UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi all,

Some advice would be great.
I live in a house with two other women, Ive never seen the Landlord so i dont know who he is, apart from him being called Paz.

I never signed anything when i moved in (silly of me i know) but when i moved in i gave them £500 deposit and that months rent, my understanding was it was like any other deposit, there for if i trashed the room etc..

I've just given them 2 weeks notice that i am moving out and they are refusing to give me my deposit back.

They have said that it will be used for next months rent (November) I have paid Octobers rent up to the end of the month. As I haven't given them a months notice (which is the norm, apparently, i tried to say, yes it was the Norm if we had an agreement) and they cant be expected to pay all next months rent together.
I dont think i have to give them any notice, they said they could just kick me out tonight but as i've paid up till the end of the month, i dont legally think they can, am i right?
Can I get my deposit back?

Thanks in advance

Hello Endless_night,

Sorry if this sounds dumb.  But it sounds like you've never met hte landlord, or the letting agent.  So who did you contract with to live in the house?  This is quite important.  Please let me know and I'll provide some advice.  Thanks,

Hi,

I found them on spare room.com.
I gave one of them my deposit when i moved in and my rent goes in the shared account every month.

I take it from how you phrase your post that there is no formal contract, and nothing in writing between you and the landlord (or you and this spare-room.com)??

Without it I don't think you have much protection in law, unfortunately.  Conversely though, neither does your landlord or anyone else who may be involved.  Therefore, if you want to move out after just two weeks notice then I don't see how they can stop it, because if there is nothing in writing then they have stipulated no minimum period of notice.  Therefore there is nothing to enforce.

To be honest, they sound like cowboys to me.  The sort who give the rest of us landlords and landladies a bad name.     I think if I were in your shoes I would be wanting out asap.

Re the deposit.  Do you have any form of written receipt from when you paid it over?  They are legally required to lodge it with one of the government approved protection agencies within 30 days of you having paid it over.  I don't know why, but somehow I would put money on them not having done that.     If you can prove that you did pay it then you might have some leverage over them to get something back, but again, you will probably be hampered by the lack of a proper contract.

I am no lawyer though, so it all comes with that as a caveat.  Perhaps you could go to Citizens Advice to get as much legal advice as they can offer you for your situation.  Worth a try, and you have nothing to lose by doing that.

Thanks for your reply, I have been looking into it and it does look like i have a bit more leverage on them but i'm not going to do anything until the day i move out because if i did they would probably kick me out.

Thanks again