Cheers for the suggestion Tony. Is this information available from the local Borough Council?

Cheers for the suggestion Tony. Is this information available from the local Borough Council?

If there is a concierge he may know as he will be employed by the property owner or management company.

It has been a while, I still haven't take action as I do not fully understand the legality of using a 'security' sum of money for an (unspecified) last month of rent. Should I still pursue?

Thanks

"As advised please do not pay your rent on 1st October 2016. Please then returning the keys this Saturdays drop me a text, then keys are left at the concierge.

You are released from 6 months contract as per conversation with [Landlord Name], no further payments are required."

I'm assuming from the above you moved out at the end of September 2016 with all rent paid up. Is this right?

If so, write them a letter requesting return of the deposit and threaten to sue for failure to protect the deposit. Head it "Letter before Action".

Then you need to issue a court claim which is relatively straightforward to do.

Thanks for the response Steve__M. At that point I moved out at the end of September (the 6 month contract was supposed to finish at the end of November), and I had paid rent for the period that I had stayed for (at this point they had the 1 extra month of rent which was my deposit money).

I have written numerous emails to them saying I will pursue in small claims which was greeted with a response of "your deposit is protected, will resolve this in court, send me your address or will get you tracked down", and we know that it was not protected at all.

I'm not exactly sure how to pursue this in court, would you mind kindly giving some pointers?

Also do you have an opinion on keeping the 'security' for the last month of rent? I've read some points online where people have said that if they want to do this then it should be for a certain specific month of rent, e.g November 2016.

Thanks

Sorry for leaving such large time gaps between my posts, as I was waiting for a response and did not want to be too pushy.

Reiterating on my last post, do you have any pointers that you wouldn't mind letting me know of so I can attempt to pursue this in a court? It will be stressful for me to do it later on as I will be back at university and would love to get this submitted to a small claims court as soon as I possibly can.

Thanks so much

you write a letter headed letter before action and send it to the LL address. You detail waht it is your are claiming for and exactly how much so if you are owed the deposit you say £xxx for breach of contract- failing to return deposit for flat rental. You can still go after her even if she pays the deposit back for the breach of the law

Give her time to respond or pay up, 14 days is normal. Then you sue by registering at moneyclaimonline or by filling out a N1 form. If you are claiming for unprotected deposit put down the maximum you can be awarded as compensation ( so 3x deposit) as the sum claimed and then pay the required fee. This will be added automaticlly to your claim if you sue the online version, if N1 paperwork it is another box underneath the sum claimed box so gives you a new total. pay the fee upon submission of the form.

Wait to see what happens. The LL is unlikely to just cough up the 3x deposit money and the court has powers to vary this between nothing extra and the maxiumum award so expect a day out