UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi there, Im searching for some help regarding issues were having with our landlord and realllly hope someone might have some advice to offer!
Okay here we go......

Myself and two friends moved into our apartment last september, we found the place through an estate agents in east london. Through the year we paid rent directly to the landlord and we were in contact with him through email as he lived abroad. In early april we were emailed by the Estate agents saying we had been given our two months notice by our landlord and we were to be out of the flat by the start of July. we emailed back saying that was a little early but that it was fine and we made arrangements to move out and organised somewhere new to live. We then recieved another email from the Estate agents saying that they had made a mistake and actually we were meant to move out at the end of july. We replied that we had already found somewhere to live and since we had been given two months notice we would be vacating the apartment by july 3rd. Heres where it gets complicated....

the estate agents then told us theat we should contact our landlord and not them because they actually were only employed to find tenants and not to manage the property. they forwarded the email he had sent which was dated start of april saying 'Give tenants 3 months notice'. We assumed that it was the estate agents fault for giving us an incorrect date to leave the apartment in the first place? However when we contacted our landlord he told us that they were infact employed by him, we went to see the estate agents who laughed at this they are adamant that he paid them just their finders fee and no more... First question: Are we as tenants correct that we were given two months notice and so have not done anything wrong by moving out? i just want to make sure we havent done anything wrong?

We have moved out a few weeks now and we're find it hard to resolve problems with the landlord and get back our deposit. when we first moved out i decided ot look up some stuff about deposits and found about the Deposit Protection Scheme, we were never given any info by the landlord about this at all and when i asked the estate agents who our deposit was given to he said he gave it to the landlord along with info about DPS and how it was now his responsibility to protect it. Through the past few weeks ive asked several times if he has used a DPS and if so what one, he has ignored these questions completely, which makes me concerned that he hasnt?

Also when we moved out the landlord rang me to say the apartment was in great condition and very clean and he was very please, this seems to have changed and he is now emailing me regarding cracked tiles, faulty lights etc that were already there when we moved in. we were never given an inventory list for the flat from him when we moved in and  we had seen one or two issues through out the flat and wanted to let him know. we asked him for one but he said it didnt matter, so we sent him an email with what we found to be wrong. I think we should have gone through the apartment in more detail than what we sent him, think it would have made everything easier for both parties.

Im getting worried that we will not get our deposit back as there seems to be some many issues here? and it seems if he wanted to he could just not reply to our emails or calls anymore and we wouldnt see our deposit again!

If anyone has any advice they can give us id really appreciate it, we are meeting with our local council for free legal advice but on the phone we were told written letters would be preferred to the emails we have collected over the past year?

I know its very longwinded!
Thank you so much in advance!!

Hello Helen,

As a tenant you are entitled to know where you stand.  If an agent issues a Section 21 notice then you are entitled to beleive it is genuine.  This is through law of Agency.  If you do not discover the mistake until you have made arrangements it is difficult to back out of, then you are entitled to rely upon the notice being genuine.

So the landlord is not entitled to withhold any deposit money to cover lost rent.

If the landlord failed to issue an inventory, then they can not legally withold any deposit money due to damage.

So your position is clear: You are entitled to a full refund.

My suggestion would be to draft a formal-sounding letter to your landlord.  Explain:
+ Why you beleive he has no entitlement to withhold the deposit
+ His failure to protcet thee deposit will result in a court fine if legal action proceeds
+ You will be seeking redress from the court
+ That will include an enforcement action which will target his rental income from teh property.

That should put the wind up him.  There he is in a foreign country unable to represent hiself in teh UK and his agent not wanting to get involved because he was paid on a "find only" basis.

If you don't get a response from him then go through with the actions stated.  Get a solicitor involved.  Their costs are added to the amount that is recovered from him.  Don't know the amounts involved, but he could be calculating it's better to pay you than get into something which could cost him £3k to £5k ish.

thank you for your help! he is now saying the boiler is broken, the lights dont work and that we now need to pay him 220 for a new tap, 250 for boiler repairs.. this is on top of not getting our deposit back as he says we were asked the second time to move out at the end of july and so we owe him for rent for july!!
very stressful...
I asked him to forward the info regarding our deposit scheme onto me and we would solve the problem through their disputes team? but i feel we may be on the bad end of the stick as he never gave us the contents list and so could in theory just say everything was fine before we got there??

No, he can't do that. He's just trying to play you for a fool.

a.) refuse to pay anything - he has no inventory thus he has no evidence and he is not entitled to any rent past the 2-months notice which was given.
b.) insist on getting your deposit back

To be fair get a solicitor if you want any hope to get your deposit back. Otherwise just refuse any claims. Don't just ignore him, if he really thinks he's entitled to all this then he might have a mental problem and you never know what such people will do when they are ignored.

Fact is ... he has no inventory signed by you which could document the state of the property before you moved in. That was his mistake and he can't fix that retrospectively. Don't allow him to bully you into couching up money. It was his lack of professionalism which caused all this.

Thank you for your advice I really appreciate it!

Just one thing to add. 

It isn't clear whether or not your landlord protected your deposit.  He was legally obliged to do that within two weeks of the commencement of the tenancy.  I get the impression somehow that you suspect he has not, and you may be right  The Deposit Protection Service is one of the government approved schemes.  I have lodged deposits with them in the past.  I get a confirmation email for myself when I do it, and a separate one is sent to the tenant too.  Where necessary it can also be done by post.  All pretty much within the first two weeks of the tenancy.  I presume other schemes probably operate some sort of similar system, so you would know where the money is being held.

If your landlord has not protected your deposit then your redress against him on that score is via the county court.  The penalties to him can be severe, compelling him to repay a lot more than just the original deposit out of his own pocket.