Hi,

I recently moved to sheffield and in the contract on my old flat it states the deposit is forfeit if evidance of all the final bills being paid is not provided within one calendar month. However some utility companies have yet to send final bills and its been 3 weeks (they told me to wait 10 - 14 days 2.5 weeks ago). So where do I stand legally? Can he enforce this clause if it was an impossibility I could have paid the bills within one month of leaving?

I understand tenants have some fundametal rights that cannot be overwritten by clauses in contracts. Is return of the deposit one of them?

Thanks,

Mark

Phone the companies and ask for a balance. Confirm the account is closed and pay by card over the phone. Provide the bank statement as proof.

Does that help? (I know it doesn't answer the question)

I am afraid that doesnt help because some companies owe me rebates because I paid too much and the only receipt I can get is when they bother to send me a final statement - they both claim to have sent this out ages ago, so I guess I can blame our wonderful postal service :(

Doesn't the rebate notice count as demonstrating that you're fully paid up?

I thought it was common practice not to pay your rent for the last month or so, to avoid this sort of nonsense? The bond would then only cover your unpaid rent, and they can't screw you? It takes them much longer than a month to evict you!

Yes, the rebate notice counts. But they havent sent this yet!

And I already paid the last months rent anyway, though maybe in future I shouldnt....

I think my sister threatened to take the utilities to court for loss of deposit if they didn't get their fingers out with the paperwork that would cost her this money.

They responded quite quickly!

Originally posted by Strix


I thought it was common practice not to pay your rent for the last month or so, to avoid this sort of nonsense? The bond would then only cover your unpaid rent, and they can't screw you? It takes them much longer than a month to evict you!

common practice if you don't need a reference from the Landlord for your new place!!

Originally posted by Steee
common practice if you don't need a reference from the Landlord for your new place!! It's not a problem if you're all square when you leave. Or you could take him to court for libel if he provides a bad reference, but you don't owe him money.

It's all chicken and egg with the landlord/tennant relationship though :(

I don't really understand the landlords problem here. Normally, the tenant has the contract with the utilities so even if they do not pay it is not the landlords problem.

I am a private landlord and I always pay the deposit back and contact the utilities about the tenant's new address - there has never been a problem even when one bad tenant skipped off owing them money.

Originally posted by Strix


I thought it was common practice not to pay your rent for the last month or so, to avoid this sort of nonsense? The bond would then only cover your unpaid rent, and they can't screw you? It takes them much longer than a month to evict you!


I would not recommend this! It caused me great anxiety when this happened to me and it will only force landlords to make the deposit larger to try and cover themselves.
The deposit is there to cover any damage to the property so if tenants do not pay the last few weeks there is the problem of who pays for the damage. The tenant could end up having a court judgement against him/her, having to pay costs and a poor credit rating.

Originally posted by vision
I would not recommend this! It caused me great anxiety when this happened to me and it will only force landlords to make the deposit larger to try and cover themselves.
The deposit is there to cover any damage to the property so if tenants do not pay the last few weeks there is the problem of who pays for the damage. The tenant could end up having a court judgement against him/her, having to pay costs and a poor credit rating.

Well, like I said:
Originally posted by Strix
It's not a problem if you're all square when you leave. Or you could take him to court for libel if he provides a bad reference, but you don't owe him money.

It's all chicken and egg with the landlord/tennant relationship though :(

If your landlord doesnt return your deposit you can use the small claims court to try and get it back - it costs something like £30/40. Citizens advice bureaux give advice on procedure. I think you can get an application form on line. It would be up to a judge to decide whether the landlord had witheld your deposit unreasonably.

the trouble with small claims courts is even if they rule against the landlord they (apparently according to the website I read) have no power to enforce the judgement. So the landlord can quite happily ignore it!! What is the point of a court that cant enforce its rulings?

Anyway I sent off all the receipts I have and paid the electricity online and printed those pages off and said he had 5 days to return the deposit minus any deductions. So fingers crossed...

unbelivable - the landlord says he cannot release the deposit until reciepts for phone bills are pvovided. But I didnt have a phone service at the address!! So how the hell can I produce these receipts? Hes just inventing reason after reason to not pay.

Maybe bt will give me a letter confirming I didnt have a phone service. But then another reason will be found to not return the deposit I expect! I really hate landlords - every time I have to go through all this crap to get MY own money back.

Originally posted by nightrider
the trouble with small claims courts is even if they rule against the landlord they (apparently according to the website I read) have no power to enforce the judgement. So the landlord can quite happily ignore it!! What is the point of a court that cant enforce its rulings?



Thats not strictly true - you can go back to Court to try and get a judgement enforced (eventually through Bayliffs etc) - but its a lot of mucking about in term of time & court fees.

Theres a good chance that the clause stating all bills must be paid within a month is an "unfair term" & wouldnt hold up in court.

Theres quite a good leaflet on deposits at...

http://england.shelter.org.uk/files/seealsodocs/393/Paying%20a%20deposit%20(E,W).pdf

Just tell him you have had a word with Shelter and they say its an illegal term and that unless he releases the deposit forthwith you have been told to sue by trading standards.

Originally posted by 999tigger
Just tell him you have had a word with Shelter and they say its an illegal term and that unless he releases the deposit forthwith you have been told to sue by trading standards.

Tried that 2 weeks ago and he just ignored the letter. It costs 120 pounds to even start a claim against him and citizen advice say I should take legal advice first (goodness know how much that would be), so as far as I can tell it is sufficiently expensive to try and sue him that I cant due to the cost.

I hope they make this third party holder deposit scheme mandatory so this doesnt happen in future.

I guess I might as well send a letter to the estate agent complaining. At least it will give a black mark against him, which is better than nothing I suppose.