landlord keeping deposit

[IdreamofFairies]

my dd is a student and her last years landlord is playing silly buggers with regards to all the students deposits. she was meant to have paid it in august when they all moved out, but keeps coming up with excuses, for weeks it was its on its way. now she has told my dd that it is in a high interest account and she needs to give notice to get it out which will cause further delay.

as they were staying in the house for a second year she told them that if they wanted to do that they had to rent it outside the agency (i just found this out my dd is younger than her friends so am assuming she followed their lead on this).

is there any way she can complain about her land ladies actions is it illegal for her to be holding all their money.

any help would be greatly appreciated TIA

the deposit should be protected in a government scheme, although I'm not entirely sure how this works for a house share. If they are joint tenants it DEFINITELY must be protected.

the high interest account thing is bollocks, there's no such thing in the UK.

nothing wrong with not using an agency - they can be useless.

contact shelter or the uni accommodation people for advice.

apparently the landlord didnt use the deposit protection scheme i thought you had to so did my dd but the landlord has said its an opt in if you want thing.

she is going to ask at uni but is a little timid. i thought if i could give her more information it would help with her confidence

Contact the TDS:

www.tds.gb.com/

Deposits have to be protected now, I think since about 2009 but TDS will check for you and If the deposit isn't protected, they will be able to advise.

Sorry, clicky link:

www.tds.gb.com/

Shelter will be able to advise. Sorry, this isn't going well!

thank you very helpful will pass the info on.

I would go to small claims court. Your DD could get back up to 3 x the deposit.

Deposit protection is not optional. Tenants need to be proactive and know the right procedures to protect themselves against crap landlords, unfortunate as that is.

As well as the above excellent advice be sure to contact the university and let them know as they often have a list of agents/landlords which can be passed on to new students. That way she can't play silly buggers trying to exploit another group of them.

Also let Uni know whatever the outcome & she can go on their blacklist if they have one!

repeat- deposit protection is mandatory. This gets dodgier by the moment. High interest account my arse.

get the landlord blacklisted and get on the case of retrieving the deposit.

thank you all so much i have passed all of this on to my dd and get her to tell all her house mates.

i am hoping she can get something sorted soon there were 5 of them sharing so LD holding onto a fair amount of money.

lol sorry not sure what LD is meant LL