Tenancy Deposit advice

Chris1712

Chris1712

Chris1712

Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2004
Posts
9,729
Location
Bristol
Ok great wizards of OcUK I come to you for advice.

I moved out of my last student house at the end of June, it was a pretty rancid decrepid house I was chuffed to be out of. Anyway, I gave it a ruddy good cleaning (spent two days doing it and it was only a flat!) before I left to be sure of the deposit etc. Made two trips to the dump and the place was better than when we moved in.

Anyway this is some weeks ago now, so I phoned the letting agency yesterday to see what was going on. I've been deducted £240 (!) for cleaning and £80 for 'clearing all the junk from the front garden'. Ofcourse both of these things are complete balderdash, the house was in better nick than when we moved in and I cleaned it top to bottom. Not to mention the 'junk' on the front garden which was simply not there.

Now I'm stumped though, ofcourse I have no tangible proof of how much I cleaned the flat, I really regret not taking lots of photos now. All I can really do is argue my point right?

But no, I get wind of a little thing called the DPS or Deposit Protection Scheme. A bit of googling later it seems to me that my deposit is basically null and void by not being in one, and I'm within my rights to demand it back with no deductions or even take them to court for 3x the deposit? I guess I need to phone CAB but the local one is open wednesday 1000-1200 (seriously!?) so I haven't had chance yet, and wondered if anyone on here has had experience with dealing with dodgy agents/landlords not using the DPS, and how to go about pursuing a resolution to all this!

tl;dr - Letting agent charging extortionate amounts for 'cleaning' etc. on last deposit, the house really was left in better condition than when we moved in, turns out my deposit wasn't in the protection scheme anyway, what do?

Thanks for any help gents.

Oh and a quick Name and Shame....

City Property Lets
http://www.city-property-lets.co.uk/
58 Gloucester Road
Bishopston
Bristol
BS7 8BH

Tel 0117 9080062
Fax 0117 9080063
 
If they weren't in the deposit scheme then threaten to take them to court for your deposit + compensation
 
JBuk said:
If they weren't in the deposit scheme then threaten to take them to court for your deposit + compensation
Click to expand...

Does anyone know the real ins and outs of this? I don't want to go spouting stuff I have no right to and it look like a berk. It seems from google and various .gov sites that its as simple as if its not in a deposit scheme, the agency is in trouble and I'll be getting it back x3. How do they deal with deduction negotiations amongst that?
 
1) The money should be in a deposit scheme and when you hand over your deposit, some weeks later they should give you a code to check online with the respected scheme to make sure it is there!

2) I dont think the letting agency can touch the money without your consent (if it is in said scheme) but this is irrelevant to you now :p

3) Get them to produce some receipts.... £240 for cleaning a flat is ridiculous!!! Also make sure that the cleaning company is genuine not "City property cleaning company" as that would be dodgy as hell (especially with the price they have charged).

And from what i have read around the net people have gotten about 3x their deposit back if it wasn't in the scheme
 
Chris1712 said:
Does anyone know the real ins and outs of this? I don't want to go spouting stuff I have no right to and it look like a berk. It seems from google and various .gov sites that its as simple as if its not in a deposit scheme, the agency is in trouble and I'll be getting it back x3. How do they deal with deduction negotiations amongst that?
Click to expand...
Quite simply, if your deposit is not in the scheme, the letting agents can be made to pay you it back as well as statute-fixed damages of 3x the deposit. They cannot deduct any money from it by way of set-off unless they introduce a counterclaim.

Be nice, mention that as far as you are concerned you consider you are perfectly entitled to pursue a claim but you would rather draw a line under the matter and will accept your deposit back in full. If they refuse or start playing silly buggers issue a small claim (£30) and enjoy taking them to the cleaners.

However for future reference, your inventory and taking photos at the start and end is not just something to be taken lightly and signed - if there are any problems it is compelling evidence and should be treated that way.

Good luck! :)
 
It doesn't necessarily have to be in the dps, it just has to be protected by some sort of escrow scheme. I expect they have placed all the deposits in such a scheme instead of the dps. They still should have told you about it though, and they can't just take the amount if you dispute it though, the dispute must be resolved first.
Also, i believe that they need to prove the flat required a clean now, they can't just say it was dirty and take some of your deposit. (although you might want to check this, i'm not sure)
 
Last edited:
Rich_L said:
Quite simply, if your deposit is not in the scheme, the letting agents can be made to pay you it back as well as statute-fixed damages of 3x the deposit. They cannot deduct any money from it by way of set-off unless they introduce a counterclaim.

Be nice, mention that as far as you are concerned you consider you are perfectly entitled to pursue a claim but you would rather draw a line under the matter and will accept your deposit back in full. If they refuse or start playing silly buggers issue a small claim (£30) and enjoy taking them to the cleaners.

However for future reference, your inventory and taking photos at the start and end is not just something to be taken lightly and signed - if there are any problems it is compelling evidence and should be treated that way.

Good luck! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Rich
icon14.gif
. Makes sense to me, I basically intend to go in there and suggest they give me my full deposit back (and my other housemates) within 48 hours or so else I'll be pursuing a court claim.
Saying that, I know a lot of people who have rented with them and would quite like to take them to the cleaners and see them recover 3x the deposits for the ~40 houses they manage. All of which are absolutely dire and overpriced, because they're student houses.
 
had this problem last year, i contacted the national tenant helpline and they would do all the legal biz for 15%, however, on the verge of taking them to court for 3x plus rent the law changed slightly and instead of 100 odd quid court fees it jumped massively in price to something i wasnt prepared to pay up front, with higher costs involved should the case be lost, unlikely but still a risk, so they contacted the landlord again and informed him proceedings were about to be started (he previously ignored all legal letters, increasing the charge to him) and they paid deposit back in full with 15% compensation fee to cover my fees
so, just to let you know, things are more expensive nowadays should you threaten them with the 3x rent plus 1 month comp court case
 
finga said:
had this problem last year, i contacted the national tenant helpline and they would do all the legal biz for 15%, however, on the verge of taking them to court for 3x plus rent the law changed slightly and instead of 100 odd quid court fees it jumped massively in price to something i wasnt prepared to pay up front, with higher costs involved should the case be lost, unlikely but still a risk, so they contacted the landlord again and informed him proceedings were about to be started (he previously ignored all legal letters, increasing the charge to him) and they paid deposit back in full with 15% compensation fee to cover my fees
so, just to let you know, things are more expensive nowadays should you threaten them with the 3x rent plus 1 month comp court case
Click to expand...

How is it any bigger than having to use small claims court which costs £30?
 
Yes, definitely ask to see receipts and make sure that the cost of the work was reasonable.

If your money wasn't in a scheme then you can get all of it back through the costs. I believe that the 3x is a fine and you don't get the money yourself.
 
Tunney said:
Yes, definitely ask to see receipts and make sure that the cost of the work was reasonable.

If your money wasn't in a scheme then you can get all of it back through the costs. I believe that the 3x is a fine and you don't get the money yourself.
Click to expand...
you do get the money yourself

chris, small claims court is 30-120 for this kind of case, was at the time i was doing it prior to last summer, the cheque i wrote to the county court was 110 or something like that, then something changed during the summer and i was advised to just settle for the deposit, and this is from a national legal team who were set to get 15% of near on 5 grand, i cant remember the details now, i got my money back so was happy enough
 
If its with the dps, your money is as good as gone. They won't give a stuff and will e-mail you half an hour before their arbitrary limit runs out advising that even though you have made a counter claim, you didn't jump through their hoops or they have no record of your complaint, or they have no record of you. In short, the dps are incompetent muppets who side with the landlord and ensure that you have no recourse against them.

Think paypal and scamming buyers and you get the picture.
 
Deiwos said:
I'd be VERY surprised if it wasn't secured in a protection scheme. It doesn't HAVE to be a custodial scheme, there's one, which I can't remember for the life of me the name, whereby the agency can hold the money themselves, they just have to be signed up to said scheme.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TenancyDeposit/DG_066383

A bunch of info on there for you which may help
Click to expand...

I assume mine is no such scheme, custodial or not. I'm only going by the fact everything on that site mentions within 14 days I should have information on where my deposit is held and a login etc. I've got no such information and I never had it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom