 No return of my deposit, please help??
I was a student in Edinburgh, SCOTLAND until September 2007. Upon leaving my rented accomodation I fulfilled the final months rent around 3 weeks early. My flatmate was present til the end of the agreement and the landlord did return his deposit in full on the final day of the agreement. My landlord told me when I left that once I pay the energy bills at the end of the tenancy agreement she would return my £487 deposit. I duly paid the bills (using the final meter readings that she provided to me)and contacted her to make the account details available to her for her to check. She said that would be fine and she would send the deposit to the address I provided to her previously. She has not done this. That was at the beginning of October 2007. Since then I have been unable to contact her via telephone and she does not respond to any messages I send her. I don't have her home address. The shorthold tenancy agreement was set up by a letting agent, and they took the first months rent and deposit (giving me a receipt) at the start of the agreement. However, the tenancy was managed by the landlord herself, and the letting agent had no further involvement after that.
I see no reason why she should with hold the deposit. All appliances, kitchenwares and housewares in the property were still there at the end, though she never did take a formal inventory that I saw. There are actually more housewares there now than before the tenancy. There was no damage to the flat other than general wear (blue tack marks etc, which I would accept liability for anyway.) I didn't modify the flat without the landlord's consent or anything of that kind. It seems that the landlord thinks that because I have moved to another city then she can just hold the deposit because I will stop trying to contact her for it eventually.
It is annoying because I even cleaned the flat thoroughly and helped her decorate a small part of it prior to the tenancy agreement proceeding, after previous tenants had caused extensive damage to it. Anyway, she never mentioned anything about damage or missing items etc, she only said once the bills were paid then she would return the deposit, only for her to suddenly be unavailable for contact.
Should I send an LBA to the letting agent, as that is the address on the tenancy agreement not the landlords? The landlords name and contact telephone number is on it, but no other contact information. The difficulty is that I now live in Leeds and the tenancy was in Edinburgh. So, any small claims court procedures would need to take place through the Sherriff's court in Edinburgh. Is that right? What is the best course of action in this regard? Small Claims procedures are different for Scotland aren't they? | 
