Deposit wasnt protected.

[V40Vinnie]

Hi all, it has come to an end of our tenancy at the property and the LL is selling the property. Now obviously i want to be as emenable as possible, but im also the distrusting sort. It turns out he never paid the deposit into a deposit scheme. In the unlikely event of him with-holding part or all of the deposit where do we stand?

[V40Vinnie]

Yes he gave us 6 weeks notice after having orignially tried to give 6 days. Im wondering how much TAX he's paid considering he wanted his rent paid cash.

[V40Vinnie]

48k said:

Equally, you could argue, I don't understand why the tenant was not jumping up and down for their certificate/proof of TDS protection/deposit insurance scheme which the landlord is supposed to provide within 30 days of receiving the deposit.
Fortunately the OP is a strong position but the situation of finding out this late in the day could have been avoided.

In my case, its shear bloody Naivety. Also he is a Live in landlord but we do have a Tenancy agreement.

[V40Vinnie]

hmm, sounds like he's played all of us tenant like a drum then... (there are 3 of us in the same ship). Again i had made the assumption somewhat naively that a tenancy agreement made me a tenant and not a lodger. At the start of the agreement he was in the Annexe rather than in the house. It does feel like he has pick n mixed the bits that suit him between Lodging/Tenancy/ and HMO

[V40Vinnie]

Thats just it... as far as im aware i have my own tenancy i have a shared communal area with other tenants but we're all on separate tenancies with fees accordingly. At the start of the tenancy the LL did live in the annexe but after he dismantled the bathroom (18 months ago) after we complained about bare eletrics on the shower we've all been using his annex facilities. Now i know i probably should have done something but i would rather a roof over my head than not. it may be incredibly naive on my part but as ive a tenancy agreement surely that makes me a tenant and not a lodger especially when its an agreement between myself and him no? All i want is to know where i stand if at all.

[V40Vinnie]

The Tenancy agreement i have refers to me as the Tenant and the house owner as the Landlord hence as far as im aware its a tenancy is it not?

[V40Vinnie]

QuickQuack said:

If you pay rent, and if you have any amount of your own specific space which is yours and yours alone (e.g. your own room which cannot be changed by someone else), you are a tenant. That holds true even if you share some of the space and facilities with someone else including the landlord. A paying lodger is just a type of tenant. All such lodgers are tenants but not all tenants are lodgers. There are many different types of tenants and the type of tenancy you have determines your legal rights and obligations, how the tenancy can be terminated and so on. You would only not be a tenant if you're not paying rent and/or your room can be changed at will such that you don't have any specific space of your own.

I'm really sorry for you but it's bad news I'm afraid If you're sharing the same bathroom with your landlord, then unfortunately you're an "excluded tenant" meaning that you have no real protection at all. As an excluded tenant, the notice you need to be given to terminate the tenancy is dependent on your payment period. If you pay your rent weekly, the landlord only has to give 1 week's notice. If you pay it fortnightly, they need to give you a fortnight's notice, if you pay it monthly, a month's notice and so on. The notice doesn't have to be in writing, a verbal notice is sufficient, and at the end of the notice period, the landlord can simply change the locks and leave you out in the cold, and it is completely legal. All they need to do is return your posessions. The landlord doesn't need to put your deposit into a protected scheme either so can't be held liable for not protecting it. If the landlord earns less than £7,500/year from letting rooms in their home, then they don't pay any tax on it either so depending on how much you pay, he might well be within the law in that regard too.

Thats what i needed to know, I have an own space but share communal facilities with the LL, why on earth he would protect later deposits but not mine i dont know (word of mouth) the issue i had was with deposits and more specifically if failing to protect it voided the right to withold part/all at the end of the agreement