Tenant deposit in limbo

[anonymous-user]

I moved out of a rented property nearly a year ago, and the landlord withheld part of the deposit. I disagreed with the reason for withholding the money and told him I'd raise a dispute, and the rest of the deposit was returned from the deposit scheme, via the letting agent.
After getting some more advice, I discovered that while morally I might have an argument, legally I didn't, so I didn't formally raise a dispute with the deposit scheme within the three months allowed.
I haven't heard any more from the landlord, the scheme, or the letting agency, so what happens now? Presumably the letting agency can't release the rest of the money to either of us, without the other one's agreement? Does this ever time out? I've written the money off and if anyone does ever get in touch I won't dispute it any further, but as I still feel cheated out of the money to some extent I'm not going to go out of my way to ensure it gets back to the landlord, if he can't be bothered to chase it himself.

Thanks for any advice.

[rgf100]

I'd contact the scheme, ask for your money back and see what happens. Not much else you can do.

[mikeveal]

The three month deadline is for the landlord to make a claim from the deposit.
If the tenant doesn't engage with the process (doesn't agree with or dispute the claim), then there is a procedure that the landlord can follow to get the deposit handed over.
Here's the TDS guide.

I think the tenant has six years during which they can sue the landlord for the return of the deposit, which is why the doc above recommends the agent makes the landlord sign an indemnity waiver.

So in your case, it is likely that the landlord has already recovered the deposit. For a definitive answer, you could go to the TDS or the DPS website and check to see what the status of your deposit is.

IANAL, IAALL.

[NGee]

So a year ago you accepted you were going to loose part of the deposit to the landlord for payment he was legally entitled to.
What has changed in the last year? Why is it now a problem?

How do you know the landlord has not already had his part of the deposit returned?

[anonymous-user]

mikeveal said:

The three month deadline is for the landlord to make a claim from the deposit.
If the tenant doesn't engage with the process (doesn't agree with or dispute the claim), then there is a procedure that the landlord can follow to get the deposit handed over.
Here's the TDS guide.

I think the tenant has six years during which they can sue the landlord for the return of the deposit, which is why the doc above recommends the agent makes the landlord sign an indemnity waiver.

So in your case, it is likely that the landlord has already recovered the deposit. For a definitive answer, you could go to the TDS or the DPS website and check to see what the status of your deposit is.

IANAL, IAALL.

Cheers for that - I'll check with the scheme.
I just assumed that one of the other three parties (landlord/letting agent/deposit scheme) would have told me it's all done and dusted, and I thought the scheme needed my agreement (grudging or not) to hand it over to the landlord.

[NGee]

Spumfry said:

I thought the scheme needed my agreement (grudging or not) to hand it over to the landlord.

If 'The Scheme' needed the tennants agreement there wouldn't be much point in having a scheme!!

[anonymous-user]

NGee said:

Spumfry said:

I thought the scheme needed my agreement (grudging or not) to hand it over to the landlord.

If 'The Scheme' needed the tennants agreement there wouldn't be much point in having a scheme!!

The scheme was primarily introduced to protect tenants, not landlords.

[anonymous-user]

It gets odder.
The deposit wasn't held by My Deposits, but it was insured by them. The letting agency held the money in a client account. The last correspondence I have from them states that they will hold the money until agreement is reached. So again, I don't know if this just times out, the money's still in their client account accruing a bit of interest, or what.

If I held any hope of getting the money back, I'd chase the agency, but I was really just interested to see if anyone knew what the standard process was, or had been in this situation themselves.

[NGee]

Spumfry said:

The scheme was primarily introduced to protect tenants, not landlords.

The scheme was primarily introduced to protect the legal rights of both tenants and landlords.

[anonymous-user]

NGee said:

Spumfry said:

The scheme was primarily introduced to protect tenants, not landlords.

The scheme was primarily introduced to protect the legal rights of both tenants and landlords.

Really?

This from the TDS:

"The Housing Act 2004 legislation was introduced because of a widespread concern that landlords were unfairly withholding their tenants’ deposits. The Act was designed to achieve two objectives:
• ensure that tenancy deposits were protected in a government authorised scheme;
• give tenants access to a free dispute resolution service if they were unable to agree with their landlord on how the deposit should be allocated at the end of the tenancy"

And this from My Deposits:

"It is important to understand that the government’s overriding aim for tenancy deposit protection is to safeguard the tenant, to positively influence landlord-tenant behaviour and in turn raising standards in the private-rented sector."

[NGee]

Spumfry said:

NGee said:

Spumfry said:

The scheme was primarily introduced to protect tenants, not landlords.

The scheme was primarily introduced to protect the legal rights of both tenants and landlords.

Really?

This from the TDS:

"The Housing Act 2004 legislation was introduced because of a widespread concern that landlords were unfairly withholding their tenants’ deposits. The Act was designed to achieve two objectives:
• ensure that tenancy deposits were protected in a government authorised scheme;
• give tenants access to a free dispute resolution service if they were unable to agree with their landlord on how the deposit should be allocated at the end of the tenancy"

And this from My Deposits:

"It is important to understand that the government’s overriding aim for tenancy deposit protection is to safeguard the tenant, to positively influence landlord-tenant behaviour and in turn raising standards in the private-rented sector."

Yes, exactly, it's to stop unscrupulous landlords withholding the deposit the tenant was legally entitled to - NOT so that unscrupulous tenants can withhold the money that the landlord is legally entitled to.

Laws work both ways.

[anonymous-user]

NGee said:

Spumfry said:

NGee said:

Spumfry said:

The scheme was primarily introduced to protect tenants, not landlords.

The scheme was primarily introduced to protect the legal rights of both tenants and landlords.

Really?

This from the TDS:

"The Housing Act 2004 legislation was introduced because of a widespread concern that landlords were unfairly withholding their tenants’ deposits. The Act was designed to achieve two objectives:
• ensure that tenancy deposits were protected in a government authorised scheme;
• give tenants access to a free dispute resolution service if they were unable to agree with their landlord on how the deposit should be allocated at the end of the tenancy"

And this from My Deposits:

"It is important to understand that the government’s overriding aim for tenancy deposit protection is to safeguard the tenant, to positively influence landlord-tenant behaviour and in turn raising standards in the private-rented sector."

Yes, exactly, it's to stop unscrupulous landlords withholding the deposit the tenant was legally entitled to - NOT so that unscrupulous tenants can withhold the money that the landlord is legally entitled to.

Laws work both ways.

It's exactly as I said - it was primarily introduced to protect tenants. It was not introduced to protect landlords. The dispute system *may* benefit both, but under the previous system, the landlord held the deposit, so had all the power *when it came to deposit returns or disputes*.
I'm sure there are a myriad other ways a tenant could shaft the landlord, but the deposit scheme isn't there to fix any of those issues: this specific legislation was put in place to protect the tenant.

[ericmcn]

I had a a$$ of a LL years back who 'tried' to claim for the most of £1k of a deposit, after putting in a claim to the TDS I got all my deposit back. The scheme works and the LL who are wker$ dont own any of the deposit, the onus is on them to challenge any claim which in my case was difficult for the fool as I had numerous photos of the place taken when i moved in and when i moved out so he was boxed into a corner and never challenged the claim.