getting deposit back using housing act section 214

[whyme2]

Hi there

maybe someone in the know can help.

basically (without giving away identity)

we have been in a rented house for the last few years. Initially the tenancy was through a letting agent - the landlord sacked the agent half way though the tenancy and to our horror got the deposit from the deposit scheme and lodged it with his solicitor (without our prior knowledge) he then failed to provide a tenancy agreement for the rest of the tenancy.

We have recently moved out. we deliberately handed the property over a day early telling him it was an opportunity to tell us if there were any issues with the property so that we had time to respond. He came and said he was happy and there were no issues

A couple of days later he sent us a letter with over a dozen ridiculous claims about the state of the property .... basically trying to screw us out of the deposit.

I want to know how we can defend ourselves.

I intended taking him to court under section 214 for failing to protect the deposit (without reference to condition of property) which I had understood led to immediate return of the deposit in full, but I have since read about counterclaims regarding condition of property and want to know what to do.

any ideas???

Have PM'd you Queen

thank you.

Thisoldgirl

We gave notice as we wanted to move and used the terms of the original contract.

I'm not an expert but I am a LL and as I understand it, regardless of the state of the house, if the money is not in a DPS then you are entitiled to get 3x the value of the deposit back.

This is true and though there is a limit of time to claim i actually think it is 6 months after agreement ends.

Call shelter, they will be happy to help.

@holiday most of what you have said is incorrect.

They were on a contract, it was a rolling contract as it was nto terminated or formally extended for a set period of time.

Whyme You're fine with regard to notice; it would have just been an additional issue to flog your LL with if he had failed to serve the s21 correctly. Your tenancy, once it ceased to be an AST, would simply have become what is known as a periodic tenancy.

Ethelb I can't remember the specific case law on this (and hope I am a good enough LL that I'll never have to find out!) but recovering 3x deposit return is not entirely straightforward, as it's up to the discretion of the individual judge and the county courts cannot set a legal precedent. There's also a loophole with regard to the time limit which landlords exploit if sued. I remember reading about it on Tessa Shepperson's blog. Whyme do check out the landlordlaw.co.uk forums, people are amazingly knowledgeable and helpful on there.

@this she can expect the full deposit back though, unless she has done something truley terrible which the ll can prove.

Plus, the ll will get a bollocking for causing a situation which is wasting county court time by refusing to fulfil a basic and well known legal requirement., that was brought in to reduce the amout of time cc spent dealing with situations like this.

ethel Agreed. I am so tired of these threads on Mumsnet - WHY are so many landlords such a nightmare? I know there are nightmare tenants out there as well, but the LL has no excuse to be ignorant or incompetent because it's HOW HE EARNS HIS F*CKING LIVING.

And breathe.

@thisoldgirl unfortunatley the level of responsibility and awareness of the law that many ll have is vv low, as demonstrated by some ll posting on here.

hoever, I have received many a bollocking from a ll on these threads for pointing our that perhaps they shoudl knwo the EXTREMELY SMALL section of the law that applies to them.

They all have no idea how estate agents operate, but that is a whole other thread....

Just wanted to update. We received a letter today from LL offering us two thirds of our deposit back. I think we should agree to settle it here and walk away. It has left a bad feeling and I just want to be shot of it all now.

Thank you to everyone who has replied.

@whyme glad you got something but sorry the situation has worn you down so much you don't feel you can fight any longer.

Oooh no, why should the thieveing lying toad get any of it?

It is YOUR MONEY!

Does he have a dated signed inventory giving details of the condition of the property when you moved in?

I just think we could spend months going to court and adding to our stress load. I don't want to do that so dh and I agreed last night to accept his offer and be done with it.
We do have signed inventories but they were done with the agent a month after we moved in. There is nothing on the garden which was one of his biggest complaints.

I feel happier walking away now. I want to be shot of everything to do with that house.

I'm sorry you've decided to 'down tools' but also think - given the far greater importance of other things in life - that you're doing the right thing.
It's not worth losing sleep over a few hundred pounds; it's far quicker and easier to earn the money again without this type of drain on your energy.

It's because tenants often walk away from disputes like this that there's such a dearth of case law protecting other tenants. Plus landlords who have insurance (though few do, it seems) have access to a lot of legal advice, whereas few tenants do. Nonetheless, as I said earlier in the thread, do write to the housing officer at your local authority if you can find the time. I know the ones at my local council (Hammersmith and Fulham) are compiling a secret register of rogue landlords, and yours has fallen down on so many key elements there's no way he should be letting to others.

It's only a matter of time before landlords have to be registered (London's Newham is already doing it), and the plan is fully supported by those of us trying to be professional.