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Forgot to protect tenants deposit in DPS scheme

Started by MitchofOz, April 23, 2019, 01:33:31 AM

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MitchofOz

Hello,
Just recently after 4 months my tenant as come back to me with a no win no fee solicitor claiming I had breached to protect their deposit whilst he was my tenant over the duration of 4 years.

When I realized this has not been done on the 4th year the deposit was immediately put into a DPS scheme (legally protected) and then upon vacation of the property the tenant had his deposit returned to her.

His solicitor has sent me a letter stating he will be taking me to court if I fail to pay them within 14 days the deposit sum times 3 times 3 years being close to 16k pounds.
Can anyone advise kindly what I can do in this matter.

I have always been a good landlord to this tenant and never increased his rent to market rate, and issues he faced were fixed and resolved very quickly, all legal gas certs were up to date.

Can his solicitor really threaten me in this manner with no professional courtesy of dialogue (talk of out of court settlement).
Any help I would be most grateful.
Thank you






heavykarma

You should make an offer to settle out of court.The solicitor can demand whatever he chooses,but you don't have to roll over. You can be sure you will have to pay at least 1x deposit,there is no defence for not protecting it.l would offer this amount plus say 25% more.Point out that you have not set out to swindle anyone,and that the court would be most unlikely to demand the maximum amount.I know you have brought this on yourself,but wishing you good luck.

Hippogriff

Firstly, you'll have all of the documentation proving that you indeed had protected the Deposit for 3 out of the 4 years, correct? Put that angle to bed straight away. Putting the Deposit into a Scheme is not enough, of course... it needs to be done in time and the correct information needs to be served on the Tenant as well. Did you do it all correctly, or is there a 'loophole' they might be thinking of? Do you fully understand?

His Solicitor can absolutely write what you consider to be threatening letters to you... think about it... it's their job, right? I mean, it can't get to the point of real threats about them sending heavies around to kneecap you... but they can threaten to take you to Court and they can point out that the theoretical maximum penalty would be 3x the value of the Deposit for each tenancy... that might sound like threatening, but - really - all their Solicitor is doing is making you aware of your exposure... very kind of them, really.

You just need to disabuse them of that notion, now, with all your ready-to-hand evidence. If you accept your failing (and it sounds like you do) then assess what your maximum exposure truly is (it sounds like 3x the Deposit, not 3x 3x the Deposit - or 4x 3x the Deposit) then polite letter pointing that out and offering something in good faith as a means of bringing this to a close should be your next step. Don't be an ostrich.

What if the Solicitor is correct? Dig deep.

Remember - all the other stuff about how kind and moral you were, about how timely your repairs were, about how you once loaned the Tenant a car to get to work, and about how you let them have pets, and never once increased the rent (even though you could, but you didn't 'cos you genuinely liked them) and how you let them off some obvious damage at the end of the tenancy for an easy life... it's all totally irrelevant!

All you are doing is fuelling the sense of injustice you currently feel. Sure, it's obvious to us that you're a good egg... but to this Solicitor (and the Tenant) you're just a mark.

heavykarma

I think the fact that the deposit was returned in full is something in the landlord's favour,and worth stressing in the reply?