully on the energy provider account, since bank statements are a whole other issue) to anyone who asked?

The problem here is surely that an inadequate landlord (per OP) is drawing out the deposit return process with additional demands.

Not to anyone who asked but as I said earlier if its quick and easy and gets their deposit back faster then I would show my LL.
Part of my job is to help Tenants get deposits back and the Deposit scheme is the best way to do it but if a LL asked for a proof of utility payment and my client could access it easily I would advise them to.
But if they preferred to wait and go through the deposit scheme then thats fine too

UPDATE

Dd and her flatmate friend wrote to the LL threatening to involve My Deposit and they literally had the deposit back within the hour. So he already had it.....

I am a bit confused.
How did the LL have the deposit? It should have been held and then released by My Deposit

Easiest way is to just do it this way.

Exactly. No one knows how he had it 🤷‍♀️

He already had proof of bills and hasn't mentioned the student council tax again.

Hope they didn't leave the new vacuum he didn't pay for?