Deposit Not returned 7 mths later

[roffeyintl]

Hi
I need some advice.
My deposit (paid Nov 2006) has not been returned to me after I left my property in Aug 07. My land lady has instructed the holding agents to make various deductions from it. These consist as follows:
1. Redecorating £200 (no invoices or estimates provided and no closing inventory provided. I left the property in a new decorated and tasteful state - photo's to prove.
2. Reconnection to BT £100 for new tenants. I had to pay £100 when I moved in, but she didn't pay mine and I am not liable to pay theirs, as confirmed by BT!
3. £250 for electricity bill - which i was paying by arrangement over 6 mths. Account is in my name, but she paid them cash herself and is now deducting from my deposit.

My deposit was paid before the Arp 07 legislation and only in March 08 (this month) have my agents sent my deposit to a deposit hold service (DPS). My agents have not paid me the undisputed difference. When I got them to write me a cheque for the difference and paid this in, they had stopped the cheque.

I have tried adjudication but the land lady did not complete the forms of authority and the case was closed.

1. do i take her to court? or persist with adjudication?
2. is there are help here for wording of particulars of claim?
3. should my deposit have been sent to an independant party in april 2007 like all others, or are the agents right to have kept hold of it?
4. can i claim compensation?
5. can i claim interest?

Any advice would be very welcome.
Thanks

[Planner]

Firstly, I need to clarify why have the agents sent your deposit to DPS? if the legislation doesn’t apply to you deposit, then what is the reasoning for doing his and why have DPS excepted it? The deposit should have only been sent to DPS (or one of the others) if you signed a new AST on or after 6th April 2007.

Back to the main points. Its time to sue. You have tried adjudication which the landlady isn’t interested in. This is a big big plus point for you, the courts will be less than happy with her for ignoring this.

There are a number of ways I see that you can sue here. You can sue the landlady only for the full deposit or you can sue the agents for cancelling the cheque, or a combination of both. I think the best bet is a combination of both. You have a very strong case for the electricity bill deductions and the BT reconnection. The decorating costs aren’t necessarily so clear cut, but the judge will be able to rule on this. The reminder of the deposit that hasn’t been returned is also pretty strong.

You need to print off the N1 county court claim form (you can do it on line but you can do much less with it than with the printed form submitted to your local county court.

If your going to sue both agent and landlady then you need two copies of the form. A the top under DEFENDANT(S) you will list the address of both you landlady and the agents side by side. You will so this on both copies of the forms. At the bottom of page one on one of the forms in the defendants name and address box you will list your landlady’s details only. On the second copy of the form you will list the agents details only. The rest of the form will be filled in identically for both copies. you will then need to take in three copies of each to the court (so six in total) and keep one copy of each for yourself. There’s only one fee involved (depending how much your claiming http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/fees/county.htm). You can claim this fee back along with interest on the total deposit amount. You wont be able to claim compensation.

You need to come up with the wording of the claim yourself and post on here for us to look at. The key themes you should mention are;

1) you tried adjudication, you landlady wasn’t interested - you will need your evidence of this
2) The electric bill was in your name and you made arrangements to pay it. It had nothing to do with the landlady - you will need the bills (in your name, preferably the final one) and the letter detailing your six month repayment.
3) mention the BT issue, the property wasn’t supplied with a functioning telephone line, you paid £100 for reconnection. You will want the Bt bill showing this etc.
4) The agents repaid the remaining balance of the deposit and then cancelled the cheque. There is no defence for cheque cancellation (there’s another thread on here about it actually). You will need the cancelled cheque and accompanying letter from the bank/agents saying it has been cancelled.
5) you can provide details of the condition you left the property in (photos etc) where you supplied with an initial check in inventory? is there a checkout inventory?

As this has been going on for seven months I would just send a letter before action (LBA) to both the agents and the landlady, giving 14 days for the deposit to be repaid in full or you will submit the accompanying N1 claim forms to the county court (attach them to the letter). If you don’t get the money in 14 days then go to the court and submit the claim.

You should also be asking the electricity company why the discussed your account with a third party. You should also report them to the information commissioner.

Get back to us with that wording/further questions