Tenant deposit protected for amount less than what was paid to landlord...

[Guest456789]

Hi I'm a newbie here but been using the forum as guest for a while now. I'm after some advice please... Here goes...

We are good tenants, working full time with a young family and always up to date with rent and so on. We have not long moved out of our last rental property as it is in the process of being sold. We was served notice in October last year but it has taken us longer than we hoped to find a new suitable home.

During the notice period I found out my landlord didn't protect our deposit for the correct amount. Let's say we paid £2k he only protected £1.5k. For the last two months of the tenancy it was protected correctly for £2k. He also never provided details within 30days of receiving payment and I was only issued with the certificate in October no document prior to this.
Background we lived in property for 20months, 12 months of it the deposit was protected correctly as we went via Estate Agents, when landlord provided own AST and cut out middle person this is where things wasn't done correctly and incorrectly protect for 6 months.

I've done my research and I think we have good grounds for compensation based on the fact we didn't receive the information within the time frame and incorrect amount protected. For full picture our full deposit has been returned to us so that is not an issue.

Would others with experience or knowledge of this situation agree / disagree with letter for compensation and potential court action!? Could we be successful?

Honestly I'm on the fence. Part of me says no don't do it as landlord was a good landlord and we are human at the end of the day and mistakes happen. He did correct in the end. Part of me says yes we should as as a family we have been put under stress, had to find £££s to move houses at Christmas. The notice was served for New Year Day and so on.

Moving forward we are happy in our new home which is personally a little bigger and nicer than the older property and £50 a month cheaper. So I sense overall we have come out better than expected.

Thanks

[zanorias]

I don't have the legal expertise to comment on the chances of success in court, However considering you say he was a good landlord, he did correct it, you got your full deposit back, now have a bigger/cheaper home and come out better than expected, I would let it go if I were you.

[nukecad]

Technically it sounds as if he was in the wrong, and only corrected it in order to be able to serve notice correctly.
(That 'For the last two months of the tenancy it was protected correctly' is telling there).

You say that he has returned the full amount, so although you could apply for the penalty to teach him a lesson I doubt that you would get more than the minimum allowed.

The stress of moving is nothing to do with the deposit, moving is stressful.

It isn't 'compensation' because you haven't lost anything, (although you do get the money if granted), it's a penalty against the LL for not following the law correctly.

Up to you.
You have got everything you would have if the deposit had been protected and paperwork served correctly, so you haven't lost anything.
Only you can decide if you want to spend the time to teach the LL a lesson.

[theartfullodger]

Advice and draft letter for claiming 1 to 3xdeposit is on Shelter's website. Simply sending letter may get 1x so worth a stamp

[Gandolf]

Why is everything how can we claim compensation these days??

[jpkeates]

Because the world is unfair and people who don't get a fair crack of the whip don't see why they shouldn't.

In the case of penalties for not protecting the deposits, it's because that's the enforcement mechanism the government chose.
They don't allow anyone else to police the landlord.

[Gandolf]

Yeah this sounds like genuine mistake though