I was renting a room in a shared house from my now ex-landlord. I signed a short-form tenancy agreement (basically a sheet of A4 stating the property, him, me and how much the rent is) and moved in on the 21st November 2006. For ease of accounting I paid him £300 damage deposit (for which I have a receipt) and 10 days rent in advance, then commenced monthly rent payments as of the 1st December.
Having found a nicer and cheaper flat I decided to move out on the 30th September 2007. After trying to phone him every day for three weeks I eventually managed to give him two weeks notice. He said he would phone me back closer to the time to arrange for me to exchange keys for deposit.
Since then I have heard nothing from him, and not for lack of trying. I have lost count of the amount of times I have listened to his answer phone message.
I believe the time has come to persue this through the legal system, but the problem I have is that I have no address for the landlord other than the property I was formerly renting. Having lived there, I am aware that the landlord rarely (if ever) checks his mail at that address.
One other thing is that about half way through my tenancy, the landlord started using a letting agency to find tenants for the other room. I had thought of trying to get his address from them. Do I need a court order for that or can I simply request it in writing under S.35 of the data protection act (exemption to non-disclosure in connection with legal proceedings (inc. prospective))? Or should I simply serve at the address I have and in all likelihood wait for it to default?
Help appreciated...
Errant Landlord 
