Hi All,
I had to leave UK due to my project changing and i gave notice to my property agent 3 months prior to end date of contract (Feb end contract end date) that I will be leaving out of UK due to my circumstances, they said i will have to pay rent till the contract end which is Feb end, i asked if they can end the contract earlier wihch they agreed to if they can find new tenant. I paid for December and January. I left UK on Jan 2nd week and asked Agent to use my 5 weeks deposits towards Feb rent and any maintenance needs. But now landlord is sending me emails where he is not agreeing and asking for last month rent, he is listing all the issue which are not true like broken stuff, moulding, repairs etc, I get the reason for cleaning needs as it has to be cleaned property but dont agree with all other points. He is asking for Feb rent and more money if deposit will not be enough for cleaning and repairing.
Landlord never paid attention when i reported moulding in October
Mid year inspection did not happen which was supposed ot happen
Security alarm was not working which i reported but he never fixed it
He is threatening to reach out to my references, employer and home office and talking about
Question: what options do i have, can he not use 5 weeks deposit for last month rent and maintenance.
Can he reach out to employer in this matter, if Yes what should i do
He is trying everything to get as much money as possible which is really sad. Please help.
You are entitled to dispute the landlords account of the damages. I would write to the landlord detailing the charges which you contest and stating that you wish the deposit scheme to arbitrate and that if they find in the landlords favour and the costs plus rent are more than the 5 weeks deposit, you agree to pay the extra funds.
I would add something to the effect that his threats to inform your referees, employer and Home Office are a breach of data protection and privacy laws and you consider them as harassment, which is a criminal offence and that if he does this you will immediately instruct a solicitor to take action against him.
Thanks David for your answer… I am not in UK anymore… can i still do that… i guess if anything happens legally that might create problems for me in future?
Your tenancy agreement MAY contain a “no offset” commmitment meaning that technically, accordingto contract, the landlord is correct in asking for the rent thus keeping the FULL deposit available for subsequent damage and other claims even if they are disputed and subsequently disallowed by an adjudication process, assuming of course you cannot come to an agreement.
As to any specifics such as mould and alarms your rights will vary according to the agreement at outset and your evidenced use, not all mould is the responsibility of the landlord, some might just be because you have blocked sufficient ventiallation, as to the alarm, it may not have been working but unless you were told that it WAS working and formed part of the let then you lost nothing.
Thanks for your response, i could not find anything related to “no offset” in the contract, the moulding was due to dampness, I showed them to both landlord and agent when they visited.
While it’s true that the tenant should have paid the rent in full rather than allowing a deposit deducting (assuming the contract has a collapse on this), and the “correct” thing to do would be to pay it now, the agent sounds questionable. Possession is 90% of the law.
Tenant has not complied with the agreement, LL in his rights. To many tenants use the excuse of take the last months rent out of the deposit, the deposit isnt for that.
Yes that is true… but circumstances dont matter at all? I have to leave UK otherwise i would have stayed there, I have sent an email to the agent to give me details on the deposit amount, but there has been nor reply on that for 4 days now… below is in contract
You agree a Deposit of [amount] is held under the terms of an authorized tenancy deposit scheme (below clause) the details of which will be made available to you within 30 days of receiving the Deposit.
Your Deposit is to be protected as security towards the discharge or part discharge of any liability referred to in Clause [number] of this Agreement and subject to this on trust for you absolutely. The Deposit is held by us or our Agent as Stakeholder who is a member of one of the government approved tenancy deposit scheme detailed below:
Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited (TDSL) trading as my|deposits
This is an insurance-based scheme. The Landlord shall hold the deposit within the terms of the scheme.
The Deposit Protection Service (The DPS)
This is known as the custodial-based scheme. The scheme shall hold the deposit within the terms of the scheme.
The Tenancy Deposit Scheme run by The Dispute Service Limited (TDS)
This is an insurance-based scheme. The Landlord shall hold the deposit within the terms of the scheme.
If the Deposit is held in a custodial-based government approved tenancy deposit scheme, any interest on the Deposit will be paid to you subject to the terms and conditions of the scheme. If the Deposit is held by us or our Agent, you will not receive interest on the Deposit.
Does it make it clear if they will return the deposit? Landlord used to come at the apartment regularly at the end of the month to collect mail letters and was asking about our well being etc, but as soon as i gave the notice, he stopped responding on all communication channels, just asked for money and nothing else… Agent came in between for viewings, now the agent is gone and owner is sending me emails asking for money and threatening me.
No, the circumstances don’t matter at all. What matters is that you signed a contract that they could have held you to. They agreed to release you a month early and assuming you have that in writing they can’t go back on it.
If you dispute the alleged damage to the property then you should write and tell them this and ask for the deposit scheme to arbitrate.
You have a legally binding contract so regardless of the circumtance you are responsible for paying the rent until the end of the tenancy agreement. It makes sense that the landlord is unhappy about you not paying the rent. Firstly, 5 weeks of deposit does not cover a full month of rent + cleaning and any other potential damage. Secondly, the landlord does not hold the deposit and they can’t easily take that as your rent even if, say, you can prove that the damages aren’t your doing. If the deposit was in a custodial scheme then they would have to claim it with the deposit scheme. I would suggest that you pay the rent due and then dispute the damages separately. In that way, in the eye of the law you have completed your part of the contract. Also, if you haven’t taken photos before you vacated the place it would be difficult to dispute the damages. Do you have proof that the mould is caused by damp rather than condensation? If so, you can provide evidence of when you reported the mould issue and any other information that can back up your case. Your points about the mid year inspection and security alarm broken unfortunately do not account for much. You explain above that the landlord comes every month to check on your well being so it appears to me like he is a reasonably caring landlord and he’s probably just upset that you are leaving your contract sooner and are trying not to pay the rent due. In all honesty it doesn’t sound like he is trying to get money from you that isn’t necessary.