Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

[bluezulu]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

That's good news. Now that you have established that it is your deposit, you can ask LL whether he will be refunding it or whether a deposit protection scheme will refund it. Ask him which scheme and the reference number. You can also check yourself with the three schemes. See here for details how:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_ad...eposit_schemes

The Section 21 notice is only valid if the deposit is protected (and in your name), but if you do decide to remain in the property, check your tenancy terms, in case they require a full calendar month's notice to quit, as you may be committing to pay rent for 2 months until 31 July. The terms may just require a month's notice though.

[Micoolcaine]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

Thank you blue.

Interesting update.

My LL emailed me a copy of my deposit protection (dps) with all of my correct details, but the date below shows 05 March 16, I never signed a contract to renew a tenancy, it was a rolling tenancy. 05 March was when they wanted me to sign the agreement.

My initial tenancy started Jun 15.

Not only that but it shows that my deposit was never protected from the beginning as from my understanding, they would have had to return the deposit to me then put it back into a scheme.

"Start date of tenancy: 05 March 2016
Tenancy period: 12 months"

Wouldn't the 05 March date also not coincide with the notice dates?

[bluezulu]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

That appears to be very good news for you and very bad news for your LL!

When you login to DPS, what date does it say the deposit was received? Also check that LL provided your correct email address as DPS would have emailed the deposit protection confirmation to you.

June 2015 start date? Check your tenancy agreement for the exact start date. If your start date was 1 July 2015 (as you said in post #8), you now have a statutory periodic tenancy with effect from 1 January 2016.

[Micoolcaine]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

Hey blue, it was indeed July 2016, mind is all over today.

DPS did indeed email me my copy with login details which says the LL Received my deposit of £520 on March 2016, obviously not the case here.

Im more intrigued to know if they actually know they are in the wrong here and if they will take it to court? Should I just hold my guns? my goal is to find a place without feeling forced, not doing the whole court route.

How would they now serve a valid s21?

[bluezulu]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

Yes, the s21 notice is invalid, as the deposit was protected more than 8 months late and LL failed to provide the prescribed information. Either of these would have made the notice invalid.

He is not permitted to serve a fresh s21 notice until he has returned the deposit to you.

If I was in your position, I would just tell him for now that you wish to remain, at least until you find somewhere better. I'd wait for him to seek a possession order from the court and then challenge it on the grounds that the s21 notice is invalid and also claim the s214 penalty at the same time.

You will then get your full deposit back and a penalty of probably 2 times the deposit, and possibly 3 if you make the court aware of his deceit following your questions relating to the deposit. If he is a professional LL then it will probably be the full 3 times penalty.

[Micoolcaine]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

Cheers blue, very informative.

Strangely no contact for the landlord since they sent the information over. I'll send an email, still not mentioning anything other than I'm remaining until I find suitable accommodation and the deposit/agreement rates are wrong.

[Micoolcaine]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

OK, an update, not much but they got back to me o ver the last email. How do you respond? That we agree to disagree.. Another note is that their attitude has suddenly become much more friendly unlike previously.

(the below is from when the LL sent over a copy of my deposit protected 8 months later, they also sent over a certificate of an original deposit secured with the original tenants names on (not mine)

"Hi Chris,

The information sent shows deposit was kept securely from whom I received.


There has been no direct monetary exchange for deposit between yourself and I in July nor was there notification to change deposit set up from lead tenant who submitted deposit into your name. Therefore it was held correctly.


You now have full visibility of deposit and can see it's been protected."

[seduraed]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

IS Il resident? Because if so there is no need to protect deposit.

[Micoolcaine]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

Is the LL sharing living in the premises? Thankfully they're not, if that's what you meant.

[bluezulu]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

I'd ask him to provide a copy of the prescribed information. This should have been provided within 30 days of receipt of the deposit. Regardless of whether that was July 2015 or March 2016, this will still be provided late and would result in a penalty of 1-3 times the amount of the deposit.

[Micoolcaine]

Re: Is the Landlord correct in not securing my deposit?

I'd ask him to provide a copy of the prescribed information. This should have been provided within 30 days of receipt of the deposit. Regardless of whether that was July 2015 or March 2016, this will still be provided late and would result in a penalty of 1-3 times the amount of the deposit.

Thank you. They may be able to argue against who's name the deposit is in but the above clearly wasn't correctly done. Hopefully now they will get off my back a bit.