I wrote to my LL. He has gone to some solicitor who has replied. First of all he has admitted in writing that he has broken the law. However, he said that there is no guarantee that the court will order him to pay 3x the deposit. In addition he has scanned 3 bills - one a drycleaner bill that has no name of the drycleaning company - seems like a paper torn off from a note book. The second one is a bill from a builder who is 150 miles away from property. It has items handwritten such as "removed door, put it back £100" - no reason why the door was removed, no itemised list of parts he bought. And the 3rd one is an invioice for 2 months rent. funnily enough the date of the invoice is after he got my LBA. At the end of the letter his offer is to offset £3k from the amount he is claiming and says I need to pay the rest. As there is no check in inventory, he did not protect the deposit and spent the money on his free will to upgrade his flat, I think he does not have any leg to stand on whatsoever and I am thinking of going to a solicitor. Please advise.

Many Thanks for the reply ChrisTDS! Very helpful!

Hi All I lived in a 2 bed flat for 22 months. I paid a deposit at the start of the tenancy into my LL's bank account. My LL did not protect my deposit at the start of the tenancy. At that time I was not aware of the legal obligation that all LLs need to submit the deposit into a government approved scheme. To top it, there was not check-in inventory done at that time. After I left the flat, my LL did not return the deposit nor did he give me a picture of what he was repairing in the flat until 2 months had passed. At the end of two months, he said I had done substantial damage and his repair bill was more than my deposit. Additionally, he asked me to pay two months rent as it took him that much time to get the repairs done. Even at this stage, he did not send me anything in writing such as repair bills etc., and threatened that he will go to small claims court to get the amount. My question is if I go to court, will the court order him to pay 3 times the deposit? Is there anything I stand to lose in this case?