UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi All, I have been renting a house out for 14 months now and know nothing, I had a gas safety check, E.P.C. and took a £450 deposit. I did not know there were any schemes you are suppost to protect the deposit with until now. i have now protected the deposit but am told that if i want to end the now periodic agreement then i have to pay back that deposit first before i issue a section 21 is this true? the relationship between myself and the tenant is very strained as i had a few problems with her being late with the rent. i do not have her bank details so would it be ok to send her a cheque and get proof of postage in the hope she cashes the cheque? what if she does not cash it does that mean i can never get rid of her? she won't speak to me on the phone or put anything in writing all she does is text. i have been in ill health recently so have asked an estate agent to take it over and she text me threatening me with court saying i have broken so serious housing laws but  apart from the deposit i don't know what and she won't tell me. does anyone know where i stand on all this. i appreciate any replies, thank you.

Deposits should be protected within the first 14 days of the commencement of the tenancy.  That has been the law since April 2007 and the penalties for not doing so are severe.  You aren't the first not to have realised it, but at least you have now protected the deposit.

As for returning the deposit before issuing the section 21 notice, I have never heard of this before.  Was it your tenant who told you that??  To my mind it isn't logical and I would not do it.  The deposit is the last of my tasks.  I inspect the property in the last few days of the tenancy and decide whether or not all is OK.  If it is (and it usually has been) then I arrange return of the deposit in full.  If it is not and there may yet be other expenses involved, then I take the time to work out what deductions will be needed before deciding how much is returned.  On plenty of occasions this may mean that an outgoing tenant will not receive their deposit until a week or two after they have left the property.  I have never had a problem with doing it that way, and I certainly would NOT return a deposit whilst they were still living there.

With regard to the periodic tenancy, I believe that you now only need to give one month's notice rather than the usual two.  Do check that though.

HI TOPESYT,
thank you for your reply, i am told now that it is 30 days you have to protect the deposit but still i didn't do it. no the tenant didn't tell me i had to give it her back, but someone else who rents a house out said that if i don't give it back then the section 21 is invalid and the judge will not let me get the tenant out until i have paid it and whatever penalty. i will try and find out if i only have to give her a month's notice. thank you.

I don't know who is advising you, but I am sure they are wrong to say that you must return the deposit before the tenant has moved out.  I could stand corrected, but it just doesn't make any sense.  Have a look at this link.  It explains all about deposits, how they are to be protected and what happens when they need to be returned, even though some aspects could be a little outdated now: 

http://www.confused.com/money/articles/deposit-protection-schemes-for-tenants-explained-by-confused-com

Scroll down to the section which discusses what happens when things go wrong.  It explains that the deposit should be returned within about 10 days of the tenant moving out.  However, all schemes do have systems in place for when disputes arise, which can obviously prolong things a fair bit.

It would simply not be logical to refund the deposit before the section 21 notice was up, and before the tenant had moved out.  What would then be to stop them from throwing a wild party and trashing the place?  Your main protection against that sort of thing would then be gone.  Sorry, but it makes absolutely no sense to me at all.  I cannot foresee any circumstances under which I would return the deposit before the tenancy had ended.  As I said earlier, I do it right at the very end, after I have inspected.

Whatever the position regarding the deposit, it does not invalidate the section 21 notice.  They are two separate issues.

You are correct though to point out that the time frame for protecting the initial deposit has now changed from two weeks to 30 days.  I had forgotten that.   

hi topseyt, thank you very much for the link i read with interest and i am keeping hold of the deposit. my tenant has lived in the property for 14mth now and has always messed me about with the rent. she pays what she wants when she wants, but in june i had an arguement with her and threatened to evict her so she agreed to pay by standing order. i have just been to the building society today and she has cancelled it because this months rent should have gone into my account on 15th. I am fed up with all this and now i just want rid of her but i can't serve a section 8 until she is two months in arrears, which she won't allow herself to get into (I don't think) so how can i get rid of her? i'm sorry for all the questions but I'm at my witsend. thank you.