HI, Can anyone offer advice please?
Recently moved due to landlord not attending to urgent repairs, eg without central heating for 10 months etc. and 4 times having the house repossessed by morgage company, Barclays (he sorted out a few weeks afterwards)
Lived at the house for 5 years
Gave 5 weeks notice and on leaving just over £900 in advance rent and a sizeable deposit
He’s refusing to return money owed, which had needed to move with and says he’s not returning the bond as no keys returned. Keys were sent recorded/signed for and have a RM receipt from tracking showing signed for with his surname
Having checked online to take a court case, they state fee to be paid at the time of making claim. Unfortunately, due to covid my work is in trckles so insufficient spare to pay this, as all is seriously tight!
Any other suggestions will be much appreciated. Many thanks and hoping all are well
PS
Apologies, should’ve said that LL did not keep the hefty deposit in a scheme. I did ask for this a few times, but he always ignored the querie.
The keys were also r’cvd/signed for, 3 days before end of tenancy.
Only one rent statement was ever provided which was around a year after moving into the property, from his then representative. This showed large rent in advance and also have proof of no missed rent payments throughout tenancy
Thanks again for anyone’s help with this…(I now rent a house found on here…wish had left years ago!!)
tell the local council. Tell the inland revenue he is a fiddler and see the C A B First tell him you will do all these things
Thanks Colin, really appreciate you taking time to reply. Sorry to be so ‘‘dumb’’ but unsure how contacting IR and local council could help.
If you can explain further please, it’s much appreciated
I rang CAB and shelter helplines, and hit a brick wall, as no function to speak with anyone, or leave a message, so guess they’re all closed and working skelaton phone service.and even tried livechat with the police, as to me, it’s theft.
Police were no help, they said it was a civil matter.
Really frustrating, knowing he has my money and unless pay more, which at the mo isn’t doable through a claims court, then unable to proceed
The local council will be able to help you tp proceed further as they will be interested in a landlord who does not send off a deposit. When a landlord does not protect a deposit the fines are massive. If he owns other places they may investigate these. When I say contact Inland revenue I mean for revenge , quite frankly as I cannot stand fidlers . If it were me I would want to get at him PS and I say this as a landlord, I dont like scumbags of any occupation
Cheers Colin, I’ll ring the council early next week
I’ll skip the ‘‘revenge!!!’’ although pretty sickened with all
Stay safe and hope you have a great weekend
Hi you do know if you take him to small claims court, you will get everything back plus more if he hasn’t secured the deposit with a bond company
HI Sean
Yes, appreciate could take LL to small claims, as he’s broken every rule in the book, including not holding original bond in a scheme/company
Sadly though, as mentioned above, due to the pandemic, my self-employed earnings are rock bottom, so no spare cash at all !
I did look at the government website for small claims, but when anyone puts in a claim, they have to pay at the same time, otherwise cannot claim, which means stuck…LL has my money. Alot ! Yet stuck, so wondered if anyone had any ideas?
It feels as though LL’s can just steal from a good tenant, and no one helps. Pretty sickened with it all
Any more thoughts/knowledge is much appreciated
go to the appropiate officer at the council you do not have to pay them and they can punish him. Otherwise he can do this to someone else
Thanks again Colin, for kindly taking time to reply
I’ll ring my local council this coming week, although think most are home-working (a friend who works in their call centre is doing this)
I’d guess by his attitude he’s done this before and got away with it
LL is obviously living beyond his means, as their were 4 repossessions on the house whilst living there during the 5 year tenancy and a variety of debt collectors looking for LL
He sorted all of the repossession finances 3/4 weeks after being repossessed, but still stressful times opening letters from mortgage companies and their representatives saying the bank owned the property.
It;s all beginning to weigh on me abit, sorry, as just don’t understand how anyone can do this to another person and unless I take him to court to retrieve my money, he keeps it
It’s looking like continual home-made soup, so can pay the court fees!! … unless anyone knows of an alternative?
Irene1 The council may decide to take him to court and order a repayment to you
Oh, didn’ know that, Colin. Finger’s x’d and thanks again for your help
It would be an idea to find the correct department … write a letter and post it, E mail the info as well and ring up also this will ensure that at least you get thru . Do NOT rely on a phone call only, no matter what they say over the phone
And they could fine them up to 4 times the deposit which would go to you, it’s about £80 to do it and I know from experience that the court will side with you purely cos she has to put deposit in bond service, plus she will get fined for all the trouble shes caused plus inland rev will investigate her, I would send email or text to them telling them what your goi g to do, they will prob just pay you when they go online and check that they have broke the law 
@Irene1: You ask why people like this scumbag get away with it? It because his victims don’t fight back. Do so, if not for yourself, then for his next tenants. No decent landlord likes his type. You’re on a sure fire winner. He’ll probably try to settle but take him to court and get the full recompense you deserve.
Much thanks Sean, Colin & Tony for your helpful messages
Sean; I did sent the LL’s a ‘letter before action’ , also an email providing docs/proof of what was owed and a screen shot of the signed RM envelope the keys were returned in
LL denies r’cvg the keys, even though signed with surname! Says this is the reason why not returning the bond and also LL denies there was any advance rent, which have all payments prooving hundreds of £££s in advance!
When I sent an email, LL replied with the previous reasons why not returning money and wrote if I contacted again would contact police and cite harrassment…What a world we live in!!
I’m going down the court route, there’s no other option
Thanks again for everyone’s help. Stay safe x
Check to see if you can get Legal Aid.
DO NOT let him get away with it.
TBH, based on the lack of deposit protection, Id be amazed if you couldn’t find a Solicitor willing to take this one with payment at the end.
Ring some and ask.
Hi Irene sorry for this I have a similar situation at the moment, and we were trying to find a solution with open rent, Council, law center, citizen advice, and we couldn’t find help, the landlady involve us and after she still one month of deposit and one month of rent, + we were without house almost 3 weeks paying B&B, I’m trying to find some Help with information to do small claims or court, please can you tell me if you find a solicitor? Or just information by online, thanks and good luck
You have 6 years to claim your money so wait till after the lockdown and then seek your money back through small claims.
The court fees are minimal.
go for the court route and dont let him get away with it. Its not fair on you