Screwed out of my deposit...

Open goal, wasn't it?

Your deposit should be in one of three deposit protection schemes. It was your landlords responsibility to make sure it was in one of them, and that you were informed within 14 days of signing your contract which scheme it was with. If you email all three of them asking whether your money is with them they will tell you if it is. If not, small claims court time...

yep. it was begging to be put away. i think even kerry dixon would have finished that one....

some good advice here. i'd go with that shit about the crow. they are awesome birds

Before the new legislation I had to threaten two slumlords with small claims court before they would release my deposit. If you take this route then they have to substantiate with receipts what cost has been incurred by the 'damage' you have caused along with photographic evidence to back up their claim. Most housing contracts usually have a 'wear and tear' clause anyway which can actually cover pretty substantial damage including stains to carpets and breakages to fixtures and fittings. I know all this because I talked to a housing law solicitor who also seemed to think that most housing contracts had very little weight in court due to the fact that they regularly include clauses which a beyond what the law states.

Anyway sorry to hear about your deposit spaghettihoops. Maybe a trip to citizens advice may be in order.

i think even kerry dixon would have finished that one....

Why I oughta...

shrike>crow>maxcrowe

Anyway sorry to hear about your deposit spaghettihoops. Maybe a trip to citizens advice may be in order.

+1 for Citizens Advice, I got both my solicitors letter and an hours worth of legal advice for free through them.

Yup, good people... There's one on Railton Road, Hoops...

letting agents round here (birmingham) have just started charging £60 just to come and do the inspection at the end of your contract. WAC.

beware of the long wait at the railton road one rob, you might be better finding someone with a civil service job and asking them for their employee protection scheme phone number which will get you access to the CAB without appointments. I'll try and dig out my old one.

Your deposit should be in one of three deposit protection schemes. It was your landlords responsibility to make sure it was in one of them, and that you were informed within 14 days of signing your contract which scheme it was with. If you email all three of them asking whether your money is with them they will tell you if it is. If not, small claims court time...

+1, as it is a legal requirement to have your deposit in the dps and they (the landlord/managing agent) haven't done so despite this being their responsibility, they are already breaking the law. I'm no lawyer but I'd say any hearing at a small claims court would end up in your favour because of the above.

Given you like your landlord you may want to strike some kind of a deal to avoid all the messing about in smallclaims courts etc. Either way, get some legal advice - first consultation should be free - and probably all you need to know to get the ball rolling.

It sounds like this managing agent shonkster has run off with everyone's cash = stealing and fraud. Your landlord should try to track down everyone else who has been screwed and then see if this bastard can be found. Never know, he might end up on some charges if there is a large amount of monies stolen.

[QUOTE=robin;1180340] most housing contracts had very little weight in court due to the fact that they regularly include clauses which a beyond what the law states. QUOTE]

This is true, my ex-girlfriend is a trainee solicitor and told me pretty much the same thing. There are only certain things which can be considered legally binding, anything else above and beyond the basic contract (and contractual obligations) is usually considered spurious and will have no weight in court.

Whenever you do something as simple as buying a drink in a shop, or a train ticket etc, although no actual contract paperwork is exchanged, in law a contract between you and the seller has infact taken place and has legally binding obligations for you both.

nelsons have a big reputation for this

(i saw on a website a while back that their apparently the worst in ldn)

Aussies > corpse rapists > landlords

This may be a repost, but I was told this week you can claim 3X your deposit if they don't put it in the Deposit Scheme (if you moved in since 2003)

At my last place we had an epic battle to try and get our deposit back from a sheisty landlord, in the end we gave up, broke into the house and caused twice as much damage as we had lost from our deposit.

... "Two wrongs make a right", I think is the saying..

Vengeance rep

If they give you any gyp, try moneyclaim online.https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp

Its always good fun taking someone to court on the internet.

This worked great for me with some silly skip people who destroyed my gas meter cupboard. Amzing how a court summons can focus the mind.

Hippy could back me up on this as there are certain people of an Eastern European orientation that who do damage to errrrr for the price of a few beers just for the fun off it.

Thanks for all the help on this people.... it seems i need to dig a little deeper and get some more info on who's actually responable for my deposit.

So, i dug out the contract, and it is with the Landlord, not the letting agent.

does this mean it's the landlords respnsability to return my deposit, regardless of what the letting agent has done with it?

sounds like it..

All contracts are between the landlord and tenant. On the place that we just let the letting agent handled the deposit money but it was the landlord who registered the deposit with the protection scheme. We pay him directly but on other places the payments have gone to the letting agent. It will depend on relationship between the letting agent and the landlord.

Who you pay I think is the key thing.