In short, I received my court order for eviction (the tenants moved out 20 days ago) and also a money judgment for nearly £3,000. The deposit is £1,000. I claimed the deposit as soon as I got my house back. Guess what? Of course, they rejected it, but they also didn’t go for a dispute, because they knew they wouldn’t win.
However, the problem is that OpenRent doesn’t think a court order and a money judgment are strong enough to release my deposit. They definitely need the exact word “mydeposit” in it. Otherwise, the deposit must be returned to the tenants. But if I just keep silent and say nothing, after 90 days I will get my deposit back.
This is an issue with all the deposit schemes. You have to ask the Court to award you the deposit in part payment during the hearing. Seek advice on what you can do retrospectively.
I tried, but the judge refused as the reason he gave us is that he was reluctant to interfere in a tril contractual agreement and took the view that the normal process to recover the deposit could be followed without a court order.
Just to be clear, the 90-day delay is not an issue with all deposit schemes. It’s only an issue with MyDeposits (i.e. OpenRent tenancies) who summarily refused to give me a reason why they require three times the period of other deposit schemes when I contacted them to ask.
This is one reason why I stopped using OR for tenancy creation. You don’t get a choice as to where to place your deposit.