UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and looking for advice on the following situation:

- we rented a UK property for 2.5 years
- landlords are US resident. They have the UK property and a UK bank account into which we paid rent
- prior to paying the final month's rent, we specifically asked if the deposit had now been protected. The landlord advised us that it had been correctly dealt with.
- post end of the tenancy, they have advised that it was not protected. They asked us to go around the scheme and deal with it between ourselves.
- we said we weren't happy to do that but we're happy to discuss and agree legitimate deductions within the next 5 days (they had been very non responsive and it was now several weeks after we had moved out).
- they didn't reply. 10 days later we sent an email advising them that we were aware it was a serious breach and we were entitled to compensation, but it was not our preferred route to take action, and asking them to repay the deposit in full.
- they have not replied.

We are very wary of wasting money on legal or court fees trying to recover our deposit if we have no realistic prospect of actually enforcing. I'm aware of orders to enforce a judgement by e.g. attaching their bank account here, but my feeling is that is uncommon and would probably be a lengthy and expensive process (and perhaps not even an option?).
Deposit is approx £8k so a lot of money for us and not money we can afford to lose.  Can anyone help or advise what the best option to do this is? 

Enforcing any debt outside the UK through the UK court system isn't easy. Winning the case would be easy, but enforcement is difficult.

Did the landlords have a UK based agent? You can sue them if you paid them the deposit at any point.

Quote from: jpkeates on January 03, 2025, 11:30:28 AMEnforcing any debt outside the UK through the UK court system isn't easy. Winning the case would be easy, but enforcement is difficult.

Did the landlords have a UK based agent? You can sue them if you paid them the deposit at any point.

The period during which we were in the property is actually two tenancies:
The first tenancy of 18 months was done via a UK agent and the agent protected the deposit.
When we wanted to renew they asked us to do a new tenancy in a relative's name, so they wouldn't have to pay agent's fees for renewal. We obliged as we didn't want to lose the property. For the second tenancy they did not have an agent.

What happened to the deposit when the landlord changed?

Quote from: jpkeates on January 03, 2025, 01:04:50 PMWhat happened to the deposit when the landlord changed?

The agent returned it to us in full.

A new deposit was then paid directly to the landlord (several months into into the new tenancy, as they only asked for it at this point). This is the amount we are trying to recover.

In which case, I think they saw you coming, and you have probably lost your money.

When they switched landlord to a relative to avoid paying a renewal fee, that might have been a red flag that they weren't on the straight and narrow.

The relative is the landlord and has the responsibility to return the deposit. Any action you take to recover via the bank account or putting a charge on the property should fail because they're not connected to the person who's now the landlord.

It's possible that you might be able to find someone in the US to try to recover the money there, but I (honestly) wouldn't waste more time and money.

Quote from: jpkeates on January 03, 2025, 06:51:41 PMIn which case, I think they saw you coming, and you have probably lost your money.

When they switched landlord to a relative to avoid paying a renewal fee, that might have been a red flag that they weren't on the straight and narrow.

The relative is the landlord and has the responsibility to return the deposit. Any action you take to recover via the bank account or putting a charge on the property should fail because they're not connected to the person who's now the landlord.

It's possible that you might be able to find someone in the US to try to recover the money there, but I (honestly) wouldn't waste more time and money.

Ah, I wasn't clear sorry.

The landlord has been the same through both tenancies. They live in the US, own the property in the UK, and they have a UK bank account into which we paid the deposit and the rent throughout the tenancy.

They asked us to put a relative of ours as the "new" tenant (with the right for their family to be resident in the property), as they didn't want to pay fees to their agent, which I believe would have been due for renewal of our tenancy.

Ah, OK.
That means that the relative would have to be party to any legal action.

You can either make the simple small claim for the deposit via MCOL or the more complex claim for a non protection penalty via the "main" claims track. Then your best enforcement route is a charge on the property.

Either route is slow and admin heavy. But probably doable.

I'd threaten that first, because it might not have occurred to the landlord that it might affect their UK property.

Quote from: jpkeates on January 04, 2025, 08:43:51 AMAh, OK.
That means that the relative would have to be party to any legal action.

You can either make the simple small claim for the deposit via MCOL or the more complex claim for a non protection penalty via the "main" claims track. Then your best enforcement route is a charge on the property.

Either route is slow and admin heavy. But probably doable.

I'd threaten that first, because it might not have occurred to the landlord that it might affect their UK property.

Thank you  - I will have a look into these.