I'm 110% sure nothing can be done in order to legally get my money back i'm more thinking of twisting his arm/making him sweat? Recently moved out of a room share, Landlord lived in the house with his family but would work away. I had a large double room with access to the usual facilities including a claimed 'shared bathroom with other tenant' He was a difficult character to deal with a failed developer (hence going to work away) and a large expensive house. On moving in his wife made claim they 'Didn't need the money its just nice for ____ (teenagers name) to hear people around when we work away' Instantly I thought it was an odd comment. Every day rent was due by midday i'd get a text asking were my rent was... It was like he needed it to cover immediate costs. Over the christmas period the room was occupied by someone else (not me) and I returned to find evidence of someone sleeping in my bed (long female hair, not my covers, not my property) and tampering with my property including sensitive documents. he made up 1000x excuses before i told him i was moving out. We eventually came to the agreement my rent was to be dropped (Because i only stayed during the week and not all week) and he would place a lock on the door. (No lock appeared) I have photos of all the strange happenings including clear pictures of the hair in my bed (Long hair certainly not from my head) Very recently I've moved positions and locations back home. Its been a pain to chase my security deposit, He only ever replied when it was benefiting him (rent day) msot recently he's come back claiming the room was ok but water damage was found in the bathroom. The water damage is BENEATH the bath and centred to a single spot (looks to be under the plug hole) I highlighted this when moving in but nothing was done about it. Apparently this is my responsibility because 4 showers a week (of a maximum 10 minutes) clearly caused water damage beneath a shower that was there upon moving in.... I know i've not got a leg to stand on with this but I'm pretty well pissed off he's basically trying to keep my money in order to repair damage to his house that was there before i even arrived. No amount of showers could have caused it and its ludicrous to even make that comment. The only idea i've got is ruffling feathers, Getting in contact with the other tennant and confirm he's had the same story (i suspect not and miracoulsy the bill will be chiming to the value of £400 each) Contacting my landlord via letter (if no text luck) make sure its dated and signed for to confirm delivery. Talk about illegal subletting, the sheer facts behind his claim and i'd like to be contacted directly by the other tenant, plumber involved in quoting repair and so forth. Possibly hinting at a small claims court?? I'm pretty peeved and i'm not keen on just letting it go. Its clear he never had intentions of returning my money and is now benefitting by repairing damage he couldn't afford to fix before i moved it!!
Was the damage noted on your itinerary when you signed your tenancy agreement? If so he hasn't a leg to stand on. If it wasn't, where is your deposit secured?
Was the deposit with the landlord, or with an official rental deposit account? If it is with an official account there will be a process to follow for claiming this back. I did this when I was a tenant when the landlord wanted to keep my deposit for carpet wear and damage (cheap carpet glued directly to a concrete floor). The deposit holders gave me my deposit back since there was no evidence of the condition of the carpet before we moved in (no photos or receipts). As Noiz said, if you have photos or a signed itinerary with a description on it then you should make your case easier.
I'd thought all deposits has to be with an official rental deposit agency? So if it isn't, the landlord is breaking that law.
I'm not sure about the UK, but you should have some sort of arbitration body that can take and resolve your case. The landlord won't have a leg to stand on from what you have written. Also make yourself aware of your rights as a tenant as well as your responsibilities and also those of the landlord. For example the landlord shouldn't be able to withhold your deposit based on reasonable wear and tear on the property, which a faulty bath and resulting water damage would fall under. Once you are aware of your rights, present them to your landlord and tell him you will bring the situation to whatever arbitration body you have if it is not resolved. That is if you do indeed have one there.
If he was a tenant then yes, however he may be classed as an excluded occupier or lodger which I think changes things. All depends what his paperwork says, I'd suggest going onto http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/forum.php and asking there
By retaining the security deposit he's admitting that there was a damp/mould problem in the house which was his responsibility to fix - http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_a...blems/damp_and_mould_problems_in_rented_homes
A lot of this depends on whether you're a tenant or a lodger - if you're a tenant your deposit has to be lodged with the DPS. However from what you've put, you didn't have an assured shorthold tenancy as you had a resident landlord (Housing Act 1998). As it's not protected you'll struggle. You could go small claims but for that amount it's probably not worth it unfortunately, despite the fact that it doesn't sounds reasonable grounds for deduction. Source - I'm both a tenant and landlord (weird, I know). *edit* as for the advice from shelter, I doubt this would class as a damp/mould problem, I'd hazard water damage, and unless it's in your room, as a lodger I doubt they have to legally fix it unless it was impacting you directly.
Get in touch with your local ombudsman http://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/ My feeling is that as it's in a shared bathroom they can't prove it was you. If they can't prove it was you then they can't withhold your deposit (that's my understanding at least) the worst that may happen is that you may loose a share of your deposit based on the number of other people using the bathroom, remember that the hair is proof (is it enough) that a third person was using that bathroom. Contact your ombudsman.
Bull. Unless he's explicitly made you responsible or partially responsible for repair and maintenance of the bathroom then he's talking bull. This is a simple plumbing thing that happens to almost everyone at one point or another in their life. His insurance should cover any damage the water has caused and it'll be his responsibility to fix the cause of the leak - that's assuming he has appropriate insurance for letting out any part of the property and hasn't invalidated a standard household insurance policy. Most standard home insurance policies don't usually offer cover when any part of the property is lent, let, or sub-let; regardless of the legal status around whether you were a "tenant" or not, I can assure you that the insurance company will almost certainly class your landlord's situation as letting out part of the property. Slight tangent: if a breach of the policy terms is severe enough the insurer can void the policy; basically "had you told us about thing X then we wouldn't have offered you cover, therefore you have effectively held no cover with us since thing X began". Once you've had a policy voided - and this is usually checked when you try to take out home insurance - it's very difficult to get home insurance anywhere else. When a policy is void insurers will usually refund any premiums paid by the policyholder back to the point at which the policy was voided; however they will offset that refund against any claims paid out. If the amount paid on claims comes to more than the premiums paid then the policy holder will end up owing the insurance company money, and they do pursue the debt. Sometimes that void can even be "void ab-initio" meaning the policy is voided back to the date it was taken out. I've sent a few policies off for void ab-initio myself, it's not an easy decision to make. Sorry. Worked in insurance for 10 years, can't help myself sometimes . Anyhoo. As others have said, check your paperwork. If this was done properly as a rental (i.e. an assured shorthold tenancy, as RinSewand mentioned) then you've got a lot of protection when it comes to your deposit. If not then it sounds like things are going to be a little more... murky.
