Landlord not paying back my deposit

[Hen Hen]

Hi,

 

I recently moved out of a flat that I rented. The owner of the flat did not put my deposit of £ 550 into a security deposit scheme and after I moved out He did not pay back the money claiming that he was broke and did not have the money. He failed to pay the deposit back to me on various dates that he committed to. He now told me to take him to the small claims court and that is what I’m planning to do. What are the correct procedures to follow to get the process going?

 

The other problem which I have is that the contract was signed by his girlfriend ,but he is dealing with me and would also like to know what the implications of this is as I would probably need to take the person who signed the contract and not the person who I’m dealing with to court.

I do have email as well as text messages from the person indicating that I would get back my deposit but it’s been two months since I’ve moved out of the flat and the person does not appear to have any credibility .

 

Any advice and guidance would be very much appreciated.

[flyingdoc]

if your tenancy agreement was signed after april 6th 2007 then he was legally obliged to put it into a deposit protection scheme.

 

If he didnt then he not only is liable for returning the full deposit you can sue him for 3x the deposit in compensation

[raydetinu]

Seems you have no choice but to sue him, but claim the 3x deposit, because if it had been protected you would of got back via the deposit scheme holder. However it seems he is in financial difficulty and there if the court finds for you may to send the baliffs in. dont give in go to court. When he receives the papers he just might finf the money from somewhere.

[Hen Hen]

Thanks,

How does the legal process work.Do I need to sent a letter to the owner before I go to court,indicating that Im going to take him to court or do i just go straight to court and they will sent a letter to the owner?

[misselle]

You need to send a letter before action stating that you are planning to take him to court and will be seeking 3x the deposit as compensation as per the housing act then you would have to go fill in the court froms which i cant remeber the name of however someone else such as planner would be able to help on that. It will cost you £150 to file however if you win this will be added to the costs and you will get it back.

[Hen Hen]

What do I need to put in the letter though?I want to be 100% sure that i send out the correct information and not shoot myself in the foot by sending out the wrong info.

 

Also,can I email him telling that im planning to take legal action or must it be a posted letter?

[Hen Hen]

Sorry who is planner?

[Planner]

Sorry who is planner?

 

Planner is the cats mother.

 

Theres literally 100s of threads on here about TDS claims, every other one of which contains wording for an LBA. Have a quick search you should find all you need.