Ex-landlord owes us money. What to do? Post Reply

[mum_of_two_monkeys]

Hi,

On 3rd December 2012 we exited the property we rented for 2,5 years. The bond was partly returned to us on 28th Jan 2013 (after a number of emails and phonecalls). The landlord decided to deduct £100 due to our short payment of a newly increased rent in February 2012. We paid the £100 in question on 5th March. This is easy to locate and verify on our bank statement.
I also have to note that when our 2 year contract expired the landlord ask us to tell the agent (through who we signed the contract with) that we don't want to extend the contract and that we will be leaving the property. This was to save the money to the landlord for the renewal of our contract with the agent. We agreed on condition that the landlord will talk to the agent and that he (the landlord) will supply us with a new contract. This never occurred, so new contract has never been signed (in spite of our numerous reminders to the landlord).
We have emailed, called and talk in person with our ex-landlord but the money (£100) have not been returned, nor we received any answer to a number of emails that have been sent to him.
What steps can we take to receive the money owned to us that are unlawfully held by the ex-landlord?

Many Thanks for any advice.

[juliantenniscoach]

Legally, small claims court is realistically your only viable option. However given the cost and time you might decide it's not worth it. I'm sorry about this because I hear of friends and friends of friends being ripped off by landlords all the time (though I'm sure it's often the other way round too).

Best of luck.

[nannyS]

If you check this website click on this link

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advic ... _leasehold
You may get your answers there.

Regarding contract, what I can remember from reading on the shelter website, is after the initial 12mth contract if no contract is signed after that then it is just a monthly roll over ( that's if you pay rent on monthly basis ) and to ask you to leave, landlord has to give you 2mth notice which has to be dated before rent date due.
I take it landlord has already claimed your deposit back from deposit scheme. If not you can email them to stop landlord claiming as you have a dispute.

Hope that is of some help.

[sal]

Hi. Two things you need to know.

FIrstly, the previous poster is absolutely right about your tenancy. Assuming you had an assured shorthold tenancy (Which almost everyone does) it rolls over automatically unless you or your landlord ends it by giving notice. The thing with the letting agent is that they will charge the landlord a fee for a "renewal" if the tenant stays on past a year, or two years, even if they (the agent) don't have to do any work. This can be up to 10% of the annual rent so you can see why the landlord would try to dodge it. But that's his problem not yours and you don't need to worry about your tenancy not being valid or anything.

Secondly, your landlord is legally required to "protect" your deposit at the start of the tenancy by registering it with one of three government approved schemes. This is designed specifically to prevent landlords from making unfair deductions at the end of the tenancy. If there's a dispute then the schemes provide a dispute resolution service. If your landlord didn't protect your deposit then you can take him to court and the court might require him to pay up to three times the deposit to you. As well as protect the deposit the landlord is required under the law to tell you how and where it has been protected (i.e. which scheme he has used) within 30 days of the start of the tenancy. So go back and check your documents - the details should be in there, and if they aren't the landlord is in trouble. Normally the agent will do this for the landlord, but legally it's still the landlord's responsibility.

So I'd suggest that you have a careful read of the Shelter website (the advice on there is very clear and good) and then send an email to the landlord making clear that you know exactly what his responsibilities are.

[mum_of_two_monkeys]

Thank you very, very much for your advice. I’ll check the websites and let you know the outcome.

[mumwithcanvas]

Hi Mum of 2 monkeys! I really feel for you as we initially had terrible problems trying to get our deposit back from our landlady which she had no right to keep. As she & Foxtons were awful throughout our 3 year tenancy I was expecting there to problems when we moved out so had kept absolutely every email & note written, which did help us in disputing the return of our deposit. We used the government backed http://www.mydeposits.co.uk/ who were really good. You speak to helpful native English speaking people on their phone line & then should you want to register with them to sort out your dispute it is free & very simple. We got virtually all our deposit back (except for the cost of replacing 2 door handles which were not working when we moved in, but because I hadn't complained about them & asked for them to be fixed I had no evidence that they were not working prior to our tenancy).
Another word of advice, if it is not too late (as it was for us): unless your inventory states that the house has been 'professionally cleaned' you are under no obligation to pay for professional cleaners when you move out (Our inventory did not state professionally cleaned & Foxtons charged us just under £400 for their so called professional clean, that turned out to be simply one woman & a mop for 3 hours!)