UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi
I'm hoping someone will be able to give me advice about tenancy deposits.

My son has recently ended a 2nd 12 month contract in a shared house and as he is the lead tenant he is trying to get the deposit back from the landlord. The rent is up to date, bills are paid and no damage. The landlord isn't being helpful and my son asked me to help

Looking at the information he has sent me I think that the deposit hasn't  been dealt with properly. Its a little complicated so I'm hoping someone might be able to answer a couple of questions

The first contact started 3rd Aug 2020 and was 4 people sharing. The PI was given the day the contract started and the deposit was paid that day. The deposit certificate says the deposit wasn't secured until 16th October 2020. During this contract the landlord who looks after their own properties changed company name. They seem to change name every couple of years. They are a property company with properties in a large uni city.

I believe that this deposit wasn't secured on time. The status of this deposit now says closed.

The second contact starting on 3rd August 2021 again for 4 people but one person left and another joined. The deposit was increased and paid on 3rd August. The person leaving was given their deposit back by the new tenant and my son paid the landlord the extra deposit. The PI was given again on the day the contract was signed but my son didn't receive a deposit certificate.

The first PI said the deposit was secured using the Insured scheme and it was .

The second PI also said the deposit was secured using the Insured scheme but I've found a deposit under my son's name in the custodial side. However some of the other details are wrong. The original 4 tenants names have been used  and the start date was Aug 2020 and the end date Aug 2021. However it does show the new increased deposit so I think it does relate to the second contract Aug 21 to Aug 22.

Am I correct in thinking that the deposits on each contact have not been secured in accordance with the rules?

Am I correct in thinking that contracts/deposits would be considered separately if the tenants were to take this to court.?

Thanks for reading

Yes and yes.

A complication would be that all of the tenants would have to take action collectively, so it would be two completely different claims.
One person can represent the others, but they'd have to confirm that this is what they wanted to happen.

Thank you for your reply, I will pass on this information.

In the first instance I think they will talk to the landlord re the deductions and see if they can reach agreement based on this info

It that doesn't work would they need to send 2 LBA letters ?

Yes, the Shelter web site has some useful templates.

Thanks again for your reply.

We contacted the deposit company the landlord used and now have confirmation of what they did and when to protect the deposits.

The first contract  Aug 20 to Aug 21 The deposit was secured in October 2020 using the insured scheme and the PI given to the tenants was for the insured scheme. They also protected the deposit on 3rd August 2020 using the Custodial Scheme

The tenants were given the certificate for the insured scheme deposit.

Then for the second contract Aug 21 to Aug 22 where one of the tenants left and another joined they closed the deposit on the insured scheme and increased the deposit for the new increased amount on the custodial scheme but they didn't change the details of the leaving or joining tenants or the end date of the contract.

The PI given to the tenants says they used the insured scheme  and they haven't been given a copy of the certificate. the landlord is ignoring  requests for the Deposit ID number 

Clearly they haven't protected the deposits correctly but would the tenants still have a claim for the return of their deposit /or compensation? and if yes I'm assuming it would still be two letters

I don't want to give them incorrect advice but if they have a case then they can at least use the information to try to get the landlord to engage in discussions about returning their deposits.

Thanks again

If the intention is to try and get a reaction from the landlord, I'd send two letters based on Shelter's template.
It's going to be obvious if the landlord checks that they have no defence and, hopefully that'll do the job.

The lack of PI for the first tenancy is probably low on the scale of error/wrongdoing, but would probably get a penalty of the deposit value.
I'm less sure about the second, because I don't think it's actually been protected at all for the new tenancy, so that's potentially more serious.

But the landlord should be worried enough to return the deposit.
Has there been any reason given why they haven't?

Thanks for your reply,

The tenants contacted the landlord after moving out and the reply that they received was rude and basically said that there would be deductions and they would just have to wait until the landlord was ready.

They don't know what deductions are proposed. They have lived in the property 2 years with minimal interest when repairs were needed and want the deposit return dealt with properly and in timely manner. After the landlord's reply was received they ask me to find out exactly what the rules were. 

They had asked before the end of the tenancy for a copy of the check in report and they have asked again for it and the check out report but no response. They also asked for deposit ID but again no reply.

Thank you for all your advice and the letters are now ready but I'm not sure if they should send them now or start the return process on the deposit website first. 

My son has now written to the landlord 3 times, once to ask for the return of the deposit and twice to ask for a list of deductions and copies of the check in and check out inventory. No reply at all

In order to write the letters I got a copy of the title deeds to the house so that we could see who actually the landlord was. The director of the management company  owns it but I have seen that there is a charge on the house, Not sure is this is a problem or not.

I've also found out that at the time my son rented the house there wasn't a valid energy certificate ( it expired the year before he moved in and wasn't renewed until he had been in the house a couple of months). From looking at emails my son was sent the gas was checked once every 15 months or so and they were never sent copies of the certificate.

As this is a property management company I don't know if they are incompetent or just don't care about the rules.

So we don't know which route to go down, send the LBA letters or start the return process. I think they want to know the proposed deductions and ultimately get their deposits back but the landlords lack of engagement in the process is starting to push them towards compensation.

Any advice would be welcomed.

If they send the LBA letters, and if there is no response would they then only be able to forward this through court or could they go back and start the return process with the deposit company.

You can go through deposit arbitration for the return of the deposit and county court for the deposit protection penalty at the same time, or combine both for the court case.

Send the LBA and attempt to go through the deposit protection company for the deposit return. Don't issue a claim through court for the penalty until you know whether the landlord accepts going through arbitration or not. If not, issue a court claim for both. If yes, just issue for the penalty.