UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

We have a property in London that we let to three friends last year. Each tenant signed a tenancy agreement and signed the inventory check in. When they moved out, we conducted an inventory check out and there is significant damage to the property. They are disputing this and refuse to come to an agreement re the deposit. They have decided to go via TDS however, TDS have informed us that we only registered one of their names and therefore the other two tenants deposits aren't protected.

I understand that we could be taken to court for not protecting their deposits.

Is there any advice on how to proceed? We are out £6K for damages and their deposit is £4K. Do we have to return all their deposit to avoid it going to court or is there something else we can do?

Thanks!

Are these joint tenants or individual tenants who all provided separate deposits?
Whats 4k? 4k divided by 3, what did you protect with the TDS? Was the person registered the lead tenant?

On what basis could anyone realistically "dispute" £6,000 of damage done in 12 months?

The parties are jointly and severally culpable for the damages, the deposit has been taken for the performance of the contract.

You protected the deposit that was given to you, the mistake was in creating three Tenancy agreements.

You are lucky they are using the ADR process, as any decision on damages the adjudicator makes might help you.

You protected the deposit in the name of three Tenants one of whom might be considered a "lead tenant" if they were all in one Tenancy agreement. 

So this might turn on HOW the deposit was paid (lump sum by one Tenant or each paying you a percentage)

It might turn on the wording in the respective Tenancy Agreements, if they all refer to a £4k deposit being taken out then it is messy as it is all the same £4k. 

If they each say £1333.33 deposit (TO YOU NOT EACH OTHER) then a deposit protection claim might arise, but a Judge might be persuaded that the deposit was protected in full and the ADR process was able to be used for the full amount protected.

So you have a choice, appear to be super reasonable and allow the ADR to proceed, put a condition on your acceptance to use the ADR that a separate agreement is made by all the parties that this ADR process for one Tenant resolves all legal matters and disputes relating to the Tenancy including deposit protection, or you decline to use the ADR and the deposit will be held by the TDS pending the outcome of a claim in the County Court.

Quote from: Landlord London on January 18, 2024, 09:50:09 PMHi,

We have a property in London that we let to three friends last year. Each tenant signed a tenancy agreement and signed the inventory check in. When they moved out, we conducted an inventory check out and there is significant damage to the property. They are disputing this and refuse to come to an agreement re the deposit. They have decided to go via TDS however, TDS have informed us that we only registered one of their names and therefore the other two tenants deposits aren't protected.

I understand that we could be taken to court for not protecting their deposits.

Is there any advice on how to proceed? We are out £6K for damages and their deposit is £4K. Do we have to return all their deposit to avoid it going to court or is there something else we can do?

Thanks!