How to Complain If Landlord Won't Return Your Deposit

When renting a property, a landlord will in most cases ask for a deposit. The law after 6 April 2007 requires that a landlord deposits into a Tenancy Deposit Scheme to stop landlords from pocketing a tenant’s money. These are the new rules for Assured Short hold Tenancies, which protect both the landlord and tenant in the case of a dispute and provides an Alternative Dispute Resolution Service (ADR) to resolve such dispute.

Tenancy Deposit Scheme

At the end of your tenancy, the landlord will inspect the property to see if they are happy with how you have treated it. If there is any damage, they will apply for an amount of the deposit to cover the expense of returning the property to its original state. Any leftover money will be returned to you. If however, you dispute any application from your landlord for money, you need to contact your landlord and the Scheme with which your Deposit is held.

There are three schemes under the Housing Act 2004 with which your landlord may deposit your money in. Your landlord is required to give notice of the scheme they use and their contact details within 7 days of the tenancy agreement, should you need to contact them.

If you have not received this letter, then your landlord may not have deposited your money. You must check with each of the three schemes to see if your property is registered. If not, you can make a Part 8 application to your local County Court. The Judge must order your landlord to pay back three times the amount of the deposit plus the deposit, or order that the deposit must be placed in a scheme so that the dispute can be solved.

Dispute

If you have a dispute, start by contacting your landlord to inform them of your complaints and then following it up in writing, giving them 14 days to respond. It is important to note that many landlords take photographs of their property or keep notes of inspections before you move in, which you should ask to see in the event of a dispute. That way you can analyse the state of the property ‘before’ and ‘after’. Also keep a log of events and conversations between you and your landlord in case the dispute reaches court.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

You should hopefully be able to negotiate with your landlord at this stage. If however the dispute remains unresolved, you should contact the scheme with which your deposit is held, detailing your complaints and sending them any evidence or correspondence between the landlord and yourself. At this point, the scheme’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Service will aid in negotiations and arrange a date or dates for doing so. If negotiations fail, you may wish to take action in the Small Claims Court.

Small Claims Court

If you have to take your landlord to court to try and get your deposit back, you need to apply to the Small Claims court. You can represent yourself though you may wish to seek legal advice. The court will look at the evidence of both parties and decide who they rule in favour of. The law is normally on the side of the tenant and so if your landlord has acted unfairly, you may have a good chance of success.