Landlord and student deposit

[jiggles01]

I have posted this in chat also ...

My DS is in a dispute with his old LL regarding the return of his deposit..
Yes, 3 of the tenants paid the rent late and 2 didn't pay at all.They were wrong not to pay but he is a nightmare LL and my DS had to call the police on him on 1 occasion ,so there is friction .
He is going to charge them £40 each for cleaning etc which I thought was reasonable- there are 5 of them -But he has also said he will charge them 3% a day for late rent.
So ....deposit £400,rent paid on 15th £310,(due on 1st ) He has charged £120 for late rent,and £40 cleaning for 3 of them,so getting back £238

The other 2,no late charge at all,just £40 for cleaning and they will get back £50 each as he said he would take their rent out of the deposit !
Anyway my question is .... Does 3% a day sound a lot ... It is in the tenancy agreement they all signed. They are going to dispute this with TDS . They are all students.

Sounds reasonable to me, sorry. Why did they think it was ok to not pay rent?

When I go overdrawn I get charged £15 per day plus interest by my bank, which is what would happen if my tenants were habitually late with their rent.

If your ds want one of the late ones he could appeal to his friends' better natures, but it sounds reasonable and that's what the outcome of "jointly and separately liable" is if someone doesn't pay.

Police etc is a separate problem, unless the landlord cost them money?

So your DS paid his rent late and is annoyed about having to pay a charge that is clearly stated in the tenancy agreement?

It sounds pretty clear cut to me, I think the TDS will easily side with the LL.

UPDATE ....my son and his friends won their tenancy dispute !! £2000 back !
Landlord had no check in or check out inventory and he did not have any 'Fully documented rental paymeny history' to show the TDS

It cost nothing to bring the dispute and I am very proud of them all to do this themselves without asking for help.
They found out since that he kept £2000 of previous students rent as he said they ruined the carpet and he was going to use it to put wooden flooring all through,needless to say he didn't and the boys inherited said carpet ..
He was an absolute nightmare !!

great - now get them to sue him in the county court for 1-3 times the deposit if he didn't give them the prescribed information! Google it!

and also learn lessons. This guy was clearly dodgy BUT in future when they sign a contract it is a committment and rent must be paid on time.