Hi there, I'm having some problems to get the balance of my deposit back, this is £290. I have sent 3 emails to my former landlord and he said that I'm his lodger, I don't have any right and they are not willing to give me anything back. The problem is I'm not his lodger, he didn't live in the property. The landlord is a business of 2 Spanish guys (agency) taking advantage of other foreigners in London. They rent properties through letting agencies and they sublet every inch in the house to people. We were living in London 8 people in a house with one bathroom. As far as I know the owner of the house doesn't know what is happening in her house, but my landlord doesn't want to give me her details nor the letting agency details neither. The agency who rented me the house keeps partly the deposits of other tenants saying that the walls need to be repainted or things like that. My former flatmates had the same problem as me. In my case, they are charging me for a mould which grew in the bedroom due poor insulation, for the cleaning of that mould and for the curtains (which are dirty because of the mould and they were so high I couldn't remove them to wash them up). They are charging me for the walls (were dirty before I moved there, but they didn't do a check-out to the previous tenant and they are charging me for it) and for one night I did not sleep there. This agency are making fraudulent contracts. My contract says "Licence to occupy" and it says "This agreement is not intended to confer exclusive possession upon the licensee, nor it is intended to create the relationship of landlord and tenant between the parties. The Licensee shall not be entitled to an assured tenancy or a statutory periodic tenancy under the Housing Act 1988 or to any other statutory secure of tenure now or upon the determination of the Licence. The Licensee accepts that this Licence does not confer any statutory protection and/or rights that would otherwise be applicable to an assured tenancy or a statutory periodic tenancy under the Housing Act 1988". I contacted Shelter and they said that the agreement is not legal as I was a tenant, not a lodger, as the landlord is an agency and they do not share the property with us. A legal advisor in Shelter told me that I can go to court and make a claim because the agency didn't protect my deposit despite the agreement says. Does anybody know what can I do in this case? This agency does not want to talk to me nor to reply my emails. They took my money unfairly and they are doing the same to other foreigners as people leave the property and they do not know how to claim their money back. So they keep doing the same over and over again. They are taking advantage mainly of Spaniards who come to the UK without knowing how the system works. Is there any way I can report them? If so, where? I don't mind the money, but I want to stop them to do the same to other people. Many thanks.

Hi. I really don't know much about the differences between all these different agreements, but basically I lived in a house where the landlord, moved away, his tenant (and friend) remained in the house and I moved in. We had a license agreement between the three of us. They then turned quite nasty after I said I wanted to leave (after 6 months) being very horrible indeed (details of which I won't go in to!). I moved out over a month ago, I didn't want them to have my new address here so gave them my parents (the letting agency have been helping me, although they have no contractual obligation, they felt they were harrassing me, and didn't want them to have my new address either, the Landlord and other tenant refused to use my work address.) However my mum has received a letter from them today, with a cheque for about £115 (my deposit was £375) with deductions for £80 to have the lock changed (which was not in my agreement), £50 for cutlery (WHAT!!!) and stupid things like £5 for batterys from remotes (really petty!) and £85 for cleaning, even though the letting agent who carried out the inspection said everything was fine! They have said they can provide receipts, which is fair, but I don't see why I should incur these charges. I took pictures of everywhere before I left, but they are on my digital camera so don't know how these would hold up if it did go further. Any advice?? I'm so glad to be out of there and really want this all to be over, I'm starting to think that I don't actually care about the money, but why should they get to keep it??? Many thanks in advance for your help!!!