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?

With the landlord refusing to do a formal check out, it sounds like he's trying to create an additional dispute. I can't imagine that this sort of behaviour will sit well with either the TDS or the Courts (not that he'll get anywhere with court action)

Congratulations 🎊 @Uberbeeboo . I'm really glad you stood up yo this horrible man. I hope they go out of business soon!. Please continue with your complaint to the end and make sure you get your deposit back!. He sounds like a very fraudulent estate agent I've done business with before😡

Wow @Uberbeeboo. Your LL and agent sound absolutely terrible. Good for you for standing up to them and covering all bases. I hope you get your full deposit back and compensation. There are far too many cowboys out there.

I thought I'd have had an acknowledgement by now that the house is empty and the keys are safe. I emailed the manager and office staff early, and my email was polite and simple. I'm not sure what happens now or what to do. I've never been in this position before.

I know you are under the insured TDS but I would be tempted to complete the online forms for return of your deposit now, it will leave a paper trail in addition to the emails you have sent to the agent? I know it doesn't fit in with the insured deposit scheme timescales but the worse that can happen is it is rejected at the moment.

I think either the agent will not acknowledge any comms and let you chase constantly for your deposit return, or in the next couple of days you will receive an email with all the supposed deductions they plan to make.

What of course should happen is the agent finally gives up with being foolish and returns your deposit asap so everyone can move on.

Can you borrow a friends phone and call his office pretending to be a potential new landlord, so that he accepts the call? Is it legal to record him?

Ridiculous subterfuge but he is acting in a ridiculous manner

Don't mess around doing that. You've got a solid case as it is.

About a year ago I had to go through TDS, LL was trying to take more than half our deposit. I wouldn't have let them take a penny after the awful behaviour we experienced when trying to force us out of our fixed term that they forced us into (wanted a fixed term instead of allowing us to move to a rolling contract after the initial fixed term was up).

The TDS process is long, but we got our full deposit back. We started the dispute online as we weren't getting anywhere with the LL. I think it took around 4 months from us initiating the dispute to us getting the deposit back. It's on the LL to prove their claim is justified, it sounds like you have plenty of evidence, so just state your case and dispute everything they say. If they don't have evidence of their claims they will only be given a portion of your deposit if you agree to damage being caused by you.

Good luck - glad it's all over now! I'm sure you'll be seething for a while (I was), but they aren't worth it, enjoy your new home and let TDS deal with the dispute!

Any update @Uberbeeboo ?

Not a thing unfortunately. No response to my complaint, no acknowledgement about receiving the keys back or my request for check out, and no response about the deposit. I have no idea what to do next

Have you tried contacting the landlord again?

Did you set up a mail redirection so you get any court post sent to the new address (if he's been stupid enough to do anything)?

What does the deposit scheme say?

Yes I guess the next thing to do would be to contact the Tenant Deposit Scheme.

If it's the insured scheme, the TDS seem to be pretty pointless, having just read up.

@Uberbeeboo, here's your template letter before action: https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/tenancy_deposits/court_action_to_get_your_deposit_back/letter_before_court_action_failure_to_return_deposit

I'd wait til Monday then send it.

The landlord won't respond at all, he's also pretending we don't exist. All of our mail is redirected now and we're receiving it fine. We contacted the TDS about 8 days ago even though it was early we wanted to get the ball rolling. They've contacted the agent apparently. It's in an insured scheme so the agents hold the deposit. I'm not completely clear on how it works. X

I feel like I'm just bouncing from one problem to the next.

Write and ask the TDS how it works and copy the agent in.

I don't think you have much choice but to send that letter next week. It's dead easy to start a claim online, so don't worry about the complexity of it.

I will do. I suppose he has another couple of days to respond, although I doubt he will. I can start escalating my complaint to the ombudsman soon too.

@Uberbeeboo Sorry to hear you still have ongoing problems, but I expect it was a foregone conclusion the LL and EA were not going to suddenly become well behaved!

Do not worry about complexity of recovering your deposit, there is plenty of information to help and the schemes will have helped many people recover their deposits. I would put your effort into the deposit recovery over the other complaints, pick the complaints up once you have the deposit returned. It won't do the LL/EA any harm to think you have gone quiet for the complaints. The complaints can be updated with the failure/delay to returning the deposit which should help especially if you have to go to the ombudsman.

Most importantly are you enjoying your new home!?

I am loving my new home 🙂. There's still loads to do, it's very bare but I feel safe here.

Any progress with the landlord/deposit @Uberbeeboo ?

Hello.. we've not had a single correspondence from them at all. Not even an acknowledgement about the keys. Apparently they have until 31st October to respond about the deposit. I expect they'll take it to the very last day. I've never known such a bunch of unprofessional people ever x

Good to hear how you are getting on, even if you haven't heard from them - I would take it as a positive, every threat they made they have never carried out - you have them well and truly on the back foot (I hope). They do not have any sense, they made that clear, but hopefully they may finally realise returning the deposit and drawing a line under it is the best course of action. They will no doubt move on to the next tenant to try and bully.

No court summons in the post then 😆

Hopefully no news is good news, and come the end of the month you'll have your deposit returned in full. But I still can't believe what a complete and utter twat the EA is!