UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi Everybody, thank you for the help with the deposit dispute issue - In that thread, I mentioned that the prescribed information wasn't all provided, so I just wanted to summarise the facts and ask for guidance.

When we first moved into the property, the deposit was protected with My Deposits Insured.
After signing the tenancy agreement and paying the deposit we were sent the following:

• Signed copy of the AST
• MyDeposits Depost Protection Certificate. This includes a section containing prescribed information and states that it must be signed by the landlord. However, this certificate was not signed by anybody.
• MyDeposits information leaflet
• Other documents, such as EPC certificate.

During the first tenancy, the deposit was transferred to TDS Custodial.
At this point, we were sent the following:

• TDS deposit protection certificate
• 'Prescribed Information' document - This was not signed by anybody and didn't include all needed prescribed information. This seemed to be the agent's own template, as it's not the same as the one provided by TDS.

The scheme leaflet was not provided.

The tenancy was renewed several times after this, plus at least one Statutory Periodic Tenancy. Prescribed Information wasn't issued on any of these occasions.

As the MyDeposits certificate states that it must be signed by the landlord, and it wasn't I contacted MyDeposts for their advice. They informed me that the prescribed information wasn't served correctly, and asked if they could refer me to Justice for Tenants, but I haven't responded yet.

When the deposit was transferred to TDS, it seems clear the prescribed information wasn't served correctly - It was incomplete, not signed, and the scheme leaflet wasn't provided.

I've contacted the agent about this, and they say that the AST agreement included the prescribed information (which it didn't), and don't even respond about when the deposit was moved to TDS. They have, however, offered a few hundred pounds to settle, while at the same time pursuing completely unreasonable deposit deductions - essentially just offering to return my deposit.

As they failed to handle the deposit correctly on multiple occasions, and have acted so unreasonably with the return of the depost, these seem to be systemic issues for them. They're a large agency, and I wouldn't be surprised if similar issues affect a large number of other tenancies.

I wonder how best to take this forward - I could hand it over to Justice for Tenants, but it may be enough to have a solicitor send a letter - any thoughts or guidance?

Many thanks!

It sounds like multiple breaches of the regulations. The breach is at the lower end of the scale, so possibly a penalty of 1 or 2 times the deposit value.
Multiple breaches may attract multiple penalties, courts are not consistent on the issue.
No win no fee claims for no prescribed information aren't that attractive, because of the low penalty.

What you do probably depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you just want the agent to stop claiming stupid stufffrom the deposit, I'd point out the multiple breaches, and threaten that if you deposit isn't returned pretty much immediately you'll go to a no win no fee claim mill and commence a claim.
If you're determined to punish the agent/landlord, I'd go straight to the claim. That process will probably be aimed at the landlord, not the agent, though.

Quote from: jpkeates on April 28, 2024, 08:19:56 AMWhat you do probably depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you just want the agent to stop claiming stupid stufffrom the deposit, I'd point out the multiple breaches, and threaten that if you deposit isn't returned pretty much immediately you'll go to a no win no fee claim mill and commence a claim.
If you're determined to punish the agent/landlord, I'd go straight to the claim. That process will probably be aimed at the landlord, not the agent, though.

The agent/landlord were insistent on their unreasonable deposit claim, even though I brought up the multiple breaches, so the deposit dispute has gone to arbitration. The agent said they were carrying out the landlord's wishes - I don't know whether this is true or not, but the agent didn't coach the landlord on what are reasonable and permitted deductions.

Now they've left me no option but to pursue a claim for the prescribed information breaches. As there are multiple breaches, it should be quite a lucrative case for a claim mill, but I wondered if it would be better to use a regular solicitor a pay the fees.

The claim mill will claim a lot from the agent, but you would get less of it. A solicitor can also make the claim on a conditional fee basis (the proper name for no win no fee).

I'd imagine that the arrival of a solicitors letter might have the desired result, there's no defending a claim when the only defence is proving that you did something you definitely didn't do.

The deposit process shouldn't be affected by the issue of the prescribed information, but they might pause their adjudication while that issue is resolved.

The agent is pretty much obliged to make the claims that the landlord requires. Whether or not that's what they advised or agreed to is something you can't know and shouldn't affect your thinking one way or the other.

You can make the claim against both the landlord and the agent.

I thought that a letter from a solicitor may be enough to focus their minds and take this seriously. Could anybody suggest a solicitor who would be able to help?

Hi Everybody, sorry to bring this up again, but I wondered if anybody could recommend a solicitor who could help me with this case. I'd rather go that route than use a claim mill.
Many thanks.

You don't need a solicitor. You have already been advised above to either point out the breaches yourself, or go to the claim if you are wanting to punish the landlord/ agent. You have said that they have left you no option, so it reads as though your mind is made up. A solicitor's letter is either an ineffective middle ground or an unneccessary cost, or both.

I've already pointed out the breeches to the agent and proposed a settlement and they haven't taken it seriously - other than proposing a fraction of the deposit as a settlement, but not dropping the silly deposit deductions.
I understand that I can aim this at the landlord or agent, but I aimed it at the agent as they're my main contact and, I would say, were responsible for the poor handling of most things.
Thinking about this now, I think I will let the agent know that I will refer this to a claim mill if they don't negotiate with me, and then follow through if they still don't take it seriously.

Sounds like a plan.
Remember that if the deposit claims are from the landlord, the agent may not be able to negotiate those (but the deposit ADR process can adjudicate that if you continue to decline to agree them).

Thank you for all of the very helpful advice given here. I just wanted to give a short update on the case. The deposit dispute was decided mostly in my favour (see my other thread about that). The agent offered to refund the small amount of the deposit with they were awarded to settle this case so I've now handed this over to a solicitor to handle on my behalf.

Quote from: MARS on June 28, 2024, 08:49:25 PMThe agent offered to refund the small amount of the deposit with they were awarded to settle this case

That's incredibly generous of them!

How could they possibly believe £75 would make you go away after the shabby way they have treated you?


Looking forward to the next update.