Keeping Tenancy Deposit For Petty Reasons

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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His arse has dropped right out by the sounds of it
 


AndrewP said:
Accept nothing less than 3x your full deposit amount
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Actually, take no less than the full amount of the deposit, that's the minimum you're entitled to (as compensation) if it wasn't protected. Courts may award up to 3x though.

Then even if he proves his case you would probably get the deposit minus £150 back too.
As the tenancy has now ended, the landlord is liable for breaches of section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 which sets out the requirements for tenancy deposits in relation to shorthold tenancies.

One of the requirements is the deposit is to be dealt with in accordance with an authorised scheme and the provision of prescribed information to the tenant. This means that they need to put it into a scheme and tell you about it.

If there has been a beach, which seems to be the case here then Housing Act 2004, s 214(3A) states:

The court may order the person who appears to the court to be holding the deposit to repay all or part of it to the applicant within the period of 14 days beginning with the date of the making of the order.

The court must order the landlord to pay to the applicant a sum of money not less than the amount of the deposit and not more than three times the amount of the deposit within the period of 14 days beginning with the date of the making of the order.'
 
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Kenna said:
Past caring at this point as I'm glad we are rid of our negligent landlords who refuse to fix mould, damp and mushrooms growing out of our ceiling.

However as an extra kick in the balls they've kept £150 of our deposit to pay for a cleaner to clean the house after sending us pictures of some dust on top of the cooker's hood and on top of the cupboards. It's pretty laughable to be honest and I'm genuinely just glad to be away from the twats tbh.

What other petty reasons have people on here been screwed out of deposits for?
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Challenge it. Unless they have photos of before and after they might not win. The costs also have to be in line with the costs to rectify the issue. If it some dusting, the most they can claim is an hour at £15.
The mediator (or whatever they’re called) that handle the process seemed very fair when I had contact with them and are definitely not always on the side of the landlord.
Edit - AndrewP has put it much more eloquently than me. Definitely make sure the bastards don’t rip you off. One of my pet hates is scumbag landlords.
 
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All of the solicitors near me aside one don’t handle these cases and the one that does has a month waiting list so I’ve emailed one in Sunderland and just waiting to hear now
 
Kenna said:
I doubt it, we rented directly with them and not through an agent, our tenancy was a generic one they found online, even had some of the (Insert Address Here) and (Insert Name Here) stuff left on here and there, they didn't want a direct debit and preferred us transfer the money ourselves each month, everything about them has screamed dodgy since we got there tbh and when problems cropped up it was even more dodgy. We've went through an agent this time so fingers crossed things are done by the book now.
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not sure if anything has changed in past 10-12 years since it happened to me but if you need any help with this drop me a message . my long boring story below


this happened with us back in 2008 / 09 , we rented private with a friend of a friend , all ok for over a year until we put our notice in to move out

left the place immaculate , a lot better than when we moved in , even left some stuff like blinds that we had put in at our own cost as there was nothing up when we moved

all seemed ok with it until we had moved then day after we moved got letter saying they were going to keep all of our £600 deposit because of 2 missing lightbulbs , a chip on the wood flooring that I had pointed out to them when moving in and a couple of other little nit picking things about scuffs on the wall . Offered to buy the light bulbs and sort the other bits except floor out which wasn't us but they said no as they will need a professional decorator in

tenancy deposit scheme had come out 2 month after we moved in and we knew nothing of it , only when looking to see what our rights were online I saw that as they had not protected it we could sue them for the deposit x 3 back . went to Citizens advice who were spot on with helping , and done it all ourselves . Gave them a chance to just give us our full deposit back and we would take it no further as that was all we wanted but just got a phone call of abuse off the owner

Took them to small claims court got awarded £1800 plus costs :) didn't wanna take it that far but seeing the look on their faces was worth it. They offered to pay £30 a month so took us over 5 years to get it all back

later found out from mutual friend that they couldn't find anyone to move in straight away after we put our notice in and couldn't afford it to be empty so that's why they were being funny with the deposit

still see them around as the woman works in our local supermarket - always make sure to give her a smile
 
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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fantastic news mate, he knows he is banged to rights,

The fact he didn't give you the information, didn't use the government's protection providers he is on shaky ground, even if the place was a mess ( which it wasn't, bit of dust ffs ) the fact he didn't do what's required by law you have the upper hand and can get up to 3x the deposit back. Also he has to prove you left it in a mess, that means he has to have photos and a receipt for the work done to put it right, from what you have described he wont have either.

So its down to you mate, if you can be bothered with the hassle, take it all the way, or you can take your money and be glad your no longer dealing with the scum.

Oh be sure to tell him never mess with a member of the SMB ;)
 
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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I was a reluctant landlord between 2012 and 2014.

There were 2 different tenants, the 1st kept a dog in the house which was against the agreement.

I deducted some of the deposit to cover:

- Shrubs removed from the garden.
- knackered/dirty carpets.
- scratches on doors.
Etc.

It works both ways, but I’m glad that I’m out of it.
 
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MackneyHackem said:
Foxtons tried to do us out of the best part of a grand for chucking out and replacing a netty brush that was caked in shite.
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The worst estate agent known to man. Bunch of absolute wankers. Their head office was near mine when i lived in the London and would often bump into them in the local pub, they all stood out a mile acting like gods gift on cheap gear.
 
shepherd88 said:
The worst estate agent known to man. Bunch of absolute wankers. Their head office was near mine when i lived in the London and would often bump into them in the local pub, they all stood out a mile acting like gods gift on cheap gear.
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Had mates who've had bad experiences, but for me Robertson Smith and Kempson are horrendous liars and all round slippery bastards.
 
Titus said:
Had mates who've had bad experiences, but for me Robertson Smith and Kempson are horrendous liars and all round slippery bastards.
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Aye I recognise them now. My opinion is definitely made worse by seeing the way they acted in the pub. Obnoxious wankers, had more small disagreements then anyway else in that pub with them.

Actually the pub in question you might know (if I have the poster right) the gunnersbury opposite gunnersbury tube. Wouldn't be surprised if they ventured further down chiswick high road.
 
Kenna said:
All of the solicitors near me aside one don’t handle these cases and the one that does has a month waiting list so I’ve emailed one in Sunderland and just waiting to hear now
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You don't need a solicitor mate. You just need to pay the court fee, which should get back when you win.
 
Kenna said:
Past caring at this point as I'm glad we are rid of our negligent landlords who refuse to fix mould, damp and mushrooms growing out of our ceiling.

However as an extra kick in the balls they've kept £150 of our deposit to pay for a cleaner to clean the house after sending us pictures of some dust on top of the cooker's hood and on top of the cupboards. It's pretty laughable to be honest and I'm genuinely just glad to be away from the twats tbh.

What other petty reasons have people on here been screwed out of deposits for?
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Drive ya car through his kip
 
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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Excellent mate, he obviously knows he's fucked by offering you the £150.
When I've thought again I'm sure all the deposit schemes require the landlord to give some tenant contact information so you would have automatically heard if he had registered it properly.
If you can be bothered then take it as far as you can just for him being a dick.

Just as side note I know there's plenty of shit landlords and equally as many shit tenants.
The deposit scheme is actually one of the good systems that has been setup that is generally very fair and doesn't allow landlords to be rip off but also does give protection against scruffs.
Main problem for genuine landlords is that normally the damage proper scruffs do isn't covered by a £500 bond.

There's no excuse for any landlord not to have things setup properly. Sites like OpenRent do pretty much everything for you including advertising and contracts for about £40
 
shepherd88 said:
Aye I recognise them now. My opinion is definitely made worse by seeing the way they acted in the pub. Obnoxious wankers, had more small disagreements then anyway else in that pub with them.

Actually the pub in question you might know (if I have the poster right) the gunnersbury opposite gunnersbury tube. Wouldn't be surprised if they ventured further down chiswick high road.
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Yes, I know the pub you're talking about mate. Can imagine jumped up estate agents on pub grub thinking they're the bollocks being fairly common along Chiswick high street mind now you've mentioned it :lol:

Last time I moved was fairly simple and no complaints tbf. Just the usual rapid fire response to emails until they've got you're money and the responses suddenly take a few days. But the experiences I've had with RSK really fucked me off. Just spew lies to try and cover any mistakes or questionable antics.
 

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