I think I'm going to be taking my ex LL to court..

[Bellrooster]

But this is all very new to me and I'm feeling rather stressed!

 

Bit of background, we moved into our ex rental property in October 2007 - we signed a (WHSmith DIY) standard tenancy agreement and gave £500 deposit which our landlord assured us would go into one of the DPS schemes, (I also ought to point out that no inventory was taken) After the 6 months was up, nothing more was signed and we went over to a periodic tenancy.

 

In the summer this year I started to look around for another property as we were hoping to move to somewhere near a good primary school as my daughter is approaching school age. We did find somewhere and applied for tenancy and we let the landlord know verbally that we had found somewhere and that if our application went ahead, we would give our 1 months notice. Unfortunatly, we were declined by the letting agency so let our landlord know straight away (3 days later) that were unsucsessfull and we wouldn't be handing our notice in.

 

The LL at this point said he wanted us to move out anyway and insisted we went ahead and gave our notice. Obviously we were gobsmacked, but it transpired that the LL had made an agreement with a friend of his that he could move in once we had left.

 

We said we wouldn't put our notice in as we had no where to move into! but over the next few weeks we were bombarded with texts and calls asking us to move and we were served a section 21 (with the wrong dates on it). Obviously when relations break down to that extent then it feels uncomfortable to stay and we were succsesfull in applying for tenancy in the first house that came up for rent in our price range, (sadly not in the area were hoping for) and luckily it was vacant so we moved straight away.

 

We cleaned and cleared our ex house and handed back to the LL who was happy with the house, and said that would be only deductions from our deposit for a couple of things (that I dispute). I then asked which DPS he had used and that's when i found out that our deposit had not been protected.

 

So now 21 days later I still haven't received my deposit back, I wrote to the land lord a week ago explaining that if I didn't get my deposit back within 7 days that I would seek the money through the courts.

 

I still haven't heard from him so now it's time to go to court, and I've read up on some cases, but I'm unsure on what the first step is - could anyone advise?

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

If you look around this forum you will quickly discover who are the experts, you could send them a personal message (PM) with link to your thread asking if they could advise you.

 

Andy

[Steve__M]

Because the deposit was not protected, you may be able to sue him for the return of the deposit plus 3 times the deposit as penalty. ie. £2000.

 

You should perhaps write a further letter stating your intention to sue for £2000, perhaps including a copy of the relevant parts of the Housing Act 2004, with 214(4) highlighted.

 

Housing Act 2004 (c. 34)

 

You then need to start action following something like this:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/residential-commercial-lettings/126261-tds-court-claims-wording.html

[Bellrooster]

Ok, thanks guys, I'm still finding it all rather confusing but I will keep on reading through some more threads to see if I can get an idea of what I am supposed to do.

 

Would it be worth approaching a solicitor?

[Steve__M]

Currently your landlord thinks he is on a heads he wins tails he draws position. ie. unless you take court action, he keeps the deposit. If you take court action he may end up paying you the deposit and at most minor costs.

 

If you write an assertive and confident letter stating that he will lose a further £1500 he may take more notice.

 

Just a thought though...