Help with TDS please!!

[miss_renegade]

Here's my story:

 

My partner and i lived in our last apt for 2 years, and we moved out August 2010. Previous to that we lived in a smaller apt owned by the same landlord for 9months. Our deposit on the smaller apt was £450, and when we moved to a bigger apt, we paid an extra £150 to make the deposit £600.

 

When we moved out of our apt, the Landlords' Dad (who lived accross the road and dealt with any problems tennants had) came to inspect and said that the condition was fine, and i handed him back the keys. We never heard anything about the return of our deposit for a month so contacted the Landlords' Dad (as we never had a contact number for our Landlord) who said he'd ask his son to get in touch with us.

 

We recieved a letter stating that he had deducted money for re-decorating and for boiler repair!!

 

Once we recieved this we sent him a letter asking for details of which Tennancy Deposit Scheme he had used (so we could dispute these deductions) and he replied stating that it was not in one as the tennancy pre-dated the law coming in to force. We replied stating the dates of our tennancy did fall in to this Law coming in to force and had no reply. We sent another letter again stating that it was a legal requirement to put it one of the TDS's and again had no reply.

 

At this point we spoke to a solicitor who sent a letter on our behalf asking for the deposit within 7 days. 9 days later we recieved a letter with a cheque for the deposit MINUS the deductions (which had been pre-dated to the month before even tho the postal mark said the day before we recieved it) and again saying that the deposit was not in a scheme and he would have to "look in the archives to find out why".

 

As we now know that our deposit is not in a scheme we want to persue getting the 3x deposit back as well as our full deposit, however when i spoke to someone at Shelter, they told me it may not be successful as there is a case ongoing (Tiensia services v Vision enterprise) that could change the outcome for other future claims?

 

 

Can anyone give me advice on what to do? I've searched the internet all day for some help and rang a few people. We dont have the money to waste on court fees if it's not going to be successful.

 

Thanking you in advance

[mariner51]

Not related to TDS question but did you not get inventory and inspection when moving in and moving out?

[miss_renegade]

when moving in to the first place i definately remember, not sure about moving in the 2nd place, and not when we left, No.

[mariner51]

So neither side has evidence of condition on 2nd move in or out?

 

As for 3x deposit claim I think this will fail as you have vacated the property so no Tenancy currently exists, LL has returned deposit less deductions so no deposit exists. Your only hope is to claim the disputed deductions in SCC, neither side appears to have evidence of property condition during the T.

How much is the disputed charge?

[miss_renegade]

We haven't cashed the cheque he sent (for £318 out of £600) so deductions are £282 for "redecorating" a place that was fine (and even if it wasn't my dad's a painter & decorator so i'd have got him to do it for free for me before we left) and for repair of the boiler which wasn't broken and was his responsibility anyway!!

As for not being able to claim the 3x amount as we are moved out, surely this is wrong as you can't get your deposit back whilst still living there?

[xoAmyox]

I believe that you do have a solid claim for your deposit, especially as you have not cashed the cheque. There are two options available to you, one is that you simply claim for you deposit in the Small Claims Court, where the fees are low, the process fairly simple, and there is no risk of you having to pay the landlords solicitors costs should you lose (although from the info given it doesn't sound like you would).

 

The second option is the one where you would claim for you deposit + the 3x compensation. This is not heard in a small claims court, it is know as a Part 8 Claim, which means you could be liable for the landlords costs should you lose, it is strongly recommended that you seek legal advice before pursuing this option,.

 

The case of Tiensia v Universal Estates t/a Vision Enterprise, has been heard in the Appeals Court, but as far as I'm aware is being taken even higher. This means that any decision made on this case (and other similar cases e.g Honeysuckle and Draycott and Hannels) are binding on the lower courts. There was also a case heard in the High Court on the 7th Feb which will bring new light to the argument of protecting a deposit after a tenancy has ended which has yet to have judgement passed.

 

As it stands currently, the cases listed above, amount to the opinion (and this is very subjective from solicitor to solicitor and judge to judge) that a landlord can escape the compensation part of the law if they protect the deposit at any time before the court hearing, even if the tenancy has ended. This would not necessarily mean they would 'win' as such, but that is up to the judge on the day, and you could be liable for the costs running into 4 figures.