Landlord Conflict

[gboswell]

Hello, I'm having an ongoing conflict with my landlord. He doesn't want to do maintenance and repairs, but he does want to put the rent up! I'm getting support from two departments of the local authority soon, but someone has mentioned checking the conditions of the Deposit Protection Scheme. So, I've looked into it. In August 2016 the landlord got a local letting agent to draw up a tenancy agreement for him and sign us up. We have no further contractual engagement with the letting agents since. They took the deposit, placed it with DPS, emailed us and told us that and said that all the original documents had been sent to the landlord. So, we find we only have a partly completed copy of the tenancy agreement which does not include the landlords signature. From the email, we knew the deposit was protected and where, but have never received any paperwork from the landlord. I have been told this week that we should additionally have received a signed document confirming all the deposit details were correct. We had no such document. There is a pdf document on the DPS site but its not 'signed'. The implication of this is, I'm told, he can't evict us, and that we have certain rights to counterclaim. Is this true? Seems too good to be true... Also the DPS site says our tenancy is 6 months from 1st Sept 2016, when the tenancy document says 12 months, and the landlord always asks for increases for 31st August. FYI he's asked for a 17% increase. Any advise would be welcome, I can't talk to Shelter and the text on their site isn't detailed enough, though it implies some of what I've been told is true.

[islandgirl]

So the deposit is fully protected and with the DPS?
Read this: https://www.rocketlawyer.com/gb/en/p...0the%20deposit.

If landlords fail to protect tenant deposits or do not provide the prescribed information, they can be ordered by a court to repay the deposit to the tenant or pay it into a TDP scheme's bank account within 14 days. Additionally, they can be fined up to three times the amount of the deposit.

Furthermore, landlords who have not placed a deposit into a TDP scheme within 30 days of receiving it, or who have not provided the prescribed information, are unable to evict a tenant using a No-fault eviction notice (eg a Section 21 (form 6A) notice for England) until the deposit has been paid back to the tenant and the prescribed information has been provided.