Hi, I entered a tenancy but due to personal reasons I couldn’t go through with it. The lovely landlady understood and she cancelled the tenancy and I received my advance rent back straight away. We both signed the ‘Surrender Tenancy’ deed. Now what I would like to ask is how do I go about getting my Deposit back (if I am entitled to do so) as I never moved into the property at any point. I take it Open Rent placed it into a Deposit Scheme? Can anyone give me advice or send a link?
Thank you
If you never moved in then you didnt have a tenancy, but if you signed a tenancy agreement then you had a contract to provide one and legally the landlord can require compensation for their loss. This would be equivalent to the rent and costs until they find a new tenant.
If the landlord has agreed for you to have the whole deposit back, you should contact Openrent directly to find out what happened to it.
Have you checked your inbox? I would be surprised if you, as the tenant did not get an email from openrent when the deposit was paid telling you what they would do with it.
Isn’t in the case that if a potential tenant backs out after a deposit is paid then the LL gets to keep the deposit? Also if the tenant has misrepresented themselves and found out during referencing? Its then at the LL’s discretion to return the deposit. No idea why you would unless its all happened very quickly and no financial loss was suffered.
I’m assuming this is an issue relating to a holding deposit as opposed to a tenancy deposit. Tenancy deposit you should get back.
I am assuming it was a security deposit that was paid rather than a holding deposit as the tenant mentioned a deposit scheme. The two are treated differently, but yes, a holding deposit could be retained by the landlord under these circumstances.