Landlord withholding deposit - legal question
Discussion
Hi,
After all sorts of problems with my letting agent they're trying to charge me a lot fo damage that already existed now that I've moved out. Nearly all of it is either in their inventory or the 3 pages of supplement I provided them with whihc were undisputed on checkin. As the desposit is from last May it's covered by the protection scheme and they want to us the scheme's adjudicator. Personally I'd like to go to teh small claims court as I can easily prove the total incompetence of the checkin inventory clerk who for example marked the flat as being painted magnolia (a shade of pink) when it's actually painted in gardenia (a shade of yellow) along with all the items they're insisting on charging me for that were identified on checkin.
Advise please - can I force it to teh small claims court where I'm confident I can win, or do I need to go through this adjudication and then claim any remaining monies back throgh the small claims court?
After all sorts of problems with my letting agent they're trying to charge me a lot fo damage that already existed now that I've moved out. Nearly all of it is either in their inventory or the 3 pages of supplement I provided them with whihc were undisputed on checkin. As the desposit is from last May it's covered by the protection scheme and they want to us the scheme's adjudicator. Personally I'd like to go to teh small claims court as I can easily prove the total incompetence of the checkin inventory clerk who for example marked the flat as being painted magnolia (a shade of pink) when it's actually painted in gardenia (a shade of yellow) along with all the items they're insisting on charging me for that were identified on checkin.
Advise please - can I force it to teh small claims court where I'm confident I can win, or do I need to go through this adjudication and then claim any remaining monies back throgh the small claims court?
PistonReg said:
Personally I'd like to go to teh small claims court as I can easily prove the total incompetence of the checkin inventory clerk who for example marked the flat as being painted magnolia (a shade of pink) when it's actually painted in gardenia (a shade of yellow)
Not only is that one of the campest bits of evidence the UK judicial system will ever hear, it's actually wrong too.
TheEnd said:
PistonReg said:
Personally I'd like to go to teh small claims court as I can easily prove the total incompetence of the checkin inventory clerk who for example marked the flat as being painted magnolia (a shade of pink) when it's actually painted in gardenia (a shade of yellow)
Not only is that one of the campest bits of evidence the UK judicial system will ever hear, it's actually wrong too.3* deposit if they lose...? I haven't heard of that - is that correct?
TheEnd said:
PistonReg said:
Personally I'd like to go to teh small claims court as I can easily prove the total incompetence of the checkin inventory clerk who for example marked the flat as being painted magnolia (a shade of pink) when it's actually painted in gardenia (a shade of yellow)
Not only is that one of the campest bits of evidence the UK judicial system will ever hear, it's actually wrong too.
PistonReg said:
TheEnd said:
PistonReg said:
Personally I'd like to go to teh small claims court as I can easily prove the total incompetence of the checkin inventory clerk who for example marked the flat as being painted magnolia (a shade of pink) when it's actually painted in gardenia (a shade of yellow)
Not only is that one of the campest bits of evidence the UK judicial system will ever hear, it's actually wrong too.3* deposit if they lose...? I haven't heard of that - is that correct?
Try TDS, they helped us a year ago. It's a slow process, but you will eventually get your money back if you haven't caused the damage.
http://www.thedisputeservice.co.uk/
http://www.thedisputeservice.co.uk/
I took a similar case to court a few (maybe 7) years ago and won with relative ease, it took a while to sort it all out but the outcome was worth it.
The letting agency sided with the landlord, probably because she had a number of properties with them at the time and her money was better than mine. The fight was over a set of £1000 curtains she left in the house, hideous things that I took down on arrival and replaced with some cheap IKEA things that were more to my taste.
When I moved out I put the old curtains back up in exactly the same way she had, they even had the tiny chocolate stain on that was noted by the agent on the inventory before we moved in.
She tried to take £1000 from me on the basis that the curtains were stained and now a different length to before, I fought with the agent and it ended up where they refused to speak to me. I took it to court with evidence of how much it would cost to get replacements made up (a lot less than she was asking!), details of the condition before we moved in, photographic evidence to show my curtains were in place during the tenancy not hers (even her for sale photos showed my curtains when she decided to put the place up 2 months after we moved in). The judge laughed her out of court basically, we found out she actually made curtains for a living and worked for a fabric company, she had made these once so the real cost would be minimal.
He outlined that it would be unfair to expect "new for old" compensation on any item anyway and that even if I had been the one responsible for any damage the amount she was entitled to would be based on a pair of old second-hand curtains. Not a lot then.
The other amusing thing was that she took my money and the agent felt she should also get to keep her curtains, I argued that I should get them so that I could send them away for tests to show they hadn't been washed incorrectly during the time I had them and so that I could inspect their claims of stains / damage. Neither the agent or the landlady were willing to let me near them again, maybe due to the whole thing being a lie to extract money from me.
Unfortunately a lot of agents / landlords know the majority of people won't fight back. Good luck with your case, I hope you slaughter them
Take it straight to court, they won't be expecting that.
The letting agency sided with the landlord, probably because she had a number of properties with them at the time and her money was better than mine. The fight was over a set of £1000 curtains she left in the house, hideous things that I took down on arrival and replaced with some cheap IKEA things that were more to my taste.
When I moved out I put the old curtains back up in exactly the same way she had, they even had the tiny chocolate stain on that was noted by the agent on the inventory before we moved in.
She tried to take £1000 from me on the basis that the curtains were stained and now a different length to before, I fought with the agent and it ended up where they refused to speak to me. I took it to court with evidence of how much it would cost to get replacements made up (a lot less than she was asking!), details of the condition before we moved in, photographic evidence to show my curtains were in place during the tenancy not hers (even her for sale photos showed my curtains when she decided to put the place up 2 months after we moved in). The judge laughed her out of court basically, we found out she actually made curtains for a living and worked for a fabric company, she had made these once so the real cost would be minimal.
He outlined that it would be unfair to expect "new for old" compensation on any item anyway and that even if I had been the one responsible for any damage the amount she was entitled to would be based on a pair of old second-hand curtains. Not a lot then.
The other amusing thing was that she took my money and the agent felt she should also get to keep her curtains, I argued that I should get them so that I could send them away for tests to show they hadn't been washed incorrectly during the time I had them and so that I could inspect their claims of stains / damage. Neither the agent or the landlady were willing to let me near them again, maybe due to the whole thing being a lie to extract money from me.
Unfortunately a lot of agents / landlords know the majority of people won't fight back. Good luck with your case, I hope you slaughter them
Take it straight to court, they won't be expecting that.Edited by mcanny on Wednesday 3rd June 08:45
Threeracers said:
I rented briefly once and after hearing so many horror stories about landlords nicking deposits I insisted mine be returned in exchange for the keys when I left. I don’t know why people don’t do this.
Classed as black mail, they have a set amount of time to return the deposit to you after you have returned the keys or could they just not claim that they are lost and need a whole new st of locks at your expense?When I left my previous flat (after suffering with a POS rental company for months) I unfortunately had some problems with my bank which caused my last rent payment to be delayed.
Of course this was very unfortunate timing and meant that I couldn't pay my rent until they told me how much they were/weren't giving me back of my deposit, but hey these things happen.
Of course this was very unfortunate timing and meant that I couldn't pay my rent until they told me how much they were/weren't giving me back of my deposit, but hey these things happen.
Fuzzy Wuzzy said:
If for example the deposit is one month's rent, can you not just get your deposit back automatically by not paying the last month's rent?
So you make the assumption you are going to have hassle at the end of your tenancy and make a pre-emptive strike to withold the last month's rent?Genius.
Fuzzy Wuzzy said:
If for example the deposit is one month's rent, can you not just get your deposit back automatically by not paying the last month's rent?
If I were a Landlord, I would do everything I could to make sure i extracted than month back.... I hate people who justify the with holding the last months rent cause you aint getting it back.The give tennants a bad name and vice versa with the landlords keeping deposits
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