I moved in last september and moved out a year later, I've checked around and cannot find anything which states that the deposit protection scheme applies to Northern Ireland, can anyone confirm whther this is the case or not. Also, I'm not sure if it was an assured shorthold tenancy

Hi, Just after a bit of advice, I left my property(flat in Belfast) almost 7 weeks ago and was told by my estate agents that the property was in a clean and tidy state and that my deposit would be returned in a matter of days. Since then I've been fighting a running battle to get it back as it turns out that the owner of the flat took the deposiit from the estate agents in the middle of the lease and it took almost four weeks for the estate agent to get in contact with the owner. After another few weeks of phone calls the owner of teh flat decided that he wanted to view it to make sure it was okay. Now the estate agents have come back to me to say that the flat was not left clean and tidy(which I totally dispute) as the kitchen floor needs cleaned, the fridge had blue mold in it and the front of the kitchen cupboards were dusty. I 100% cleaned and mopped the kitchen floor, to be honest I'm not really sure if I cleaned th front of the cupboards although I definately cleaned the fridge but since the electric was on a meter and there would have been no electric in the flat now from probably the day after I left so I'm wondering would the fact that the flat is quite damp due to a laudrette below it and also that there was no electric going to the fridge and freezer have contributed to this. Also, is 7 weeks not a bit late to be making an inspection. Any and all advice will be much appreciated.

Sorry, should also point out that I'm in Northern Ireland(belfast) as from what I can see a lot of the legislation seems to only apply to england

Hi, Moved out of my flat at the end of September due to contract having expired, Estate agent was round and viewed the flat and agreed that everything was in good condition and that I would get my full deposit back as soon as the landlord told them it was okay to release the funds(£450). After no contact from them for a week I rang the estate agent and was told that they had released the deposit to the owner of the property at some point during my tenancy and that they were trying to get in contact with him to get the money back from him to give to me. They then said to leave it with then and all would be grand. After another week of no contact I rang the estate agents again and they informed me that the landlord wasn't answering his phone, replying to voice mails, emails or letters but not to worry as he was a big business man and they would eventually get in contact with him. Alarm bells started ringing at this point but estate agents are a big company and quite reputable so I unfortuneatly put doubts to the back of my mind. Eventually after about another 5 phone calls between me and the estate agents they rang me last friday(22nd October) and said to give them my new address and they would forward the details to the landlord as he had finally got in contact with them and would be posting my deposit out. As no post had arrived this morning I rand estate agents today and was told by some clown that it is nothing to do with them as the landlord has the money(even though I have said multiple times to them that the deposit was paid to them in good faith and not to the landlord) but they will try to ring the landlord to see what is happening. The woman on the phone got quite annoyed with me for suggesting that this is anything to do with them or that they are liable in any way and i feel like I'm just getting fobbed off. I requested the landlords phone number so that I could ring him myself but was informed that this wasn't possible. I have requested an appointment with CAB but they are very busy at the minute due to office restructuring so was told they may take a while to get back to me. I should point out that the tenancy duration was for a year, rent was always paid on time, flat was left in immaculate condition upon my leaving and I had a written contract. Any advice on how to deal with this would be greatly appreciated, particularly any legal terms that I can use when speaking to the estate agenst and I can fee lmyself cracking up completely on the next phone call to them and I have a funny feeling that'll do more harm than good

cheers for the advice guys, was speaking to someone in the citizens advice bureau this morning and they reckon that if I get my mate to send any new letters back stating i don't live at the house anymore the DCA might initiate a new address search, they reckon to just ignore any new post and if anything that looks like a legal document gets sent take it down to them, shoudl I follow this advice or teh advice given on here

after a bit of advice, got sent a debt collection letter from merit finance about a year ago regarding a debt for £410, after a number of angry phone calls where they refused to tell me who the debt was owed to finally found out that it was to yorkshire bank but they wouldn't give any more details than that. I ran up a few silly debts when i was in my early twenties(34 now) but thought i had repayed them all but if the debt is actually mine it's definately over 10 years old, secondly i've lived in northern ireland all my life and never had an account or anything else with that bank or even been in yorkshire, i also moved out of the house they sent the letter to about 4 years beforehand and only found out they sent it as i'm still good friends with the guy who still lives there, after some advice from this forum i printed out a letter template disputing the debt and requesting details and never heard back from them. All good, or so I thought. Was round in my friends house the other day and lo and behold another letter, this time from MIL collections, rang them and this time, was told straight away it was for yorkshire bank but because i wouldn't accept responsibilty for the debt he wouldn't give any more details than that. After a bit of shouting he told me my that he would ring the police and report a case of identity theft for me or send me out the details in a letter which woudl be attached to a court summons. Didin't really want some random debt collector ringing the police in my name so told him I would do it myself but i needed the detaisl of the actual debt to be able to ring the police at whihc point he stated that it would be sent out in seven days along with a court summons. I explained that I didn't live at the address but he stated that I had been dodging this debt for long enough and the court summons would be sent out. CAn he really send out a court summons to a house I don't live in and if so is it valid, also will it be a court in n.ireland or yorkshire. What the hell is my next step here, really don't know what to do, i've worked hard to get my credit rating back in order and don't want it ruined again but really object to the way these toe-rags are refusing to give details of what the money is actually owed for.

I was recently on a stag do and we booked an adventure day out for the saturday using my card and another guys card to split the deposit. Upon paying the deposit neither of us recived any receipts or anything stating terms and conditions of the booking(they actually sent it to a misspelt email address, which I just tried and received a email undeliverable email backfrom system admin). Unfortunately we had to cancel the booking on the saturday and were fully expecting to lose the deposit but they have now tried to charge my card for the outstanding balnace even tho neither of us were told that this would be the case upon cancveling the booking,. I have searched thru their website and there are no terms and conditions anywhere on it so the question is am I liable for the outstanding balance. We didn't expect to get the deposit back but as stated we weren't told anything about ghaving to pay teh full amount upon cancelation.

nice one, thanks for your help

cheers mate, should i give them my address or tell them to continue to post it to my old address and I'll tell the guy who lives there to keep an eye out for any letters.

Hi, By pure chance I happened to meet a guy whose house i lived in over three years ago who told me their was some post for me. When I hgot the post it was two letters, one from a CCS collect and one from Charles Howard and partners saying that I owed over 400 quid to a Merit YB. I rang and asked for more details and was told that they would post it out. I hadn't received any word back from them so rang today to see what was going on and was informed that the money was owed to the Yorkshire/Clydesdale bank for either a loan , overdraft or credit card and woould not give any more details. I have lived in Northern Ireland all my life and can 100% say that I have never had an account with the yorkshire/clydesdale bank and as such I was mow getting worried. i then asked for the number to contact Merit YB to see if they could give more info and they refused to give it to me saying that Merit Yb assured them that they have sent letters to me(to my old address) and as such I would know what I owed the money for so they didn't need any more info. I probably shouldn't have rang them in teh first place but I used to have terrible credit but thought that I had paid off all my outstanding debts and have recently passed a very stringent credit check before I was able to start my new job recently so didn't want to do anything that would jepordise my past good workor my new job. I have searched all over the internet for a merit Yb and they don't seem to exist and both CCS and Charles Howard refuse to send me more details until I provide them with proof that I haven't lived in my old address for the last few years which would mean telling thme where I live now which I am kinda reluctant to do. I ended the conversation by saying that I was going to teh police but I don't even know if they would be able to do anything so really really need some advice as to what I should do next???????? Apologies for grammar and spelling mistakes

Moved

should have said at the bottom of the letter it says do not simply write in as our time limits are very strict. Also, should add that the job I have I have strated a few mmonths ago I went through a very strict credit check which I passed and don't want to **** my credit rating up again.

Was wondering if anyone here might be able to help. Just today got given a letter containing a legal notification from a friend whose flat I linved in nearly 4 years ago from Charles Howard & Partners stating that they've been instructed to prepare to begin legal proceedings for reclaim £410 by CCSCOLLECT. It says I should repay all the money by 9th March or further action will ensue. Has anyone had any dealings with either of these companies and is it advisable to just ignore the letter. I used to have a pretty bad credit rating but have worked quite hard to get it back to a decent level. edit to add - says at the bottom of the letter that don't send post as they time limits are very strict. It also says the money is due to merit YB, who seem to have passed it onto CCS then onto Charles Howard. It's possible it's from an old overdraft from years ago or else a dodgy XXX phone company who were rang twice for about two minutes each straight after each other when I lost my phone at a party years ago. They rang a week or two later demanding money, I gave them a fake name and received a few threathening letters to the fake name and that was the end of it except I kept teh same phone number all those years. Is it possible they could have matched the phone number to the name