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?

Hi @Uberbeeboo, how are you getting on?

Morning, unfortunately not a thing has happened yet. No report, no information about the deposit or anything. We were told by TDS that we had to wait 6 months before we could claim the deposit back. Apparently he has 6 months to prove it's going through court. It's also 8 weeks since we complained so we can go to the property ombudsman man now. It's going to be a long, drawn out nightmare it seems.

That's probably a big part of how these bad landlords keep getting away with it.

Eventually the tenents just the write the money off and give up - stay tenacious and come back here if you you ever need encouragement! 😂

I agree, it's absolutely underhand but that's how he seems to operate in his whole business. I'll definitely not let it go, I have the date in my calendar.

Do keep us posted OP.

A little update. The old house is up for sale with another estate agent. Maybe the landlord is sick too.

Wow that's significant.

Have you looked into whether your deposit was secured correctly? I think I'm your position, I'd be looking at whether I could sue the landlord/ agent for your deposit returned + 1-3 X the amount in compensation - if nothing else they are holding your deposit now and it's not insured, so surely that should be a breach? There are no win no fee solicitors about, but they do charge a high %.

If the other tenant you spoke to is in the same position, you could maybe look at doing it together to reduce any costs/ stress and improve the impact of it- the courts choose whether to award 1x deposit, 2x or 3x, depending on the severity of the case and whether the landlord has done it before, things like that.

It was definitely protected but he withdrew from the TDS scheme claiming he was going to take us to court instead. He's not sure what he's taking us to court for yet, but he has 6 months to do it. Unfortunately it means we can't request the deposit for 6 months and apparently he has to hand it over.

Everything he does is to cause stress and inconvenience. He was always going to take the deposit regardless of how the house was left.

I wonder how easy it will be for him to take you to court if the landlord isn’t backing his claims?

I have no idea, but it doesn’t sound as if the landlord wants to work with him anymore.

I think only the landlord could take us to court and he'll have to fund it. Unfortunately the landlord is not communicating with us at all and it does look like he's took his business elsewhere. I haven't finished with the agent though. He's acted against his own policies and tenancy law. I have photos and video footage of the house as we left it, the rent was fully up to date and never paid late. All correspondence between us was in writing and we have a decent paper trail. I'm just grateful I've had this forum for advice and support or he'd have walked all over me.

It's a nightmare, what a weasel.

On a happier note, I hope that you're enjoying your new home, it'll be lovely to celebrate your first Christmas and New Year's there!

I love it, I'm much happier 🙂

What's to stop you taking him to small claims court instead of waiting the 6 months out?

The cost is stopping me from going to court at the moment if I'm honest. I'd put in a counter claim if needs be, but according to TDS if he hadn't applied to court within 6 months we get our deposit back. It's a long process but we can wait it out if that's what it takes. I assume it's straightforward after the 6 month wait. In the meantime we can pursue a complaint through the redress scheme.

The issue fee isn't hideous really (and if you make a counterclaim you have to pay the same fee).

What you could do, which is free bar postage, is send a Letter Before Action to both the agent and the landlord:

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/tenancy_deposits/court_action_to_get_your_deposit_back/letter_before_court_action_failure_to_return_deposit

They don't know you won't issue, but might cough up if they think you will!

Oops. Missed the fees off!

Actually that's not as bad as I thought, I'll have a look into it. Ultimately if he doesn't apply to court within 6 months of move out date, he needs to give the deposit back anyway. I have a feeling he won't give it back, so court is the route I'll be going down anyway.

I think he'd have given it back already if he was going to. What an arse.

Hi @Uberbeeboo has there been any progress with your complaint?

Hi, we're still waiting for a response from the ombudsman, however it can take 8 weeks. That means we should have a response this week or next. We still haven't got our deposit back, we still haven't received a summons to court and the old house has been sold. I'm disappointed at how long this whole process is taking, we could really do with our money back. X

@Uberbeeboo, have you considered sending a Letter before Action? You don't have to issue proceedings afterwards, but it might kick them into action into returning it.

It’s lucky you have the money “spare” isnt it. If you’d been going from one rental to another you’d be screwed wouldn’t you.

Well I guess that lack of court summons is a good thing, but frustrating that you still haven't received your deposit back. I thought the whole point of those schemes was to protect you, I don't understand how they can just withdraw and hold on to your money. Fingers crossed you get good news from the ombudsman soon.

Apparently he's well within his rights to ditch the scheme but he has 6 months to prove he has applied to court. It was all threats to scare us away. We can reapply for our deposit back after 6 months, however I'm not sure of the process of this. How will they enforce it and what will they do if he just doesn't give it back. It's so confusing and I feel let down by the scheme.