Deposit Protection - why bother !

[gullarm]

Is the Deposit Protection Scheme a waste of time?

The reason I ask is I have had nothing but hassle getting my deposit back.
My tenant left giving 3 days’ notice after 7 months of a her second 12 month AST and posted the keys via royal mail, even though she has posted rent thru my letter box on several occasions. No forwarding address.

She left with arrears of around £1700 and major damage to the house (1K and counting so far)

I log into the DPS website, click the right section to say she has left, 5 days later I get a letter at the rented house for my now ex tnt, throw it in the bin. Few days later get another, chuck that in the in as well.

Wait a week, log on, nothing has changed, wait another week, same again, wait another week still no change. Phone them up explain what’s happened, they seem to think she will reply to the letters when she doesn’t live there, so they will send me a Deed to sign and return in the presence of sol. Seven days later Deed turns up, an over complex form for something so simple.

Make an appointment with sol, take time off work, fill in form and get signed, cost me £5.

In the meantime get letter from Post Office that all mail has now been redirected, so decide to wait until post starts coming to the house for the ex tnt, debt people are very persistent.

Finally after 6 weeks since she has left mail has started arriving again, so posted off Deed to DPS.

What a faff for money that she neither cares for nor wants. Why is it all so one sided.

It should be simple, if she doesn’t contact the DPS to get her deposit back, whose fault is that. I did everything by the book and it’s taken me ages and loads of hassle to sort this out. I need that cash to clear her s**t up.

I’m tempted to not bother with the DPS and just take a month’s rent in advance, I know this may be classed as a deposit but no one seems to care. Most tenants just don’t pay the last month’s rent anyway, so what’s the point!

It’s a system that was created by people who know nothing about how bad tenants work!

RANT OVER

So far I havent got my deposit back.

[Sad S]

So far I havent got my deposit back.

Why not use My Deposits, so you wouldn't have to go through this again?

[red_jude]

Is the Deposit Protection Scheme a waste of time?

Most tenants just don’t pay the last month’s rent anyway, so what’s the point!

As a tenant, I don't think so. It seems that all tenants are viewed as bad and thats not the case.
I need to know that my deposit is safe and I will get it back and it hasn't been used for anything untoward.

That never crossed my mind although our previous LL had £1125 of our money and we had to find another £1450 for our current property, why would we not pay the rent?
Most people don't have a few thousand lying around and the costs for our current move have been just over 3K!! We did the check out of our last property on 4th August and finally got our straight forward deposit back on 23rd.

Not all tenants are bad!!

[MONGOOSE505]

Hi G

Sorry to hear about ur situation, I have been there myself and understand how u feel.

Tough love time, No disrepected intended......Never let any tenant owe you more that 2 months rent, if they fail to pay, section 8 them asap to show ur serious about rent payment.

Broken promises from T dont pay the bills or pay for the mortage of rental.

As for the DPS, I quite like dealing with them,but you need to understand how they operate and understand there proceedures when dealing with disputes.

From what I have read they tend to favour the T in disputes, so get smart and cover your bases, proof is everything with them.

For example....

1. I now send all mail registerd post.
2. All inventory is signed,witnessed and photographed with proof of date.
3. I record every aspect of property with video recorder.
4. I provide my contact details to people living next to rental, if problems occur, they call me.
5. Understand rental law, rights of T and LL
6. This list is endless ect etc etc

Sorry if it sound like overkill, but dont repeat the problems that caused you to get into this problem in the first place.

Regards

[gullarm]

My model tnts are leaving at the end of this month and guess what, they havent paid this months rent.

Called them up and asked why it hasnt been paid and the reply was : -

"use my deposit as the the last months rent as we need that to pay the deposit on the new house"

And these are 100% nice people, kind and generous and have spent thousands on the property.

Now I know the deposit return is no problem with these tnts, they have told me where they are moving, showed me all the details on the internet, really nice people. But if these nice people have this opinion of "deposit = last month rent", what about the dregs of society who dont give ****.

I just think the whole deposit thing is wrong and needs sorting out, the DPS is not the way to go.

I wont be using them again. Like I said all the tnts I have dealt with just dont seem to care where the deposit is as they can not pay the last months rent and walk away.

After 10 years in this game the DPS is not the way. Im fair in my lettings, but its brought the good landlords down to the level of the bad landlords.

[red_jude]

I don't understand people like your tenants, I couldn't live with myself if I did that, a good reputation goes a long way for future references etc.

I agree with Mongooses set of examples, I would be doing that as well.

I just think if you owe a months rent you pay it, maybe its just me!!

I certainly don't understand our previous LL who had previous tenants he had to evict, who caused loads of damage etc and who told us numerous times we were there forever.

Makes me very suspicious now.

[westminster]

I’m tempted to not bother with the DPS and just take a month’s rent in advance, I know this may be classed as a deposit but no one seems to care. Most tenants just don’t pay the last month’s rent anyway, so what’s the point!

You have several options:

• Don't take a deposit.
• Pay to use MyDeposits and have immediate access to the deposit, unless the T raises a dispute.
• Attempt to falsely claim that the deposit is a month's rent in advance, and expose yourself to litigation, and challenges to any attempt to evict via s.21 procedure.
• Stop being a landlord.

After 10 years in this game the DPS is not the way. Im fair in my lettings, but its brought the good landlords down to the level of the bad landlords.

In what way?? I think most of us law-abiding landlords are managing to cope with the deposit protection system without turning to drink.