UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

I realise there are similar threads already here but reading through I can't see one with quite the same information so I figured I would try and get a more specific answer if anyone can help!
I began a tenancy on a 6 month fixed term. This then became periodic at the end of this and stayed in the property for 4 months after.
I have now moved out and contacted MyDeposits (who my landlord say they protected deposit with) and they said protection ended 7 months after the initial tenancy start date.
I have seen a thread on here that says MyDeposits auto-unprotect after 30 days if landlords do not inform them that the tenancy has continued so am I to assume that's what happened here?
Where does this leave me in terms of how/if the landlord has failed to protect the deposit where they should have?
Thanks in advance for any help clearing this up in my clearly confused mind!

If the Deposit was not protected 7 months after the start of the tenancy, if it was protected at the start, then - yes - it's very likely indeed that it fell foul of auto-unprotection.

It costs nothing for a Landlord to continue protecting the Deposit, so it is very likely to be an oversight / admin. error rather than something intentionally nefarious (not that that matters). The Scheme does write to the Landlord, warning them, so it's not as if they need to keep track of each Deposit.

You haven't indicated you are dissatisfied with the way the return of the Deposit was handled at the end of the tenancy - are you? Or has that yet to happen?

I am still awaiting the return of the deposit, but during a leaving 'walk around' the landlord insinuated that I was at fault for issues that they had failed to fix during the tenancy and had since got worse, hence why I initially was looking into how the ADR works with the scheme i was in.
Obviously should the landlord offer an agreeable amount to be returned I have no real desire to fight them on principle, but just wanted to know where I stand should they try and unfairly deduct.

Quite. Can the ADR process be initiated if a Deposit is not protected? I'd think not. There is one sticking point here - if a Deposit does go unprotected automatically... then you would have been written to as well. Were you, or not?

Anyway, see what happens and if the attempt to deduct is something you cannot handle... make them aware of your intentions, which do seem to put you in a good position. At that point everything could change, for the better. There's no rush in these cases. You can play it well. Some significant effort might be required on your part, though.

I would not let your Landlord know that you know there was a failure.

Make sure you put in writing any disagreement you have with comments the Landlord made at the 'walk around', it could be something as simple as

"Dear Mr X, I was surprised to hear your insinuations the other day that I had caused any damages to the property.  I just want to make it clear that I refute such allegations and in fact the alleged damages were caused by your failure to rectify existing defects.  Please let me know when you will be returning my deposit?"

The Landlord would be foolish to not return the deposit because his failure has denied you the ADR and the ADR may be needed.

As it is, in my experience MyDeposits might decide to allow you to use their ADR process depending on the type of scheme it was and how much they value your Landlord.  I suspect that it is insurance based, but it then comes down to was it the Landlord or the Agent that arranged the protection.  Agents are stakeholders, so depending on their size they just give details and extensions to a continual basis as they occur. 

If there is no argument you can decide whether overall you are happy and whether it is worth your while. You might just ask for a written reference which could be of greater value to you.

Otherwise, you can write a letter before action that doubles as a settlement offer, the minimum the LL would face is 1x the deposit, unless there was a PI defect in the first Tenancy, so they will likely settle for 1x or 1.5x with no argument if they want to avoid the potential of costs.

Once they have given your deposit back in full they are effectively saying that there are no damages that you caused.  On the other hand if you go in there guns blazing about deposit protection then they might invent all sorts of damages.  This is a really daft thing to do as there is often evidence to the contrary.

If they go to Court they risk legal fees for both sides, Court fee plus the sanctions themselves.

Quote from: UnsureRenter on May 16, 2024, 04:48:30 PMI am still awaiting the return of the deposit, but during a leaving 'walk around' the landlord insinuated that I was at fault for issues that they had failed to fix during the tenancy and had since got worse, hence why I initially was looking into how the ADR works with the scheme i was in.

Obviously should the landlord offer an agreeable amount to be returned I have no real desire to fight them on principle, but just wanted to know where I stand should they try and unfairly deduct.