Landlord request feels unfair

[Uberbeeboo]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice about our rights as tenants. We have lived in our rental property for coming up to 5 years and were made aware in March our landlord wanted to sell when our tenancy ended on 31st august 2024.

We therefore purchased a new build property which we believed would have been built by now, however we now have been given the completion date of 30th September 2024.

Today we asked the estate agent who manages our property if we can stay until our new property is ready to move into and they have responded with an ultimatum saying we can stay, but there will be a £400 increase of the rent per month starting next week when the rent is due.

The rental house is not sold and we've only done 2 viewings since April. We've been good tenants and were disappointed we had to move anyway. We really can't afford an extra £400 next week, so I was hoping if someone would kindly give me a little guidance with this please?

I'd video yourself returning the keys (or get someone else to video you) so there's no possibility of him saying that he didn't receive them.

I've videoed putting the envelope through the letterbox and it landing on the floor. I've also got 500 photos of the house as I left it. I'm just not sure how to go about getting the deposit back if I haven't had a check out. No way is it over yet, but no doubt I'll hear from him tomorrow.

Cheers Schloss 🙂

Glad you’re in your new place and you’ve returned the keys. You can log in to the deposit scheme and request the deposit back now, it’s down to them to then respond and agree or request deductions. Do you know which scheme it’s in?

Amazing! Congratulations 🥂

It's with the TDS insured scheme. I think that means he holds the money and I need to negotiate through him.

You still request repayment online, having looked at the website. I'd start the ball rolling, as he has ages to respond, annoyingly.

Aw fabulous news! Good luck in your new home ☺️

No, you will not have to negotiate through your LL or the agent. Once you have left it is purely up to the tenancy deposit scheme. There are three - find which one you have. Put a request in online for your full deposit back - there should be a section for it. That starts a 10 day countdown clock to get it back to you. The scheme themselves should contact you regarding any items that are up for debate.

@Uberbeeboo You are right. If your deposit is with TDS insured scheme. you have to negotiate with your agent. Good luck

How do I get my deposit back?

Really?

I wonder where I read you don’t.

Sod that.

Sorry if I misinformed you, OP.

You have read it but this only applies if a deposit is held in a 'custodial' scheme. With this type of scheme, the tenant starts the repayment process off by contacting the company who then contacts the agent/LL.

Unfortunately, the OP's deposit is held in an 'insured' scheme which means she had to negotiate with her agent initially. However, she can involve the TDS if (when) there is a dispute.

I'll make the request for the deposit in writing and if he doesn't respond I think I need to contact TDS to settle the dispute. Personally I think he's going to drag this out and make life hard for me.

I'm glad you have all this logged OP as you can make a hefty complaint. I hope he doesn't attempt to screw you over with the deposit. Congratulations on the new home.

@Uberbeeboo pretty sure you can still kick off via TDS if there is a problem … there is a free dispute resolution service. Especially as you have mountains of evidence.

Having had to pay for a few nights of storage, how much of the £400 have you actually saved and was it really worth all of this stress?!

That wasn't the only issue, was it? Talk about missing the point!

Personally it would have been worth several times £400 and several orders of magnitude more stress NOT to roll over and do what this arsehole of a bullying letting agent wanted but that's me

It's attitudes like this that allow people like the letting agent to keep scamming and bullying.

Plus, the agent sounds like an arse - if OP had agreed to the £400, do you really think that would be the end of it? Or would he have invented a check out fee and a cleaning fee and a scratching his butt fee as well?

I understand where you're coming from however I know this agent uses bullying tactics on dozens of tenants, usually students and I'm glad I stood up to him. I think he was shocked I did. I'm glad I posted on this forum as I quickly realised I had rights and other options. The storage has cost £36, however it stopped being about the money a long time ago. The stress has been horrendous however even if I had paid £400 extra for 11 days, there would have been something else. Unfortunately I've learned he is known for his bullying tactics and harassment. The reviews are grim and the company often changes its name. Fortunately everything is in writing and I have a strong case for a complaint. I'll not be blackmailed, even to save £400.

My complaint is 8 pages long. He's ignored it so far, so I'll send it recorded today. I went through all past emails and found there were 9 repairs reported over the years that they hadn't addressed and we eventually just gave up and lived with it or fixed it ourselves. There are gas safety checks not completed on some years and we've never received any certificates. It's just been shoddy really.

Wow you have great evidence then.

I think/hope so. We also have the recent correspondence where he's tried to increase the rent giving 5 days notice and his just overall unprofessional conduct. I'm usually so soft and I never complain about anything, but I'm wound up by this 😅

i saw the door picture and thought “I hope she has photos”well done you! And congratulations on your new home. Enjoy it, and enjoy being able to paint it and never having an inspection again

I’m wondering if he’s going to just return the deposit and you’ll be like “FUCK I wanted war”

enjoy the new house