Deposit Protection Scheme

I just moved and had to go through this awful agency thing that checked EVERYTHING and give you a grade A (good tenant) B (needs guarantor) and C (not to be touched with a bargepole.

They called: My mum, my HR department at work, checked my wage and employment status, my three previous landlords, ONE of whom was a psycho who i kept my last month's rent off. They were going to put me down as a B) but I had to plead with them no to and finally scraped in.

Really fucking intrusive, but designed to stop the old 'mate will you be my landlord' ploy that has worked so well for me in the past.

Oh no! They made sure you are who you say you are, that you can afford your rent, and that you haven't fucked anyone over in the past! Tsk, outrageous...

^ Haha!

the problem with regulation is that it costs money which inevitably gets passed on to the tenant.

Some landlords were acting unscrupulously, government felt this was an easy vote-winner, passed some half baked legislation - bigger mess.

What used to happen is that you'd call the landlord and ask if the deposit could be used as the final months rent. He/she'd probably come round, take a look for carpet burns etc, and say ok.

Now, the landlord doesn't hold the deposit so you can't do this. Same thing with references, these days you almost have to have a CRB check to get a flat with some agencies.

Its as easy or as difficult as you want to make it. Its simple, if you rent through an unregistered landlord/person you are playing Russian Roulette with your deposit money.

+1

I had the option of moving to somewhere with a proper cushty letting agency, cost some more, but the guys that moved to the place with the dodgy landlord that was really cheap they got ripped off.
I had to settle for somewhere smaller, but when somethign breaks i phone up and they fix it. all above board, deposit in the scheme. you gets what you pays for.

the problem with regulation is that it costs money which inevitably gets passed on to the tenant.

Some landlords were acting unscrupulously, government felt this was an easy vote-winner, passed some half baked legislation - bigger mess.

What used to happen is that you'd call the landlord and ask if the deposit could be used as the final months rent. He/she'd probably come round, take a look for carpet burns etc, and say ok.

Now, the landlord doesn't hold the deposit so you can't do this. Same thing with references, these days you almost have to have a CRB check to get a flat with some agencies.

But really is it any wonder that this kind of legislation has had to come in when you look at what some nightmare tenants have done to properties out there, or when you look at the amount of crazy stupid Landlord that are around spending peoples deposit money etc.
In my opinion the Landlords and the Tenants both deserve to have their rights as each party protected, and I think the current legislation despite being stringent is much better than how it "used to be", and serves to protect both parties as impartially as possible.

Oh no! They made sure you are who you say you are, that you can afford your rent, and that you haven't fucked anyone over in the past! Tsk, outrageous...

whatever happened to trust? To judging a person by their handshake and a brief conversation and a nice reference letter from the previous landlord? What was wrong with those heady days??

whatever happened to trust? To judging a person by their handshake and a brief conversation and a nice reference letter from the previous landlord? What was wrong with those heady days??

I trust in Jesus to do the right thing............oh wait, no I don't.

I trust in Jesus to do the right thing............oh wait, no I don't.

One of those statements is a lie.

whatever happened to trust? To judging a person by their handshake and a brief conversation and a nice reference letter from the previous landlord? What was wrong with those heady days??

Are those the days when people left their front doors open and handed in large sums of cash they found to the police?

whatever happened to trust? To judging a person by their handshake and a brief conversation and a nice reference letter from the previous landlord? What was wrong with those heady days??

What you really need to ask yourself is the following:

If you owned a £300k ferrari, would you allow someone you didn't know to borrow it for a year on the basis of trust alone?

Now......a similar scenario:

If you owned a £300k apartment that you had to save for years to afford the deposit to get a mortgage on, and can just about afford repayments on the rental income you'll recieve, would you allow someone you didn't know to borrow it for a year on the basis of trust alone?

I dont know if the guy who did the check is proper job, he also works as the handyman for the lettings company which we always felt was dodgy as, and was something that we have presented to the Deposit Protection Scheme (DPS) as evidence that the lettings co are sh*t

the issues they had boiled down to a damaged fridge door, which we think is fair enough to charge us to replace.

the check out stated that the property was cleaned to a "very good domestic level" btu they claim we should pay about £100 for the last bits of cleaning which is excessive.

the worst bit was that the carpet immediately after you enter the house was claimed to be dirty in a manner you would expect from normal use so they wanted £300 to clean this, upon research this is an amount to clean pretty much the whole house, whihc we felt was outragous!

We initially disputed this with the lettings company, and after perhaps too much hassling from various housemates who didnt realise we were all calling them, they had enough and referedit to the Deposit Protection Scheme's dispute resolution service.

we should have recieved the undiputed amount of the deposit back at the point having agreed to this, and provided all of our details btiu we didnt and had to chase this up, including having to chase up the landlord to sent multiple emails to the DPS who sat on their hands in the name of impartiality.

when asked for our evidence about the excessive charges we did but only sent it in the day before the deadline without knowing there was a psotal strike on and recieved a letter from them yesterday telling us that the disputed amount oif the deposit has been returned to the landlord.

basically my issue is that it took 5 20-30minute calls to get the undisputed amount of money back from a bunch of computer says no morons, who said they hadnt contacted me about the reasons why they hadnt paidback my money was because they are an impartial service, and therefore dont cont people but instead wait to be contacted.
they sent me this form and it took a bit of time to gather my evidence and send it back, and they now send the rest of the deposit back to the landlord who gets away scot free from being a cheeky bastard and charing unfiar and rediculous amounts of money to get as much of our deposit as possible.
the whole experience has been stressfull, inconvenient and shit, and i wanted to make others aware of the 'independant goverment run scheme'.

end of the day not much i can do about it, as you say Ved, but i feel that posting here is probably some of the best therapy out there.

If you owned a £300k ferrari, would you allow someone you didn't know to borrow it for a year on the basis of trust alone?

Yes! Because I'd be frikken rich! I'd probably be swanning around the Mediterranean on some big fuck off yacht with half a dozen airhead b-grade TV actresses.

Fuckin £300k Ferrari? I'd have 5 of the bastards.

Apart from the Housing Act 2004, which prescribes remedies for breaches (on the part of the landlord) of three times the deposit paid by the tenant.

Given the amount of the rent involved in this instance (above £25k per annum), however, it is not eligible for TDS protection.

Yeah.....I know that, you quoted from my response to a different statement, if you read my original response I stated quite clearly the specifics of the law with regards to the rental amount falling outside of TDS protection.

A couple of questions:

Was an inventory carried out by an accredited inventory clerk before you moved in?

If not then the current inventory is worthless anyway which may have been why they didn't take it seriously when you complained, maybe they should have stated this to you, but sadly this also means you could have argued your case that the property was in this condition when you moved in, and the landlord would have had no evidence to suggest otherwise.

When disputing you need to ask to be referred to an Independent Case Examiner, they are the only people that have the power to make any decisions, don't bother with anyone else.

When was this money transferred into the tenancy deposit scheme? This all seems a bit sketchy to me, and most importantly did you sign a bare contractual tenancy or an assured shorthold tenancy, as up until about 3-4 weeks ago for that amount of rent you would have had to have signed a bare contractual tenancy agreement which fell outside of the tenancy deposit schemes responsibility, an assured shorthold tenancy would have been worthless in the eyes of the law if yearly rental exceeded £25k.

Also do you have a copy of the agreement you signed, let me know the answers to the above and there might be something you can do about this.

However the Inventory is still a legally relevant document (if carried out by an accredited clerk) which is why I was asking for details of that specifically to see if there was anything that could be done here.

when was the last postal strike?

What you really need to ask yourself is the following:

If you owned a £300k ferrari, would you allow someone you didn't know to borrow it for a year on the basis of trust alone?

Now......a similar scenario:

If you owned a £300k apartment that you had to save for years to afford the deposit to get a mortgage on, and can just about afford repayments on the rental income you'll recieve, would you allow someone you didn't know to borrow it for a year on the basis of trust alone?

Yeah but on the other hand I have to trust my landy. I don't go ringing HIS mum to check he isn't going to show up at the door with no notice, or charge me £300 to clean a carpet.

Being lumbered with a nightmare landlord is one of the worst experiences you can go through. I've lost THOUSANDS of pounds - even to more legit examples of the breed - with scams such as Ed is relating in this very thread.

The landy is NOT lending me his Ferrari - I'm paying for it, and I'm living in it - with no other place to stay. He's the one with the power here.

I dont know if the guy who did the check is proper job, he also works as the handyman for the lettings company which we always felt was dodgy as, and was something that we have presented to the Deposit Protection Scheme (DPS) as evidence that the lettings co are sh*t

the issues they had boiled down to a damaged fridge door, which we think is fair enough to charge us to replace.

the check out stated that the property was cleaned to a "very good domestic level" btu they claim we should pay about £100 for the last bits of cleaning which is excessive.

the worst bit was that the carpet immediately after you enter the house was claimed to be dirty in a manner you would expect from normal use so they wanted £300 to clean this, upon research this is an amount to clean pretty much the whole house, whihc we felt was outragous!

We initially disputed this with the lettings company, and after perhaps too much hassling from various housemates who didnt realise we were all calling them, they had enough and referedit to the Deposit Protection Scheme's dispute resolution service.

we should have recieved the undiputed amount of the deposit back at the point having agreed to this, and provided all of our details btiu we didnt and had to chase this up, including having to chase up the landlord to sent multiple emails to the DPS who sat on their hands in the name of impartiality.

when asked for our evidence about the excessive charges we did but only sent it in the day before the deadline without knowing there was a psotal strike on and recieved a letter from them yesterday telling us that the disputed amount oif the deposit has been returned to the landlord.

basically my issue is that it took 5 20-30minute calls to get the undisputed amount of money back from a bunch of computer says no morons, who said they hadnt contacted me about the reasons why they hadnt paidback my money was because they are an impartial service, and therefore dont cont people but instead wait to be contacted.
they sent me this form and it took a bit of time to gather my evidence and send it back, and they now send the rest of the deposit back to the landlord who gets away scot free from being a cheeky bastard and charing unfiar and rediculous amounts of money to get as much of our deposit as possible.
the whole experience has been stressfull, inconvenient and shit, and i wanted to make others aware of the 'independant goverment run scheme'.

end of the day not much i can do about it, as you say Ved, but i feel that posting here is probably some of the best therapy out there.

The problem here mate is not the scheme itself its a dodgy letting agent, and what sounds like an equally dodgy, legally irrelevant inventory, you can take action against this, and you would most probably win with the right approach, but its up to you to decide if its worth the hassle or not to claw back £100.

Serious question: CrazyJames, are you an estate agent?

Serious question: CrazyJames, are you an estate agent?

Hahaha

No, really, it is a serious question. I'm just wondering why he is so knowledgeable and passionate*.

Serious question: CrazyJames, are you an estate agent?

I work in an estate agents, i've worked in the property industry for just over 4 years, I deal with the marketing and photography here, but i've had formal training on all the legal stuff, and obviously you get to know a few things after a few years working in the industry.

Yeah I wouldn't say i'm passionate about it, just trying to be helpful.

No, really, it is a serious question. I'm just wondering why he is so knowledgeable and passionate*.

I know you was being serious, just thought you would've figured it out by now.

yeah your right CrazyJames, i cant be bothered which is why i've given up fighting them posted up here really, easier to have a rant and a few good folk affirming that im in the right and been screwed over, boohoo.

also might help a few other people avoid laying all their trust in the DPS, and hoping that being in the right would prevail.

i think the idea of DPS is good but they need to address their computer says no attitude and help people out a bit, i've never asked for preferential treatment over the landlord, all i wanted was to kept informed of whats going on, and if circumstances beyond my control get in the way then a bit of help. having said that through uni we always went through private landlords who appreciate a house will get a bit of wear and tear, and if you put the effort in when moving out and take care of the house then you get your deposit back. in one case sent reorded delivery to me in cash!

now i feel better, and hopefully a few more people in the world are forewarned.

I am about to become a landlord and although I understand there are many unscrupulous cunts out there, it worries me to hear the general advice is to not pay your last month's rent. This is why landlords often now charge 6 weeks rent as deposit, rather than just a month - to stop people who don't pay the last month from getting off scott free if there is anything over and above wear and tear which needs making good. I intend to act completely above board and transparently and I expect the same from my tenants.

I am moving out of a house on Friday not having paid my last month rent because the landlord has been nothing but a pain; whenever something broke (ie washing machine) it took 4(!) weeks to sort it out. He never returns calls yet expects us to be there for viewings all the time.

When friends of mine moved out of the house 12 month ago they had to chase him for 6 month to get their deposit back.

This experience has made me very, very suspicious of landlords. I'm glad to see someone who wants to actually fulfil his landlord duty.

when was the last postal strike?

last week.