Hi,
I have tenant who did not pay last month rent and expected me to cover from the deposit. The tenant left property, without proper handover of keys. I have put the claim to get the last month rent and repair from TOTAL property. However, it’s been 15 days and tenant hasn’t replied. I don’t have money to carry out repair etc. How I can request TOTAL proerpty to release deposit? What will happen if tenant do not respond at all?
I appreciate your help.
I don’t know the answer to your question, but would suggest your deposit holding companies website might be a good place to start for clarification, and am sure they will have web-pages dedicated to providing this information.
You sound very vulnerable financially as a Landlord, and I would strongly suggest that you consider the financial viability of you continuing to be a Landlord. The financial risks are great, and if a delayed deposit refund is stressing your finances to this extent, then If I were you, I would be concerned of the potential risks from land-lording going forward.
As a Landlord you need to have a buffer to absorb the natural fluctuations in cash-flow throughout the journey.
TOTAL property sounds like an agency. It’s not a deposit scheme. There are only three
Deposit Protection Service
MyDeposits
Tenancy Deposit Scheme
Find out which one it’s in. You can get a scheme to release the deposit if you are LL and the agent deposited it but can’t release it (e.g. they went bankrupt) but you need to follow the scheme’s rules.
What happened when you went into the office of TOTAL property to discuss this?
Hi @lettings38,
You can start the repayment process by logging into your deposit account here:
Note that Total Property is the platform for handling deposits protected by mydeposits.
For newer tenancies, the deposit return process is handled entirely on OpenRent.
I need to question when my tenant did a runner, 2 months not paid, I’ve now claimed the full deposit which only covers one month. All of this was in writing from the tenant as evidence. Now I am being told OpenRent despite hearing nothing from the tenant for 1 month says they won’t pay the deposit to me until 90 days have expired. If this happens to Sandip he is in even more of a financial bind.
30 days is the legal statute so what reason are OR giving for extending this to 90 days?
Where we do not receive a response from the tenant onsite regarding a claim, any payment is subject to a holding period of 90 days from the time in which the claim was submitted.
This is due to the tenant’s legal right to raise a dispute with mydeposits within this timeframe. Where the tenant agrees to a claim onsite in the meantime, the funds will be sent over earlier - we chase the tenant on a continuous basis regarding this.
We outline this clearly in our communications.
Some tenants are runners, and there’s no protection for the landlord then ?
Obviously, the tenants who ran away without paying rent , not going to reply-common sense…
If the tenant doesn’t provide a response then the claim will most likely be upheld in the landlord’s favour, we do however have to respect the tenant’s legal right to dispute this in the timeframe.
Thanks for this.. I will go back to them with this information. I have claimed once before but in agreement with the surrender that time and they paid the balance back very fast. In this case the ex Tenant is not responding nor is her Guarantor. Not sure if it’s worth pursuing the Guarantor? any advice on that -she’s in Ireland.
It’s not looking good.. here is my response asking after one month why they didnt pay Me, not even the Law courts give people 3 months! .. “ The holding period is required as by law the tenant has the right to raise a dispute with mydeposits within 3 months of the tenancy ending (or longer at mydeposits’ discretion).
In this scenario, we would be obliged to pay the disputed amount to mydeposits pending their adjudication.
Please rest assured that we continue to contact the tenant for their response to the claim and will process this as soon as they respond.”
Another good reason not to lodge deposits via OpenRent who force you to use My Deposits.
I use TDS and have been through the process of retaining the entire deposit for a T who owed far more than this in rent arrears once and was completely uncommunicative throughout the process. TDS held the deposit for 30 days, didn’t hear from the T and therefore released it to me when the 30-day deadline was up. I thought this was a requirement of all schemes in such a situation (i.e. not something that individual schemes had the power to vary) so I’m very surprised to hear that MD are insisting on 90 days with no good reason for a time period which seems unnecessarily lengthy.
I would never use the Deposit Protection Service again. My tenant was evicted and 3 years later the DPS still has the deposit. The Court was asked to include an order for the deposit to be released and did not, so I have the expense and hassle of getting a Statutory Declaration before they will consider release of the money.
Does anyone have anything good to say about the deposit scheme or legal system ?
I insure my deposits, that way they are in my hands and not at the behest of some other organization. Similarly I do all my own admin, with the help of NRLA. You cant beat being in control, let someone else do it then trouble is looming ahead.
This is incorrect.
According to My Deposits:-*
”Lead tenant does not respond*
Should the tenant fail to respond, the landlord/agent will be able to initiate the single release process. A statutory declaration will be available to download, have witnessed and upload via the online account. Once we approve the statutory declaration the tenant will have a final 14 days to respond. Should they fail to respond, we would release the claimed amount within five working days.”
This suggests the additional 90 days holding is a policy instigated by OpenRent and not a statutory requirement.
Once a declaration is completed, the tenant has 14 days to respond from serving at last known address. It is not a case they have 14 days to respond and 90 days to appeal if they don’t respond
Hi @Martin41,
That information is for custodial deposits, not insured deposits which OpenRent uses.
If it’s for the insured scheme, then why is the LL complaining that they don’t have the money to carry out the repairs?
Because the deposit hasn’t been released yet.
The tenant didn’t pay last month rent and left with damaged property.