Landlord holding deposit

[theodora18]

I really hope someone can help! I moved out of my house at the end of October and am having a nightmare getting my deposit back. I feel the landlord is being deliberately difficult. I have rented for 10 years and never had an issue like this before. I desperately need the money back.

I have an email from the landlord confirming she will refund the full amount as the check out report was fine. However she is now requesting copies of my utility bills and council tax to confirm they have been settled as well as a receipt for the end of tenancy cleaning before she can release the deposit.

I have sent her the utility bills and an email from the council advising there is a 3 week backlog in processing requests. She will not accept this and says I must wait for proof of this until she will release the deposit.

I cleaned the property myself so there is no cleaning bill. If the check out report is fine and she has agreed that I am due the whole deposit back I don’t know why she is now demanding this or why she needs it.

I have tried speaking to the lettings agent as well as the deposit scheme but they are not much help. I can open a dispute but have been advised this can take months. I am also worried the landlord will continue to be deliberately difficult and continue to delay the deposit release or decide to make a deduction.

TIA

Just log into the scheme where the deposit is held and request the full funds. The bills are a separate contract between you and provider and have nothing to do with her.

She doesn't need your utility bills as the account is with you, not the house and she isn't liable. I've no idea what she's doing but stalling is my guess.

As above, you should have the deposit protection scheme details so I'd dig them out and get the ball rolling.

She's playing sill buggers so tell her you're going to go through arbitration if she tries it on.

Make sure you take plenty of photos of the property.

Is there an agent involved?

We had this - contact the deposit holding company and lodge a claim for the full amount....shouldn't take long and if she doesn't contest it then they pay it back after 14 days (I think, might have the time scale wrong there)

We had a hell of a time getting our deposit back as our landlord was just plain lazy.
It is supposed to be paid within 10 days of your move out date. If it reaches 30 days you can take them to small claims court. Your bills etc.. are nothing to do with her, they are your accounts in your name. If she was satisfied with your cleaning that she said she will release the full deposit it she cannot go back on this. You need to get on to the estate agent- if you let through one - and their head office and the company that held your deposit. Good luck!

Request it through the deposit scheme. We had a big dispute with a previous landlord and even that didn't take months.

I’m a landlord and she definitely isn’t liable for your council tax bill. I had a tenant who left owing me months of rent, and the council subsequently contacted me requesting a forwarding address as she also owed them. At no point was it suggested that I was responsible. She is definitely pulling a fast one, which pisses me off as it gives all of us a bad name. Go straight to the deposit scheme - this is exactly what it’s for.

That’s not right, just go and request the funds back by the deposit scheme, she can’t do what she’s doing.

Hi OP,

The bills are nothing to do with the landlord. Don’t waste any more time on this landlord’s unreasonable requests and just log into the scheme which your deposit is held with and click claim the entire amount. Just deal directly with the deposit scheme and let them do the rest. The schemes always tend to dip on the tenants side and a “professional clean” has no meaning any more to the schemes, the cleaning condition on check out is deemed either poor, acceptable or good standard by the inventory clerk on check out. I know that lettings agents charge landlords to become involved in deposit disputes. I used to rent and the letting agent would have charged £250 to the landlord to even start the deposit negotiation, so often it isn’t even the landlords worthwhile to make deposit deductions when using a LA. I didn’t even ask my landlord or letting agent for the deposit back when the tenancy ended and instead I logged straight into the TDS scheme the day the tenancy ended and requested the full amount back. I had no further communications from the LA and they didn't action the repayment until the scheme sent a reminder to them after 14 days but I got 100% back of my deposit, I hope you get all yours back too, the schemes are very fair. Best of luck x

They have 10 days to refund if they’re not disputing the amount, contact the scheme provider and request it back.

if your deposit isn’t protected as part of a scheme your LL is breaking the law and there is a hefty fine so I’d threaten to report her if she doesn’t BACs immediately.