Dispute wih ex-landlord over deposit

[Hannahh]

Hello, I'm needing a bit of help. I've contacted my local citizen's advice bureau but they just emailed me some generic papers ...

 

I moved out of a private flat rental a couple of months ago. I left it cleaner than when I moved in, and with a number of issues I'd reported to the landlord which he never fixed. The only issue was where my deep fat fryer had been, oil had evaporated onto a 3' x 1' of wall. It scrubs away but unfortunately I'm in constantly poor health and ran out of time/ability to do it before I moved out. The landlord declined a final inspection with after ignoring my phone calls in the days before, and instead hanging around at the flat below (which he also owns) on the final day of my agreement "hoping he'd bump into me". I was at work, and had left messages saying I would be available in the evenings. As he'd been "hanging around" all day he didn't want to go back (he lives a matter of 2 minutes away by car, 5-10 walking) to do the inspection with me.

 

My landlord has not returned my deposit, or contacted me at all until I sent him a letter before action to recover my deposit. I'd previously tried to contact mydeposits.co.uk to raise a dispute to recover it, but they informed me that because my contract was renews and my landlord didn't reprotect it, my deposit was no longer protected with them. I mentioned this in my letter before action.

 

In response to this, my landlord replied that my deposit was protected (a lie), that he'd been waiting for me to contact him (despite him saying he'd contact me), and that he wants to deduct £120 for because of the "candle wax" that "I'm aware will not come off" (wax would scrape off!) so the wallpaper has to be stripped and redecorated.

 

I'm happy to pay for someone to scrub the oil off the wall, however the wall in question is NOT papered, its paint directly on plaster. I'd be happy to pay for some paint as well but the kitchen needed repainting anyway as it was in poor condition from the previous tenant. I'm not sure what would be a fair deduction in this case.

 

I'm not sure where to proceed from here. As far as I can tell I have three options: 1) sort it out with him directly, 2) make him protect my deposit in retrospect (is that possible?) so I can use a proper dispute service, or 3) send him court papers.

 

I don't think I can handle option 1, as the landlord is intimidating and difficult to speak to as he evades answering questions a lot. I don't know if option 2 is even possible, so I'm hoping someone can help.

 

Thanks in advance.*

Edited October 15, 2012 by Hannahh

[mariner51]

Option 2 not avail as AST ceased when you left, unless LL is claiming AST is still active, so Option 3 may be the only way forward so LL would have to justify his claim for damages with move-in/out inspection reports. Court may expect to see you have both tried and failed to reach an amicable solution, so write to LL, offering a mutually convenient appointment within 7 days, to discuss. You can always take a friend as a referee IMO

[Hannahh]

Thank you for your help, Mariner. I'll rule out option 2, then. I really don't feel comfortable meeting with the landlord, as he is quite intimidating and I'll get muddled (I'm not good in situations like these). Would courts find it acceptable if I sent a letter to the landlord stating that the deposit was not protected, and that I do not agree with his assessment of the cost of the dispute? I estimate the time it would take for a cleaner to scrub the material off the wall to be around an hour, so I was thinking that I could offer two hours at £9.95 per hour (a typical rate for a cleaner in this area) to be generous. Does that sound reasonable?

[mariner51]

Hannahh, you can write to LL, offering what you feel is reasonable compensation for fat fryer damage etc. He is under no obligation to accept, as he can claim for prof repair. I would not mention non-protected deposit in letter. If he rejects your offer, then proceed with SCC action for return of deposit, the onus will be on LL to show his claim is reasonable, based on pre/post inspections. Move out inspection can be conducted without ex T being present.

If you mention you believe deposit was not protected during hearing and date you gave NTQ and vacated T, it would be up to Court whether to proceed aginst LL for non-protection penalty, thus pot saving you £100s

[Elisee]

Hi Hannahh, I am in almost precisely the same situation. Doyou have any update as to the proceedings?

 

Mariner51, I am not sure I follow your reasoning

 

“If you mention you believe deposit was not protected during hearing and date you gave NTQ and vacated T, it would be up to Court whether to proceed against LL for non-protection penalty, thus pot saving you £100s”

 

a) wouldn’t non-protection penalty be required to be claimed through a county court multi track process N208?

 

b) wouldn’t you have to establish non-protection penalty in your claim and therefore in LBA rather than at the hearing itself?

[Hannahh]

Hi Elisee. A couple of days after I posted this, I received another letter from mydeposits.co.uk saying they would now be taking on my case. I believe the landlord either quickly reproected my deposit, or had reprotected it previously but not told me the details of it. This meant that the dispute could go through their service. Ultimately I ended up losing £60 out of my deposit, as the adjudicator took my side, largely because the landlord had declined a checkout inspection. I don't think this will help you much, I was lucky! I hope you get it all sorted out.