Crazy Landlord.

[JustRob]

Hi all,

 

So where to start. I had an AST with my partner which was for 12 Months ending the 30 June 2009,

 

on the 30/04/09 we gave our notice to our landlord that we would be moving out on the 4th June as we did not know that we would still be liable for the rent until the end of the term but.... The landlord was happy for us to leave so we believed all was well.

 

We moved out and handed the keys to his parents as he works / lives abroad and left it a week before sending a polite note asking if all went well with inspection and could he forward our deposit.

 

This is where it all goes a little strange, I will summarize but can post the full Emails if needed.

 

1- I send polite Email asking about inspection & deposit

2- reply is basically a massive list of work and damage costing well over my deposit and him saying he is keeping it.

3- I reply and answer each of the items on the list and basically say he is full of it and give me my deposit, I also mention that as no inventory was completed on move in and he is abroad who inspected the property and what did they have to compare against?

4-he replies saying he is now using the money to cover the rent he missed out on when we moved early, even though he had work men in the day after and had sent several Emails asking if he could have the keys early! I told him that he had waivered his rights when he replied to our notice to quit saying, "thanks for giving us plenty of notice, you have been good tenants and we wish you all the best"

5- he then replies saying he is now keeping the deposit....wait for it...... because there was never a deposit! he says that there was a verbal agreement that we would just pay two months’ rent up front. he says that the fact it says N/A in the deposit section proves this. just to be clear it does say N/A for deposit on the tenancy agreement when we renewed after the first 6 months but the original one clearly shows the deposit amount! so I pointed this out in another email.

 

in short it would seem he is simply not willing to return my money!

 

Let me know if you would like to see the Emails?

 

Any advice / tips / Comments

 

Ps. we were very good tenants for example, the living room roof fell in, we went with the flow moved our stuff out of the room and stayed with parents while it went through the insurance, we had a massive damp problem which he got done at the same time but then came back big time, went half’s on a shower and tiles, just good all round helpful tenants!

[DevilWearsPrimark]

Was your deposit in a protection scheme? Legally it should have been. If not then write him a letter before action stating that if you do not receive the full amount back within 14 days you will commence court action seeking the return of your deposit plus a payment of 3x the deposit amount.

 

The lack of a signed inventory means he has very little chance of making any deductions.

[jackieandwayne]

First thing to do, is find out if he put your deposit in one of the schemes. You should have been given a certificate with this information at sign up or immediately after. You have proof a deposit was paid. I'm not so up on this scheme as it doesn't apply where I work, we don't take deposits or rent in advance (thank god). Someone will come along soon and point you in the right direction there.

 

He's going to end up on his backside because, as you state, he took no inventory at the start of the tenancy. He should have taken photo's, made a written inventory, and then walked round the property with you making sure you agreed with everything, then you sign. This is the document that is then used at a check out inventory, and again, you should be present. So that's really the end of that one.

 

He agreed to release you early from your agreement, and you have that in writing. Just because he didn't realise the implications of letting you go early at the time, ie., rent loss, doesn't change that. Not sure exactly how that would stand up in Court, but I think you would be ok - anyway, again one of the legal experts will probably advise you better there and I like to learn as well!

 

At the end of the day, if you were to take this problem to your local Shelter they'd have a field day with it for you! I would, then sit back and enjoy!

 

Good luck, I hope you win this.

[JustRob]

Thanks for the comments, here for your reading pleausre are the emails between myself and him, starting with the oldest to the latest. I have put ?? over information i am not sure I could put on the internet. I also have a few emails about him getting the windows done (never happend) and quotes for the front and back yard (never happend)

 

 

FROM THE LANDLORD TO ME

FROM ME TO THE LANDLORD

NOTES

 

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30/04/2009

Hi ????,

 

Earlier this week Annie and I received a telephone call from the housing department at the council. Annie has been on the housing waiting list for six years and we have finally been offered a property. They have informed us that the property will be available on or around the 8th May; Therefore please accept this Email as our formal notice to quit the tenancy of ?? ?? Road, Ellesmere Port, CH?? ???.

 

With this in mind you will receive our final payment of rent as normal on the 4th May and we will arrange to hand over the keys to the house on the 4th June.

 

Before we hand over the keys to the house we intend to do the following;

 

Pay all outstanding bills including Council Tax and water rates upto the 4th June 2009.

Arrange for the disconnection of all services including; Sky TV, Telephone services and Internet.

Arrange for all original furniture to be returned and clean the house right through.

 

 

We understand that you will need to find new tenants for the house and as such propose that you may arrange for viewings from the 4th May 2009 with 24 hours notice. You may wish to arrange for somebody to check over the house for any maintenance or decoration needs. There is damp returning underneath the front window, chimney breast and back door. Also where the windows are not double glazed in the two back bedrooms and bathroom there is also a damp problem, especially in the bathroom. The paint in the kitchen is peeling off the walls around the top and bottom.

 

Yours Sincerely

me.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

His Reply 01/05/2009

 

Hi Rob and Anne Marie,

Thks for letting us know and giving us plenty of notice to try and re-arrange to have the property re-let.

You have been good tenants and we wish you all the best with your next move.

I will be using a local letting agency in Bromborough to advertise the property during the next couple of weeks and then arrange viewings in conjunction with you guys from 4th May as detailed in your email and I will arrange for ???? to get the keys from you in due course.

I will give ?????? ????? (letting agent) your mobile and home number if okay and he will arrange potential viewings in conjunction with you..

I will be in touch again later next week via email to see how everything is going

Kind regards

Landlord..

 

 

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01/05/2009

 

Hi Rob

Just a quickie... ????? ?????? from ???? and Co will be in contact with you to arrange to view the property and advertise to re-let.

Kind regards

Landlord

 

 

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20/05/09

 

Hi Rob

Have you now moved out of the property?

If so can I get the keys earlier so that I can get someone to carry out the damp proof and re-decorating work whilst the house is empty?

Regards

Landlord

 

 

NOTE- we reply saying no, the 4th was our move out date.

 

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30/05/09

 

Hi Rob

 

Can you please confirm that you have now vacated ???? Road and handed the 2 sets of keys (as discussed last week) back to ???? as we have not heard anything back from him.

We want to arrange to have the house inspected etc.

 

Regards

LANDLORD

 

 

 

 

NOTE-again...No......we are here until the 4th.....

 

 

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SO THEN WE MOVE OUT AND LEAVE IT ABOUT 10-14 days before sending

 

 

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26/06/09

Hi Landlord

Thought we would leave it a week to give you chance to have a look at the property. I trust everything is ok? If you could forward out deposit to our new address that would be great. Thanks

Robert & Annie

 

 

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27/06/09

Rob

Condition report;

 

1. The two piece settee that was originally left in the house for your use has had to be thrown in a skip as it was damp and when the covers removed

mildew was found underneath - looks like it has been stored in a damp place. approx £500

2. Carpets will have to industrialy cleaned to see if they can be re-instated back to suitable condition - The small bedroom carpet inparticular is badly

stained and I have been told that the stairs and bedroom carpets will probably have to be replaced - but we will see after the industrial cleaner. approx £200

3. The living room door has a crack in it and needs replacing.approx £100

4. The tv cabinet is damaged and looks like it has been glued to repair ?

4. The house generally was left dirty - the bathroom and kitchen inparticular, the toilet and cooker were not left clean. £100

5. Outside at the back, the yard was left completely full of rubbish - there was approx 15 black bin bags some ripped open and rubbish strewn #

all acroos the back yard. - £50

6. 4 foot of weeds in the small patch and the garden table and chairs are no longer there.

7. At the front of the propert - again full of weeds.

8. Wallpaper coming off the walls in various rooms - £200

 

 

The original deposit you left was £500.

 

My estimate is that it will cost me approx £1000 to re-instate the property to the condition it was in when you were originally given the keys.

 

We will not be sending a cheque through to your new address and plan to use the £500 to offset some of the costs detailed above.

 

I will be back in the UK on the 13th July and can come round to your new address to discuss personally?

Regards

Landlord

 

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27/06/09

 

I feel I should address your points one at a time.

First of all you have no right to put anything in the skip that you intend to bill me for.

 

1- The two piece settee was covered in plastic sheeting and had industrial packets of silica put in it to avoid any damp. It was stored in a council lock-up, ?? ???????? Road is full of damp, you have had work done to repair it and we have had points awarded by the council for the damp issue / photographs taken by your insurance company / martin and co. I will inspect the house with you on the 13th as you and your wife know the condition of everything when we moved in, if I agree we can then get some quotes in for repair of the two piece. Oh and the covers / seats were stored in the upstairs bedroom wardrobe which has damp on the outside wall.

 

2- The carpets got cleaned on two separate days in the week before we returned the keys, do you think we live in a dirty home (landlords name)? I agree that there is two small stains from water based printer ink, I can inspect this on the 13th and we can get some quotes for that room. It is not a case of “paint chip on outside wall – repaint house £500” more a case of “paint chip on outside wall – wear and tear”

3- The living room door was damaged in the break in the night we moved out , I have a crime number from the police but the exact same door pre painted ready to fit is on sale at wicks for £38. Again if you don’t agree we can talk about it, get some prices,

4- The TV Cabinet is as it was when you left it with us?

5- The bathroom and kitchen got cleaned as did the rest of the house, it was “dirty” because the paint was falling off the walls which you have been aware of for the full term of our tenancy, we take offence that you say it was not clean, we even bought a new bath mat and shower curtain!

6- As for the rubbish in the garden, we had arranged for that to be removed by the council on Saturday but when the house got broken into we had to find £75.00 for an emergency locksmith and could not pay for the van, I told your parents that it would be gone on Monday, when the van went on Monday it had all been cleared.

7- Regarding the table and chairs, You said when we moved in that we could throw them away as they were broken and rotten we thought it would benefit YOU and help rent the house faster if it was clear! As for the weeds, we are not gardeners, we tried everything to stop the cats using it as a litter tray but could not, YOU told US that you would get it filled just like you told US that you would get the front flagged many times, we even got quotes, but that never happened!

8- Wallpaper coming of the walls? £200 pounds? Yes one small bit in our boys room, the wallpaper is coming away by the wooden windows on the outside walls due to cold and damp.

9- to be fair we had to live with your brother in law ripping the walls out in the living room and what was left of the roof after it fell in, we never asked for a discount then!

landlord, both myself and Annie are in shock. We lived in that cold damp house for two years, we spent days when we first moved in cleaning up after your decoration and never said a bad word about you or your wife. When the meter was changed by the electricity board and we had no heating, did we get on the phone moaning to you or Jeff, No.

You had good tenants who put up with that for two years. If you think for one second that we are going to pay to renovate your house you are mistaken. We have rights under the tenancy agreement and we intend to use them fully.

please forward you response as soon as possible Also, who quoted for all those repairs? An independent third party? Friend of the family?

Regards

Robert & Annie

 

 

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NOTE- HE THEN CHANGES WHAT HE IS USING THE DEPOSIT FOR

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01/07/09

Hi Rob,

Please find attached a copy of your signed tenancy agreement and refer to section 5 - Ending this agreement;

The tenant can not end the agreement before the end of the term - The end of the agreement was yesterday 30th June

and I have had no rent since 5th May - No rent from you at all for the month of June and this is a breach of your obligation.

 

The deposit (500 pound) will be used to offset costs to cover reasonable costs incurred as per our agreement and loss of rent to 30th June.

I do take onboard you comments as detailed below, however the issues I raised from the property report are valid.

 

I can discuss face to face later this month to further clarify if required? please let me know so I can make arrangements as I have limited time.

 

Furthermore - Can you please provide your forwarding address as there are bills arriving in your name

at Priesfield that I will arrange to send through to you.

 

Regards

LANDLORD

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

02/07/09

 

Thank you for your Email, I have a few points,

1- With regards to section 5, this clause does not apply in our case as if you take a closer look it says that with mutual consent this can be waivered.

“Thks for letting us know and giving us plenty of notice to try and re-arrange to have the property re-let.

You have been good tenants and we wish you all the best with your next move.”

; Extract from Email dated 1st May 2009

with regards to your last Email in which you gave a condition report and your approximations, You cannot deduct the replacement value of any item, even if it was brand new at the start of the tenancy, as this would be "betterment". You can only deduct from the deposit a percentage of the item's value, based on (a) it’s on condition at the start of the tenancy (which you must prove using the inventory from the start of the tenancy), and (b) the expected life of the item.

 

Nor can you make deductions from the deposit for general “wear and tear”. The tenant is only liable for damage that creates extra cost; the deposit is not there to provide a redecoration fund. You must redecorate at your own expense.

 

You must in any event prepare a dilapidation schedule, and you must have the relevant tradesmen give a written quotation (not an estimate) for each item of cost that you include in it.

 

I request that you give me receipts or invoices for work carried out, or quotations for work yet to be done.

 

The onus is on you to prove that there are circumstances justifying the retention of any part of the deposit, and to date you have not provided any such evidence.

 

I will therefore be in a position to demonstrate that it is unreasonable for you to keep any part of the deposit, should you be unable to produce the requested evidence and matters proceed to court.

 

You must remember that the deposit is my money (LANDLORDS NAME). You must account for it properly. It is a common misconception that the deposit belongs to the landlord, but that is not the case and withholding it without proper grounds is unlawful.

Judging from your past Email it would also appear that you have not complied with your statutory obligations under the housing act to protect my deposit, Non compliance with the tenancy deposit scheme (TDS) is a simple yes or no situation, if you did protect it then why was I not provided with the relevant information within the 14 day period as specified in the housing act?

You see there is no legal defense for non TDS compliance, you either did or did not comply, if not then the court will order either the deposit to be placed in an authorized scheme or it’s return, also the court MUST, and I stress MUST order the you to pay me 3X the deposit as a fixed penalty for non TDS compliance within 14 days of the order, and remember that there is no defense for non compliance.

I have tried to be as blunt as possible because I do not enjoy wasting peoples time or people wasting mine, the situation stands in my opinion as such,

You believe that we have damaged your property and as such wish to retain our deposit. I do not agree with that and believe that we have left the property in a better condition than when you gave us the keys.

As no Inventory was carried out at the start (or during for that matter) of the tenancy it is not possible to prove either of our points. Unfortunately for you the money is mine and as such the burden of proof lies with you. You must prove that we damaged the items on your list, we don’t have to prove we never.

 

 

I USED THE LETTER ON THIS FORUM TO PUT THAT TOGETHER

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NOTE - NOW HE CHANGES THE REASON AGAIN AND MAGICS MY DEPOSIT AWAY

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Rob

 

Please note;

When you moved into the property in 2006 the verbal agreement was that you would pay 2 months rent in advance

so that you would always be up front with your payment. Please review your tenancy agreement dated June 2008

and notE N/A with regard to a deposit. There has never been a deposit held...

 

You informed me in May that you would be vacating the property and paid the full rent due for the month on 5th May

The tenancy agreement ended on the 30th June 2009 - With regard to rent paid and rent due - we are now right and

you have paid your rent up to the end of June as per our agreement.

 

Unfortuantly I have NO deposit to deduct for essential and reasonable costs for repairs at the property as detailed in my previous email.

I need new carpets, internal door, rubbish removal, cleaning, etc, etc. to reinstate the property back to original condition

 

There is a stack of your bills now mounting up including electricity bills, As asked for previously can you provide a forwarding

address to send these debts through to you for payment to the relevant parties.

 

Landlord

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NOTE - DEBTS?? WE HAVE NO DEBTS? AS THIS EMAIL EXPLAINS

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02/07/09

 

LANDLORD,

It would seem you are intent on retaining my deposit no matter what, this is now the third reason you have given and I must say it is your most imaginative yet. The verbal agreement that you refer to does not exist and you are simply clutching at straws. Please refer to the signed tenancy agreement dated 4th February 2007 which clearly shows a deposit of £480.

The unlawful retention of my deposit will now be dealt with by the court.

Your failure to protect my deposit as required by law will be dealt with by the court.

A letter before action for each case will be sent to the address specified on the tenancy agreement.

We have provided you with our new address already, but for your records it is – ????????????????????????????, also as you are aware our telephone contact details remain the same.

with regards to these bills you keep referring to, The property had no gas, The electricity was on a pre payment key so no bill, council tax is paid and transferred and water rates have been paid to early next year and we are in the process of claiming our refund. All other services have been moved to our new address.

We will check with royal mail regarding the redirection of our mail and would request you simply dispose of any mail that arrives at ??????? road addressed to either myself or Ann-Marie.

Also as a side note, please refer to section 7.1 of the tenancy agreement terms and conditions. In summary we did not have to pay you rent for the period when the roof fell in, from the date we reported it to you until the date the work was completed. as this was an insured incident.

Please feel free to contact me with any other reasons you can think of as to why you should retain my deposit (Global Warming?) but please be aware that the courts do not enjoy having their time wasted and I would much rather ,as I have indicated from the outset, come to an agreement regarding this whole situation.

Regards

me

[Planner]

 

“Thks for letting us know and giving us plenty of notice to try and re-arrange to have the property re-let.

You have been good tenants and we wish you all the best with your next move.”

; Extract from Email dated 1st May 2009

 

 

 

 

My personal opinnion would be that you will struggle to use his email as justifiction that you mutually agreed a surrender of the tenancy.

 

I dont have any comment on the individual deductions, but as a whole they seem quite extensive and expensive.

[natalie]

Okay, forget all the emails and everything else for a minute; you need to contact the following people and ask them if your deposit was protected by them;

 

DPS 0870 707 1707

TDSL 0871 703 0552

TDS 0845 226 7837

 

If none of them had protected your deposit then he is liable in a court to pay you your deposit PLUS three times the value of the deposit as compensation.

 

In the first instance find out if he protected your deposit, and I will take you through the process step by step if he hasnt.

 

I was awarded my compensation in May, even though he had given me my deposit back.

 

 

 

[JustRob]

Hi Planner,

 

I am glad you responded as I have read allot of your advice and it seems to be very rounded and un biased.

 

surely the landlord would struggle more to prove we abandoned the property than we would to prove a surrender, also his constant changing of reason for keeping the deposit would go against him. his last email is a blatant lie as I would prove with the initial tenancy agreement?

 

 

dont get me wrong, i am not just looking for you to agree with me. I value your advice

[JustRob]

Hi Natalie,

 

thanks for the offer, I will make those calls today, it’s a bit of a twist now he claims that we never paid a deposit and simply agreed to pay him two months’ rent upfront (which we never, we have our initial agreement showing the £480 deposit, but it is dated before the tds came in, although we did sign a new one in 07 and again in 08 after the tds)

 

1st tenancy - 4th feb 07 showing £480 deposit - 6 months agreement

2nd tenancy - 12th aug 07 showing £480 deposit - 12 months agreement

3rd tenancy - 12th June 08 showing N/A for deposit - 12 months agreement

[natalie]

I posted some cases yesterday (will try and find them again) that are the same circumstances.. a deposit was paid prior to the legislation coming in.. BUT tenancy renewed afterwards. Its seems that judges have still been ruling in favour of the tenant because with the renewed tenancy it is assumed the deposit would be part of the new contract even though money isnt being exchanged, it is just rolling on.

 

It shows £480 deposit on the August 07 tenancy agreement anyway, so that will cover any defence he might attempt to that anyway.

[JustRob]

True enough, I will make those calls today. It seems this must be the sort of situation the tds stuff was designed to help avoid

[natalie]

My landlord lied and told me my deposit was protected with the DPS, they were absolutely brilliant. They provided me with evidence for court (that he registered my deposit over a year after I moved in, and the day he issued me with notice to leave) as well as a written statement saying that he had never finalised the account and so the deposit was never protected.

 

If you ring them they will help you.

 

The fact that you dont have any information (such as a certificate) does actually mean you could proceed with legal action even if it is protected, because he also MUST supply you with the information. However, I suggest waiting until you know for sure, and then proceed if that's what you want to do. So make those calls asap and once we know one way or the other we can talk about the next step.

[JustRob]

DPS - No Deposit held

[JustRob]

DPS - No Deposit held

TDSL - No Deposit held

[JustRob]

DPS - No Deposit held

TDSL - No Deposit held

TDS - Say they dont protect individual landlords, only letting agaents & corporate landlords?

[natalie]

Well now its up to you to make a decision. Either you can tell your landlord that you know he hasnt protected your deposit and that you are taking legal action (with the hope that this will be enough to get him to pay up) or you can start legal proceedings and sue him for not protecting your deposit, in which case you should be awarded the deposit plus 3x the value of the deposit.

 

Personally, I wouldnt even bother contacting him again, it sounds as though he is completely unreasonable.

 

You can start the claim online

www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

 

or if you are on benefits you can file the papers in your local court along with a form to get the fees waivered.

 

Decide what you want to do, and then if you want to threaten him with legal action I will help you write a letter, or if you want to go straight down the court route, I will help you do your court forms.

[Planner]

Hi Planner,

 

I am glad you responded as I have read allot of your advice and it seems to be very rounded and un biased.

 

surely the landlord would struggle more to prove we abandoned the property than we would to prove a surrender, also his constant changing of reason for keeping the deposit would go against him. his last email is a blatant lie as I would prove with the initial tenancy agreement?

 

 

dont get me wrong, i am not just looking for you to agree with me. I value your advice

 

Two seperate issues obviously;

 

1) Deposit Deductions

 

2) Tenancy End Date

 

My Views;

 

1) I will leave to others to advise as it can be a very subjective area.

 

2) You where contracted to pay until 30th June 2009. You actually left on 4th June 2009. You are stating you had the landlords agreement to do this (the email), the landlord disagrees and says that he didnt give you permission to surrender the tenancy earlier, but instead offered to try and relet the property.

 

Its your word against his on this. Do us a list of why you think the LL agreed for you to surrender the tenancy with no further rent due, as I personally dont think the email is enough.

 

 

The TDS issue is very important, keep chasing it.

[JustRob]

UPDATE. he has just sent me this email, he now says he has no address in the uk and can i send the papers to OZ.

 

Again his email followed by my response.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob

 

a. The tenancy agreement started on June 30th 2008 and finished on June 30th 2009 with NO deposit taken - You are liable to pay the rent as detailed in the agreement each month for the 12 month period of the agreement, as detailed in the terms and conditions of the agreement (5.1) the tenant cannot end the agreement before the end of the term. This is standard in any tenancy agreement. The 2 months rent up-front you paid when you moved in on 04/02/07 does mean that you have met this condition and you have now paid your rent up to the leaving date as agreed.

 

b. The house has been left with a number of problems that will cost money to repair - The living room door needs to be replaced, re-hung and re-painted, The carpets upstairs are stained and need replacing, the living room settee is ruined and is rotten with green mildew, the TV cabinet is damaged, the outside was left completely covered with rubbish and the house was not cleaned. I have tried to explain to you that I am very dissapointed in the condition you left the property when you vacated as I estimate at this stage a cost of about 1k to re-instate.

I can send a final bill to you for the costs (with detail) when I attain final quotes etc for the repair/replacement work, and then have the work completed.

 

Please understand 2 points;

 

I have NOT taken any deposit from you as detailed on the signed tenancy agreement and discussed when you signed the agreement last year.

You paid 2 months rent up front when you moved in on Sunday 4th February 2007 and you are now up to date with rent payments up to your leaving date.

 

As you know I no longer reside in the UK sold my old house in the UK, and no longer reside at the address on the tenancy agreement signed in June 2008.

Should you wish to pursue this matter, then please ensure you send the correspondence to my mailing address in Australia as detailed below

and I will seek legal representation in the UK in my absence.

??????

?????

 

I will send your mail to your address at ?????? as there is quite a lot of mail.

 

Regards

Landlord.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

My Response

 

 

Mr. Gledhill

 

Please understand the following points,

 

Under the Landlords and tenants act you are required to provide me with a UK address with which i can send legal notice. Under the said act NO RENT IS DUE while this is not the case.

A deposit was received by you as detailed on the initial agreement, this is a deposit, not two months’ rent, a deposit. If you are saying that when we signed the new agreement in 2008 that there was no longer a deposit then please provide me with documentation to show the return of the initial deposit as this did not happen, and the deposit was simply rolled over to the new agreement.

 

I put it to you that the verbal agreement you mention is a lie and an attempt to avoid a clear breach of the housing act for failing to protect a deposit within 14 days of signing the tenancy agreement.

 

So as required BY LAW

 

Please provide me with an address with which to sue you.

Failure to do so will result in the legal papers being considered served when delivered to ?????? (rental address)

 

I have today contacted

DPS - No Deposit held

TDSL - No Deposit held

TDS - Say they don’t protect individual landlords, only letting agents & corporate landlords.

 

You have therefore failed to meet your statutory obligations to protect deposits paid on an Assured Short Hold Tenancy and have no defense to the claim.

As I said in my previous Email

 

A letter before action for each case will be sent to the address specified on the tenancy agreement.

And as a gesture of goodwill a copy will also be sent to (rental address), & a further copy will be sent to your parents address in ?????????.

 

Nothing you have pointed out has changed the situation.

 

We have tried to come to an agreement with regards to the deposit but have failed, for the avoidance of doubt I now require your final statement as to your reasons for unlawful retention of my deposit.

 

I suggest you return my deposit or seek legal advice Mr Gledhill,

Regards

 

Robert M Tonnessen

Edited July 2, 2009 by JustRob
to remove personal information such as address and names

[jackieandwayne]

Ah right, now I've read this, he didn't actually agree to release you from your contract early, he offers to try and relet the property early. So yes, then Planner is right, that is exactly what the judge woud say.

 

But I believe you do have him bang to right on the tenancy deposit thing. I shouldn't correspond with him anymore, the pair of you are going round in circles and winding each other up - let the judge sort it out now.

 

By the way, now I know the reason why you left early, a Council place, well done and of course you had to take it! I hope you are happy and settled in your new home.

[JustRob]

Hi Planner ok here is my list of the top of my head.

 

1-we gave what we belived to be correct notice and he said ok thats great, not, hold on you cant you must pay to the end of the term but i can relet it for you,

 

2- he asked many times if we could give him the keys early so he could get the work done before a re let, again if he was not happy about us leaving and was expecting us to maintain the payments why would he ask?

 

3- we did not leave the house and post the keys i.e abandon, he gave us his parents address and asked us to drop the keys of, agin if he was not happy and says he was expecting us to continue to pay then when he entered the property it would be in breach of contract, no 24hours notice, possible grounds for wrongfull evcition?

 

4- he spoke in his email while asking for the keys back early about getting the place inspected and our deposit back to us, now why would he say that if I he had recived no rent and was expecting it also he then says one email later that there is no deposit it was two months rent i.e what the hell is he on about us leaving and not paying until the end which we would have if his verbal agrement lie was the truth, I think he chaged this from deposit to rent to avoid tds non compliance.

[JustRob]

jackie and wayne,

 

Hi there, we are happy although it was a tip when we moved in!

 

with regards to him offering to re let thats not the case, he was private before and sorted it out himself, then he moved abroad and as his tenants have left he has moved them over to the new letting agent.

[Emma1973]

The only things I think you are going to have problems with are deductions for cleaning, getting rid of rubbish and the gardening, even with the absence of an inventory. If he has dated photos and quotes, etc and it does show that it needed doing, then he will very probably be successful in retaining the deposit.

 

And I concur with Planner about the rent issue, it does seem you left early and there seems to be nothing written which the LL says is the end of the tenancy. You would therefore have 26 days rent left to pay.

 

As for the TDS the silly numpty obviously didnt realise he had to protect it after signing a new AST! I would def go for it, but I'd also calculate how much it would cost me in fees, how much I'd be likely to receive, but also how much the LL would counterclaim for!

[Emma1973]

Oops you posted as I was typing! A LL can indeed accept a surrender of the keys, and accept that you have moved out. However you signed a contract until the end of June, which you have breached, he is therefore within his rights to claim that money back.

[Planner]

Hi Planner ok here is my list of the top of my head.

 

1-we gave what we belived to be correct notice and he said ok thats great, not, hold on you cant you must pay to the end of the term but i can relet it for you, You didnt give correct notice as you cant give notice in the fixed term to end the contract early. What you did give him was just over a months warning of your intentions, theres a subtle but important difference. Just because he didnt say you would have to pay until the end, doesnt remove your contractural obligation to do so.

 

2- he asked many times if we could give him the keys early so he could get the work done before a re let, again if he was not happy about us leaving and was expecting us to maintain the payments why would he ask? Becaus he was trying to mitigate your loses (something he doesnt have to do) by trying to get the place shipshape and re-let so you would have to pay less rent to the end of the term?

 

3- we did not leave the house and post the keys i.e abandon, he gave us his parents address and asked us to drop the keys of, agin if he was not happy and says he was expecting us to continue to pay then when he entered the property it would be in breach of contract, no 24hours notice, possible grounds for wrongfull evcition? I dont understand your point.Why would it be a breach of contract and why would it be illegal eviction?

 

4- he spoke in his email while asking for the keys back early about getting the place inspected and our deposit back to us, now why would he say that if I he had recived no rent and was expecting it also he then says one email later that there is no deposit it was two months rent i.e what the hell is he on about us leaving and not paying until the end which we would have if his verbal agrement lie was the truth, I think he chaged this from deposit to rent to avoid tds non compliance. Dont know.

 

In terms of him giving you an address in the UK (it would be England/Wales actually) then you have his parents address. Failing that, now that your tenancy has finished you have no legal right to request an address (asuming for some reasons the one foe the parents isnt valid).

[natalie]

I would request details of his solicitor and say that any further correspondence will be through them.

[JustRob]

humm, I see your points planner & Emma, I guess the converstaions between me and him seem more important than they actualy are, also as I am the one who feels wronged & I may have been looking it from the wrong perspective.

 

it would seem that it is even stevens then?

 

On one side he can say that there was no deposit and this means that I was two months rent ahead, meaning I paid untill the end of my contract

 

On the other he can say that I never had two months rent but infact 1 and a deposit, I think he wont use this one for obvious reasons....

 

So all round you think I should just drop things? accept that he has simply used my deposit in one form or the other?