UK Landlord Forum / Life

Just wondering, as I know there is a lot of questions regarding this, but has any landlord actually had first hand experience, being sued for not securing the deposit?  I was wondering what that success rate is for winning/losing.  Sorry if it sounds nosey but I'm just curious . Enjoy your day

I can't say I have, however my expectations are that it would be a simple test.

Did you secure the deposit in a recognised tenancy deposit scheme and serve the tenant with Prescribed Information within 30 days of the contract commencement;  and, (if applicable) re serve the tenant with Prescribed Information within 30 days of any switchover to so statutory peridoc tennancy?

If you did OK.
If not you will get taken for at least 1x the deposit.

If you are asking does the judge have discretion to apply the law or not, my expectation is that his discretion will be limited to whether to make you pay 1x, 2x or 3x the deposit.

Quote from: Martha on October 02, 2014, 08:12:30 AM
If you are asking does the judge have discretion to apply the law or not, my expectation is that his discretion will be limited to whether to make you pay 1x, 2x or 3x the deposit.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This

You either did it correctly or didn't.  If you didn't the chances of you 'winning' in court are zero.  As Martha says, the only variance is how much.

Fortunately I'll never find out as I do what should be done with the deposits.

Correct.

It's not winning or losing. If you didn't protect correctly then the Court must award a penalty. The 'winning' aspect could be if the penalty is a simple 1x. That could depend on things like whether you were simply ignorant, whether you tried to correct the mistake once you found out, whether there were other complications etc.. More towards the 3x if you are a habitual non-protector or did other unsavoury things in relation to this situation.

I have no first-hand experience because I, also, protect deposits correctly... I only started out as a Landlord when this legislation was in-place so I was used to it from the beginning, and I have no excuses about ignorance etc..

I would try to settle out of Court for 1x. You never know... the Tenants must be made aware that 3x is not guaranteed to them, in any way, as they might think it is... 1x doesn't look good if you think 3x is coming your way... but 1x now looks good when they think they'll only get 1x anyway. Is that a possibility? It will involve you putting your hands-up completely.