Students need deposit back!

studentjoe · 23rd July 2008, 18:32

Paid a deposit for a house on the University's recommended listed March 2007 (so not protected) to be occupied end of May 2007. Should LL have protected deposit since tenancy started May?

Landlord seemed resonable, put in carbon monoxide detector and bought new fridge when the old one blew electrics.
We have now been moved out 8 weeks. LL says he is keeping money for the garden (fair enough) and the new tenants want the carpets cleaned before they move in so he wants to keep some for that (JOKE!!). Needless to say the overall figure was a bit less than we were happy with, but agreed just to get the money back. This was 3 weeks after moving out. We contact the Uni's housing office and they phoned him, and he said, oh yes I forgot to do that... Still nothing. Contacted Uni again and assume they phoned him because today I had an email saying he would pay that in today.
We want to know if we have a case against him if worse comes to worst?

MrShed · 23rd July 2008, 20:25

Deposit should have been protected. Did you sign an initial inventory?

studentjoe · 23rd July 2008, 20:36

No inventory list was offered, never thought that far ahead! We didn't actually move in til end of August. If the guy does cough up this week, we will be glad to be rid of it, need the money!

MrShed · 23rd July 2008, 20:40

I think its a fairly safe bet that worst comes to worst you can take him to court and get at LEAST your deposit back in its entirety, and quite probably end up with a total of 4 X your deposit due to them not protecting it.

studentjoe · 23rd July 2008, 20:45

Thanks, will let you know how it turns out, hopefully good and soon!

studentjoe · 23rd July 2008, 21:21

oh, why should he have protected the deposit since it was paid in March 2007? Is there a link to somewhere I can read up on this?

MrShed · 23rd July 2008, 21:43

It is dependant upon when the tenancy began - which in your case was May 2007, after the April 2007 date of TDS beginning. The date the deposit was actually paid is irrelevant.

blitz · 23rd July 2008, 21:55

Any tenancy starting on or after the 6th April 2007 and the deposit MUST be protected by a Tenancy Deposit Scheme, and if it was you would have been informed of this.

Unless you have already agreed that you damaged the floor and neglected the garden, rather then just agree to to the charges under duress you should be able to get the full deposit back.

The LL cannot keep back any deposit to better the property for anything that was caused by fair wear and tear, and he cannot keep it back just because the new tenants want it professionally cleaned.

studentjoe · 23rd July 2008, 23:03

It was in the contract to keep the garden tidy, so that is fair enough, although we were not supplied with tools to do this. As far as the carpet goes it was old and worn, fitted up the stairs and bedrooms only, and probably had a coffee or two spilled, so yes a bit of cleaning needed for that. The Uni seem to be helping, thanks for your info.

studentjoe · 4th August 2008, 18:00

Update, landlord finally paid it after a couple of reminder emails, didn't go in exactly when expected but at least we got it back. Local CAB gave some good advice that we didn't have to use. Hopefully future tenants won't have a problem with this as they will be on TDS.

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