UK Landlord Forum / Life

I've just served a section 21 notice which I then found to be invalid as I hadn't protected deposit . The tenant moved in nearly
ten years ago and neither of us can produce documentation proving the amount or  even if we'd taken  it . I do remember it
being cash and I think it was £ 400 , tenant says £ 650 but this maybe because of the compensation she could get. As she
is now also 2 months in rent arrears could I reasonably give her £ 400-£650 as a final settlement and forgo the arrears ?
and would it be legally binding for the settlement to be worded so that she couldn't make future claims regarding the deposit ?

Quote from: Karen hichisson on July 17, 2019, 01:23:06 AM
I do remember it being cash and I think it was £ 400 , tenant says £ 650 but this maybe because of the compensation she could get.

May well be beyond limitation if you haven't been renewing fixed terms and had just let it go periodic. You need to provide more details to know for sure.

Quoteand would it be legally binding for the settlement to be worded so that she couldn't make future claims regarding the deposit ?

It's not a settlement if you're just returning the deposit as they're entitled to that anyway.

Agree to set off the deposit against the arrears in writing and you can serve a new, valid s21.

We renewed the agreement about 9 times , the last one being last September, they were all for 6 months so , yes we
let them go periodic .

9 times 6 months is 4.5 years, that's a lot of years unaccounted for.....

In any case, let say 2 thirds of those tenancies are still within limitation, 7 times (including one statutory periodic) £650 is £4550. 3x is £13,650. Deposit protection penalties of between £4.5K to £14K! Yeah, your tenant is not going to settle for a few hundred pounds.