Ex-Landlord Nightmare

[GinTonicLemon]

Not sure I've posted this in the correct place or not but here goes. Apologies if it is long but I need advice.

Rented a property for a year...on commencement of the tenancy, there was no inventory. Paid rent on time constantly, always allowed them fair access to the property as required etc despite having had Environmental Health involved since the start of the tenancy for some pretty grim problems which were never improved.

Fast forward to recently, LL gave 2 months notice for us to leave, luckily we found a new place within a week and wrote to the LL giving our notice via a letter I posted through their door.

On the second to last day of tenancy, I posted the keys to LL Special Delivery and moved in to our new property. Everyone was happy - or so I thought. This is where the problems start...

The LL claimed to never have received my letter of notice (that I posted through the door by hand) and is trying to get me to pay until the end of their notice. They are now saying they also never received the key (Royal Mail say they put a red card through). Obviously I don't have proof of posting the letter as I did it by hand but my boyfriend was there too. Would he be classed as a witness?

The LL claims I have left lots of rubbish in the garden and not removed furniture from the house (both untrue, I left the entire place spotless!) and is claiming I need to pay to get it removed. I'm afraid they are going to use this so they don't have to pay my deposit back - will they be able to do this since there was not an inventory

All communication has been through shitty sounding texts/voicemail messages to which I replied back to politely until today, I had surprise visitors at my workplace...my LL and his wife! Luckily, my colleague knows about the grim problems I had while in the property and since, so sent them away. I feel quite intimidated by this and it could embarrass in front of my colleagues/clients or potentially affect my work. Is this classed as harassment?

Thanks in advance...I could really do with some advice and gin!

don't contact the landlord. Call Mydeposits tomorrow and find out the exact situation for your deposit.

the main thing is to get it back.

and despite what some on here would have you believe, actually most landlords are decent people. As are most tenants, although there don't seem to be professional tenant-haters here.

I'm going to sit down with everything tomorrow, contact MyDeposits and then ring Shelter. Their website seems very helpful so I am hopeful. If the deposit is protected and I dispute the claims from the LL and win, does that mean he would not be able to take me to court?

I've had a text from him tonight threatening legal action. I didn't reply. Just any thought of legal action terrifies me as I'm scared I will end up owing massive court fees.

Keep all texts/emails and a record of any contact.
Sounds like he has royally messed up (even if he doesn't know it) and trying to intimidate you will only make it worse for him.
Good luck with your calls today - knowledge is power :)

• you said in the OP

Fast forward to recently, LL gave 2 months notice for us to leave, luckily we found a new place within a week and wrote to the LL giving our notice via a letter I posted through their door.

So does that mean he gave you notice first? I can't see how you would need to give him notice other than advising him of you vacating as his notice would be in place anyway and would just expire although he would probably expect you to pay rent up to his notice date.

I can't see how he can now refuse to acknowledge your notice if in fact he gave you notice first.

Dont contact the landlord anymore, there is no point. Make sure you have a reference number of your report to the police, you can if it continues phone again and add to the 'crime'.

The law about sending deposit info again on renewal was in the last month.

Call MyDeposits and ask if your deposit is protected. If it is tell them your copy of the info is incomplete, ask if that counts as protected. If it does count, then ask for a full refund of the deposit. At that point the process will take over. LL will ask for it to be refunded to him, explain the rent issue too. You will disagree. Arbitration will take place. You will win.

If it is not protected, or as it is incomplete is not protected - then you should go to your local court and get a claim form. Citizens Advice Shelter will help you fill it in, but basically it is nothing to do with any rent owed, or not, any damage done, or not - it is purely "my deposit isnt protected, so you LL owe me it plus x3 back". You will win.

Thanks everyone for your help.

I have kept all texts, recorded the shitty answerphone message his wife left and logged the work visit with police.

I gave notice first, however LL then gave me a S21 notice letter 11 days later. He is claiming to have never received the notice I hand posted. Even if I had not have sent notice, as I understand if a LL serves notice, a tenant is free to leave before the end of that period. I'm not sure what a court would say about me owing rent as he had given me notice to leave the property anyway. Baffling.

I think I could have a case regarding the deposit any way as I never received any paperwork until the agent sent the incomplete documents mid Feb of this year, almost a year after I moved in. I thought tenants had to be supplied with this information within a set amount of time.

Will call mydeposits and Shelter when I finish work. I want to get the ball rolling now as I feel angry rather than intimidated today.

Excellent - anger is good :)
Definitely have to have deposit protection details within 30 days of signing the tenancy agreement so you are in a very good position here (also not protecting a deposit properly means the LL can't serve you with a Section 21 notice)

Use that anger to gather your facts and go for him. That will be the best revenge on your nasty landlord and give us decent landlords a good feeling :)

feetheart Thanks so much, feels nice to have some support albeit virtual. I think he's tried to intimidate me thinking I will roll over and pay him any amount that he plucks from mid air!

Very glad he is going to get a shock and probably end up having to pay you :)
Keep asking for advice/support if you need it and let us know the outcome.

Well done OP. Channel your anger into ice cold precision planning, research and responses, let it fuel your action but don't let it show.

You have a really strong case:

• No inventory
• Photos on day of departure
• Late deposit protection
• Lack of appropriate deposit paperwork.
• Ineligible S21
• Evidence of harassment and intimidating behaviour.

Good luck!

And the ignored Environmental Health stuff which is pretty serious.

GinTonicLemon - you have the Power of MN behind you, I reckon he's going to REALLY regret taking you on :o

I'm back for a quick and possibly boring update...

I have spoken to MyDeposits who cannot find anything on their system at all for the postcode I provided and recommended that I contact the agent. I contacted the agent's HO who say they can't find any information about the deposit on the system and that it doesn't even show that the property was rented. Which is ridiculous as I had a letter mid-Feb from the same person I spoke to at HO asking to renew my tenancy agreement. I also confirmed with the agent that they only used MyDeposits.

I have been on Shelter's website and helpfully, they have a list of proof to get together before I have to send the LL a letter warning of legal action. I'm going to spend the weekend gathering as much as I can (one of the pieces required is an inventory, which obviously I don't have).

I am worried about sending a letter to the LL about proceeding with legal action as I'm afraid he will turn up at work again or pay me a visit at home. Also, I'm scared he will counteract my legal action with some of his own saying I owe rent and for cleaning/waste removal. If this happens, will I have to prove the condition of the property or will the fact that there was no inventory go against the LL?

Thanks again everyone...really helps to put my thoughts on here and plan my next move.

thanks for the update. Oh boy. It sounds like you have an incompetent agent to add to your dodgy landlord.

if the agent is big enough to have a head office you need to launch a major rocket to the big cheese, as a formal complaint. In my experience this is the only way to get some agents to do anything, an awful lot of hair flicking and nail filing goes on otherwise.

if they are members of ARLA (toothless but better than nothing) complain to them too.

the minimum you need is your deposit back. What might reduce the pain all round is to tell your landlord that as the deposit was unprotected, you are able to sue him for 3 x its value. If he agrees to drop his threats, return your deposit and leave you alone, you could offer not to do this.

you have a strong case for action. Rest assured he doesn't - he didn't protect the deposit and so broke the law.

Have you contacted him about him coming to your work?

What was the last communication you received from your ex LL?

Depending on what that was I'd email something like.

With regard to your communication of x date where you claim I am owe you X amount for blah blah blah I deny this debt. If you are insistent on pursuing your alleged debt you must do so through the proper channels. If you contact me again at work or home this shall be considered harassment and I will take appropriate legal action.

This is quite a useful guide to what is harassment of debtors.

www.boltonsmoneyskills.org.uk/sei/s/6316/f27.pdf

Seems the agents is just as useless as the LL. It's quite a big company so I am shocked they can let something with such legal significance go unnoticed. They do seem to be members of ARLA from what I can find. How would I go about finding a contact for a big bod at the company?

I signed one 6 month contract with the agent, then the LL wanted to save paying agency fees and signed another just him and I, no agency involvement. So I think technically, it could be classed as 2 counts of breaking the deposit protecting law. I may be wrong though.

Does anyone know how much it would cost to take this to court? I have no experience whatsoever and I don't really have the funds for a lawyer etc.

Billy I've heard nothing from the LL since the text messages he sent after the visit to my office. I text to say that if he visited my place of work again, I would consider it to be harassment and stated that I had contacted and logged the visit with the police.

He replied with lots of made up accusations about the condition of the property and tried to claim he just wanted to talk to me hence the visit to work. He also said he was going to contact the police and see if I had actually logged it or if I was lying(!) and threatening legal action. I didn't reply as I didn't want to get into a text fight.

that's good.

the agent head office address should be on their website, as should a complaints procedure. Contact ARLA too and make a stink.

continue to keep records of landlord contact but don't reply.

Legal action is dead easy in the small claims court - register the issue on-line, provide all the details of the lack of deposit protection.

there are 3 seperate issues here:

1. No deposit protection - he did not protect the deposit or give you the paperwork - he owes you 3 times the deposit for breaking the law
2. Any deposit retention - he will have to prove you caused the issues - this is impossible as no opening inventory - you do not have to prove anything
3. Additional rent as your notice was not made - slightly trickier, but you have a witness to the delivery and three times the deposit to pay it.

Go onto the smalls claims court website, detail the lack of deposit protection, pay a small fee and they will issue contact the LL giving him the option of paying up or contesting the case - his only defence is it was deposited.

The other 2 issues are for him to file a case on. If he does, then he will need to provide evidence on point 2 (including a signed opening inventory)

If you started with the agent, your deposit claim should start against them.

How are you getting on?