I left property 3 and a half months ago. Landlady still hasn't return deposit.

[euggrie]

I posted here before and it was very helpful but I decided to have patience and wait for her because I was too busy to chase her around.

The deposit is not protected and she decided to tell me after 2 months of vacating the property, that she would take half of my deposit to do repairs and a professional cleaning. I had some pictures and I sent her an email explaining why I disagreed, but she would take around 10 days to reply so eventually I just gave up and accepted the remaining amount and sent her my bank details so she could do the transfer.

Well, last Monday she finally told me that the transfer was made but I haven't received any payment from her. I wrote today asking if she could confirm she did it because the money should've cleared by now. Again, no answer.

I don't know what else to do, at this point I'm so stressed about this issue, that I'd prefer to forget about the money, but it's very frustrating to let her win after 3 and a half months of claiming for it.

I rented the property for a year, I have 2 assured shorthold tenancy agreement (I renovated after 6 months) and only one has an address and it's the letting agency address. I contacted them but they informed me it's not their responsibility anymore as they were only hired to find a tenant and not to administrate the property.

I guess the only way would be taking her to court, but what if she make the transfer as soon as I tell her this is my intention? Where should I send the notification letter? Can she claim even more money from the deposit if I make her angry? The inventory was very rudimentary and that's how she managed to claim money in the first place, but I learned my lesson now.

I would really appreciate any advice on how to proceed.

Thanks

[DPT57]

Stop angsting and just send her the letter. Follow the Shelter template. She needs to learn.

[leaseholder64]

A very rudimentary inventory will make it more difficult for her to successfully claim against you.

[euggrie]

Stop angsting and just send her the letter. Follow the Shelter template. She needs to learn.

You are right. I will do it.

She just replied saying she made the transfer on Tuesday (so she lied when she sent a message on Monday saying it was done) so I wrote back requesting the deposit schema information because I was going to raise a dispute with them instead. I know the deposit was not protected because I searched several times, and she didn't provide any details at any point.

I'm modifying the Shelter template now and I'll post it tomorrow.
I'm not sure if she's going to reply and I doubt she would find out about this 'before action letter' unless the letting agency has her contact details. But that's not my problem I guess.

Thanks for your help.

[euggrie]

A very rudimentary inventory will make it more difficult for her to successfully claim against you.

I thought so. But I was very concern about this when I left the property because it's my first time renting in the UK and I wasn't familiar with any tenancy regulation. I've researched a bit more now and also she explained the repairs and charges that she would take from the deposit at the end of January when I sent her my bank details, so I don't think she can make up more repairs when she already stated the amount she would return.

Thanks for the advice.

[crossxtenant]

Just get a no win no fee lawyer and let them deal with her. She has to return your deposit in full and the court will award between 1 and 3 times deposit as penalty. It doesn't matter if she returns all or part of it 8n tje meantime. She may well come back with all sorts of other 'deducions' as defence or counterclaim (this is what my dodgy landlord did, originally deducting a few hundred which rose to £2.5k in his witness statement!) but the part 8 non protection of deposit is black and white, you will end up with your deposit back plus a minimum of that much again as a penalty.
I took legal advice because my landlord was being an arse about returning the deposit, I actually didn't know about deposit protection schemes and penalties, I just wanted my deposit back, it ended up with the court awarding £1800 to me and £2k in lawyers fees. Getting the money is another story but she'd do well to make you an offer!

[euggrie]

Thanks for your help.

She ended up making the transfer 10 min after I sent a message requesting the deposit protection schema details, and then went silent when I requested them for the second time.
She returned 30% of my deposit so my intention now is to send a letter claiming the remaining deposit and compensation for not protecting it in the first place. Otherwise, I'll take it court.

I'm not sure how she can claim more deductions if there are already new tenants in the property (I moved out at the end of October '17) and she already claimed the repairs that needed to be done when she did the checkout. I have every text message she has sent and pictures of the property when I left.

What concerns me now is how to let her know about this letter. The only address I have is the one used by her in the tenancy agreement and this is the letting agency's address so I don't know how she would find out about this notification. Should I ask her for her address? I don't think she would reply to my texts anymore.

[sam_cat]

Land registry info for the property, only costs a couple of £ and I bet that her address is on there.
Or just serve via agent, as thats the contact info you have.

[DPT57]

Yes, serve via the Agent and copy it to her by email if you have her email address.