Keeping Tenancy Deposit For Petty Reasons

As @SAFC_FTM has said it is a legal requirement to lodge your deposit with one of the government approved schemes. The punishment isn't a fine on the landlord that goes into government coffers. It is a punishment that is paid to you in compensation. The current rate is 3 times your deposit. For example if your deposit was £500 and it was not held in a proper scheme he now owes you £1500.

Shelter give great guidance for tenants and landlords here.

england.shelter.org.uk

Tenancy deposit protection rules - Shelter England

Landlords who fail to protect an assured shorthold tenancy deposit can lose their right to evict and face court claims for compensation
england.shelter.org.uk england.shelter.org.uk

If the landlord has been an arse and broken the law ask for compensation. (Before the inevitable pile on I'm a landlord but I always obey the law to protect me and my tenants)
 


chrismisterx said:
they have to give you all the details of the account, neither you or the landlord can access the money until he end of lease and everyone agrees, if the disagreement cant be reached it stays where it is until a 3rd party decides.

going back to 2010ish when my old landlord explained it all to us when i took the house on, i remember i had to sign something for the money to be released back then, worth really looking into mate just encase things have changed.

www.gov.uk

Deposit protection schemes and landlords

Using deposit protection schemes - the official schemes, information you must give tenants, what happens if you do not protect a deposit, disputes and advice
www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

The court may also order you to repay your tenants up to 3 times their original deposit within 14 days of making the order.
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Managed to check 1 of those 3 sites and it isn't protected on that one.

The other 2 looks like we need details which the landlord I assume has if he used them.
 
jayjaysafc said:
I took £500 off the previous tenant as the house stank of smoke.
He said he never Smoked in the house always in the garden. Aye reeto.
He appealed and they only let me keep £200 off him.
Cost me £600 for a deep clean, including carpets and curtains and some new paint where it had gone brown where he sat in the living room.
Some tenants are terrible, but most are good people but never look after a house like it's a home.
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£400 not a lot in the grand scheme though. Considering the income made, £400 is easily absorbed as a cost of sale and is not worth the hassle worrying about.
 
Get them reported if the deposit wasn't in a protected scheme, they will get fined big time and you'll get the cash back.

Then pay some local scumbag the £150 to blag every single window in the house (providing there's no new tenants).
 
SR7 said:
We moved into a flat in Hendon, it was an absolute shit hole but it was all we could afford at the time. Eventually we redecorated, put new carpets down, laminate in the kitchen area etc… when we moved out we got told we had to put it back the way we moved in or they’d take our deposit off us to do it ourselves - we were gobsmacked. We just said keep it in the end. We drove past about a year later and out of curiosity I had a peek in the window as it was up for rent… it was exactly as we had left it. They’d just took our money, basically.
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Should have ripped it all out.

I have a commercial let and when I took it on it was a derelict building, have since added a gas meter, central heating, toilets, carpets etc. The lease agreement says it should be left in the state I found it. If they get arsey, I will just say no bother mate and rip the whole lot out. put it back to being derelict.
 
One of my eldest's student rentals. I picked him and his stuff up after they'd finished cleaning and it was absolutely spotless. After they left, some workmen came in to do some routine maintenance, and trod muck and dust through the place. The landlord withheld the deposit because of the mess left by the workmen that he'd instructed.

Ended up writing a firm letter for them saying we had pictorial evidence that it was cleaned to a high standard on leaving and if he didn't return the deposit, we'd pursue it deposit protection scheme. Thankfully that made him return the deposit as we didn't actually have any pictures ☺️
 
TexasMackem said:
I'm considering withholding the last months rent this time and letting him keep the deposit.
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I did this recently. I didn't trust them at all

I actually never heard from them again after giving notice that they did at least acknowledge. Then not a peep. So I just did one basically. Still got the key

After a while I did get an email from whatever deposit scheme saying they wanted to keep it
 
Lukas73 said:
@Kenna
Keep us up to date with this....interesting read.
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Just got off the phone to him and he refused to tell us how it was secured because ‘he didn’t want to do anything for us’

Kept mentioning the dust but I told him the only information I need is how our deposit was secured.

Still no information, said he was going to speak with his solicitor to which I encouraged him to do so as it is illegal to not only not secure it but to refuse us information about it.

He then said he would pay the £150 to get us out of his hair within 10 days and I said we will see, currently going to see someone for a free 30 mins for advice.
 
Kenna said:
Just got off the phone to him and he refused to tell us how it was secured because ‘he didn’t want to do anything for us’

Kept mentioning the dust but I told him the only information I need is how our deposit was secured.

Still no information, said he was going to speak with his solicitor to which I encouraged him to do so as it is illegal to not only not secure it but to refuse us information about it.

He then said he would pay the £150 to get us out of his hair within 10 days and I said we will see, currently going to see someone for a free 30 mins for advice.
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Sounds like he knows you have caught him out.

Take the Shelter guidance with you when you go for your "Free" advice.

england.shelter.org.uk

Make a tenancy deposit compensation claim - Shelter England

A court can order a landlord or agent to return your deposit and pay compensation of up to 3 times the deposit if they break tenancy deposit protection rules.
england.shelter.org.uk england.shelter.org.uk

You can do all of it yourself, no need to pay for a solicitor.
 
Kenna said:
Just got off the phone to him and he refused to tell us how it was secured because ‘he didn’t want to do anything for us’

Kept mentioning the dust but I told him the only information I need is how our deposit was secured.

Still no information, said he was going to speak with his solicitor to which I encouraged him to do so as it is illegal to not only not secure it but to refuse us information about it.

He then said he would pay the £150 to get us out of his hair within 10 days and I said we will see, currently going to see someone for a free 30 mins for advice.
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I'd bet my arse it's not....
 
Once had an inventory which included "broken plant pot in boiler cupboard" and they complained that it was missing when we left
 

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