Renting? Has your landlord protected your deposit?

I agree Matt, not getting full deposits back is not unusual. In all my years of renting, landlords would always find a way to keep at least some of the deposit. Friends of mine have had some really tough battles – often with little success. It’s stressful to say the least.

I’m actually shocked that the system works in a way that puts the onus of protection on the landlord – surely if you’ve got a ‘dodgy’ landlord that’s the last thing they’re going to do?

It took my daughters landlord nearly 3 months to get the deposit “protected” and he certainly wasn’t pleased when he was threatened with reporting him to the uni over his tardiness. Not looking forward to seeing how much he keeps when its time to pay it back.

We rented out our home and had a new bathroom fitted, new carpets and also had it fully decorated before letting it out. We placed our tenants’ deposit in a TDS and when the tenants moved out with no issues at all, it took weeks and weeks for out letting agency who ultimately handle the deposit to release funds to our tenant. We ended up having to threaten them under clauses of the agreement before the deposit was released. Fortunately, I copied our tenants in on all of the emails requesting the return of the deposit so that they were aware that it wasn’t us holding it up!! I am sure this in the cause in many cases. With regard to previous comments on cleaning, we also had our property professionally cleaned prior to tenants moving in and therefore they had to have the same done upon departure. Not all landlords rent out damp/mouldy/dirty properties although I am aware that not all are perfect so it is not fair to generalise.

we rented a house and paid landlord about 24,000 over period we paid a deposit of 1,300 he held back 1,100 back for a couple of scratches on wood floor .not putting in new downlighters as health risk but bought all brand new for him to replace cost 50.00.small pane glass foir shed .he must be insured for this can anyone out there give me any advise.landlord said he was gona have whole floor done not just marks but he has let property again already and he says he not gona do work yet .hope to hear from anyone thx

Hi, I’m renting a flat in london, to keep it short I paid 1730 pounds deposit, the first day I moved in there was a note in the bathroom saying to keep the door open at all times so the walls of the bathroom wouldn’t get mouldy, I’ve been doing this since the first day but the walls got mouldy anyway, now the landlord wants to keep that from my deposit and I’m sure he’s the one that needs to install a good ventilation system? also the plumbery is not working after 2 months of using it and he wants me to hire a van pipe to sort it, when I also noticed he had a bucket bellow the sink before i moved in and there’s also two other external sinks connected to the same drain system, one of them is from his ‘workshop’ where he fixes clocks and he told me the main reason the draining system was blocked was because of the excessive use of oil, so I guess it might be the oil he uses to fix clocks? because I’ve never had this problems before in other houses I lived in.

Can someone here please told me what shall I do? he want’s to keep the whole 1730 pounds just for this two things and I’m pretty sure that’s the landlord’s issue.

Also I’m going back home so can’t stay for court meetings etc.

Thanks in advance!

Beware of the mydeposits.co.uk scheme. They do NOT protect the tenants funds.

The security deposit is the tenants money – neither the agent nor the landlord has a right to use the funds during the term of a tenancy as if the money is their own, although they frequently do. That is why, I thought, we have the deposit protection schemes – to protect the tenants money from grasping hands.

However, I have discovered that the landlord has ‘unprotected’ my deposit, during the term of the tenancy, and mydeposits.co.uk has both allowed this to happen and not informed me. So the landlord has more than £2000.00 of mine, and I have no protection.

The tenancy will end this month and as the landlord has already demonstrated that she can not be trusted I expect I will have a struggle to get my money back. It will take time and energy and generally be unpleasant. Why should I, as a tenant, be put in this position?

This so called government sponsored scheme is nothing but a scam for an insurance company to increase their revenue. They have not shown any duty of care to the tenants funds – my funds – and have offered no assistance. Their suggestion is to tell me to contact Shelter or Citizens Advice.

Do not allow your landlord to use an insurance scheme like my deposits.co.uk to protect your security deposit!! Your money is not protected because the landlord can unprotect it at any time and you won’t even know about it.