What was the deal with that website? Was it real? Sounded too good to be true to me...

ok quite a few developments for those who are interested. i went to court on tuesday where the landlords application to set aside the judgement was to be seen (at a court far away from me!) needless to say, she didnt turn up, nor had she entered a defense. the judge didnt take to kindly to this, and so rejected her application to set aside AND put an order on her that she can not make any future applications without a judges permission (so ever seeing as she quite simply has no grounds to) after leaving the court with high spirits for the second time, i rang the estate agent who are holding the deposit, and so came the next wave of baffling excuses - this time it was "we thought you had already been paid? it shows on our system you cashed a cheque.." all lies, and not at all surprising. so im going to hand the case over to a solicitor tomorrow, because its far to much work for me now - i have other pressing issues to be dealt with and these two crooks childish persistance is distracting me. i will say this though - to anyone who thinks that suing the landlord for non compliance to TDS is straightforward - it isnt. it should be, but it isnt. there is far too much leniency in the british justice system and usually the perportrators know this. my landlord knew that nomatter how much i fought for this, 6 months down the line she STILL wouldnt have paid me a penny. this could well be the case for future months or years. i hate to sound cynical but thats how i feel, i was unfairly manipulated and decieved my my landlord but there as yet have been no reprocussions for her, and untill a successfull method of enforcement of the order is executed, i will forever doubt the severity of ever breaking any laws.

Claim for whatever amount you paid as deposit. My understading is all other deductions are ignored, as the landlord didn't comply with TDS so must pay back the full amount + 3x.

thanks very much for help.Ill ring the court tomorrow. Im quietly confident that these are desperate last ditch actions by the defendant, with little or no substance. after all, from her point of view if this setting aside application fails, she still managed to buy 3 months of time not needing to pay the order. quite how the application could succeed when she supplied no evidence to prove that she had already paid is beyond me. a judge couldnt possibly award her that with no evidence? im confident that the original claim has all the evidence needed for that to stand, Ill happily attend a second hearing if only to prove that her application for setting aside is invalid and nothing else. dragging right out this one is!

am i able to submit further evidence to the court application at this late stage? because it would disprove both her claims.

ok i received the defendants statement as to why she wants the order set aside, she has said "i never received any court papers and didnt have a chance to defend myself" "the money has already been paid" to answer the first point, i actually had an email from her saying "... have received your paperwork. ..." and further reference to it in other correspondance since. to the second point, i havent had any money, and surely she would be required to provide evidence to support that fact? which of course there is none. nevertheless, the application will be seen on the 23rd march and there is "no hearing" so i dont know how i get to put forward my strong evidence to counter her feeble defense :S

thanks for that, it is desgusting. i cant believe someone who has the black and white of the case outlined STILL cant see that theyve done wrong! the simple fact is our deposit was not protected, so there is no way there is any grounds for appeal. in my eyes anyway. theres not indication on the notice of transfer of proceedings i had today as to what the defendants reasons for applying are, it doesnt say which point of the CPR she is using as grounds to set aside the judgment. ive spent best part of the evening reading through the CPR, in particular part 13 which is "setting aside or varying judgment". looking through each point, there are very few if any I believe the defandant has grounds to apply, apart from 13.2© which says: "The court must set aside(GL) a judgment entered under Part 12 if judgment was wrongly entered because – the whole of the claim was satisfied before judgment was entered." first and foremost i will say this is definately not the case, the case was not settled before the hearing and i havent received a penny. however if you read back through my posts i have posted details of a letter i had from the estate agents who were illegaly holding the deposit, the day before the court hearing which said "we have been requested to return this deposit to you...know we have returned it there is no need to proceed". no money was returned, and im pretty sure they cant prove it was because i havent received anything! in the post, through my bank, by carrier pidgeon - nothing. if this is her grounds for apealing the court order, surely it will be rejected on the grounds that there is no proof? i would really hope (and i am fast losing hope with the justice system over the way this is allowed to be dragged on and on and on at much cost to me) that the judgment will not be set aside?! im more angry than anything about this latest development, this is surely escalating into the prime example of the worst landlord imaginable! she does claim to be a solicitor in a few emails, i suspect more so to scare us off, because for a start i dont know why a solicitor would blatantly ignore the law by not protecting the deposit. either she isnt, or she is - and knows all about the loopholes that she continues to exploit. however i cannot find any other evidence of this.

ok i thought it was short lived...ive had a letter from a court in england telling me the claim has been transferred to them for the defendant to make an application to "set aside the judgement" how?!! what does that mean

I dont quite know how to react to this but... the estate agent has told me he is sending the cheque on friday! i wont celebrate untill the money hits my bank account but still, this is the FIRST time i 4 drawn out months that i have had any indication i would ever see my money again! WOOOO!

hats off to you sir for your informative post! the judgment was indeed a welcome early christmas present, even if it is only a small piece of a much bigger picture, it was an enormous relief to have the order to wave infront of their faces, as both parties have assumed they are much bigger than the law up to now. the estate agent: a quick snoop on their website doesnt show any of the acronyms you mentioned, however "OEA Ombudsman" and "OFT approved" logos are displayed clearly on their front page, does that help? they arent local to me by a very long distance but operate in the UK To be honest im reluctant to call because of the abuse I've had dealing with these people before, and while I know its in my best interests and that I am in the right here, I dont really want to give them the pleasure of screaming at me down the phone. if it needs to be done, I will, but i would prefer to email. about the "cheque" - now this is where it gets a bit messy. the estate agents sent me a letter 2 days before the hearing on the 19th December, which didnt mention the fact the deposit had never been protected, instead listing a load of irrelevant excuses about the previous estate agents incompetence (the landlady changed them midway through our tennancy) and said "we have been requested to return THIS deposit to you, however THIS deposit amount may still be recalled by the court as part of a dispute between your landlady and previous estate agents" this letter had a staple through the corner but no cheque, no money, nothing. it didnt even specify how much money they were returning to me, or what method. it just kept referring to it as "this" deposit, implying it was included. obviously I am aware that these were probably scare/stall tactics to get me to stop proceedings, which was mentioned as a footnote of the letter saying "i strongly suggest you withdraw proceedings to avoid counter action". if there was to be such counter action, why was it never issued as a defense to the original claim? because there is no counter action thats why. i replied to that politely saying i would not stop proceedings as the estate agent had no right to request that, and they wrote back on the 23rd december saying "as we have now repaid your deposit there is no need for further communication" so they are saying they sent the money, they arent saying how, when, how much or to whom, but seem confident they did, and i havent received a penny. whether theyll change that story now theyve received an order i dont know, but i drafted this letter earlier: As per the court order issued on the 21st December 2009, you have been ordered to pay the full deposit of £650 towards the property stated above, to me, by 4pm on the 7th January 2010. Contrary to your letter dated 23rd December 2009, i have not received these monies from you, and expect to receive proof of payment sent immediately. I am currently preparing and considering the different options of enforcement and remind you at this stage that any costs incurred through enforcing this order will be added to the judgment debt. I request the payment of £650 (six hundred and fifty pounds) sent by Cheque to: " too forcefull? the landlady i am aware of at least 4 other tennancies which have not received their deposits, but havent made contact with any, i dont know if this is in my best interests but ive kept my distance. basically, shes in a lot of money trouble if the rumors are true. the first estate agent we were with say she owes them a lot of money and isnt paying. all i know about her is she runs a property development company overseas, shes british, living in britain, the house we rented isnt in her name but is in her husbands name, the bank account we paid rent to is in both their names. its difficult to say yet which method of enforcement will be most succesfull but it seems getting an "order to attend" is the logical first step. i doubt shes had a change of heart, for the reason she doesnt seem to have one! she lied to us from the offset saying she would look after our deposits and requesting we withdraw it from mydeposits.co.uk and send it to her. if only we'd known! thanks for everyones help though, the judge was very complimentary of my "well put together case" and i had to admit i had pulled example wordings and templates from here so a gold star from our local county court for everyone at consumeractiongroup for your help!

the only communication i had with my landlady was via email, fortunately the estate agents were often CC'd in on them, and there were so many that it wouldve been hard for the landlady to say they werent her words. fortunately she never tried to say that, but the emails were used in court, whether they were needed by the judge i dont know but the judgment went my way

ok long time since an update but a significant one none the less. I went to court on the 21st december and as expected, the judge made the order that the money be paid to me, the breakdown was: 1. Full deposit returned "by the person the judge understands to be holding the deposit" - £650 (in this case it was the estate agent because the money was paid to them, and they admitted they were holding it) 2. 3X the deposit to be paid by the landlord - £1,950 3. interest of £11.48 and court fees of £150 to be paid by the landlord all by...the 7th of january. which has passed. now i didnt receive my copy of the order untill saturday (9th january) so its safe to assume they didnt get theirs untill then either. however a friend of mine who is training as a barrister, says this has no significance - whats written on the order is final, so they have no case to say "we didnt know about it". fact is, they have known it was likely they'd have to pay, since august! obviously, neither have paid any money, and to throw a spanner in the works, the estate agent wrote to me after the court date (but before they received the order) saying they HAVE paid, in a curious letter that had a staple through the top...but nothing attatched. im not worried about this as the chances are, they have no proof they paid the money, most of all - because i can prove i havent received it. so it looks like im going to have to enforce the order on both of them, which is **** i wouldve thought having an order against you is enough incentive to pay, but for these crooks - obviously not. Ive read through the leaflet on enforcing the order and am looking to make the necassary steps immediately. can anyone help me at this stage? given their reluctance and ignorance of the law, am i likely to ever receive anything?

i rang the court today after not receiving any defense from the landlady in the post before the deadline, according to them she hasn't submitted one! stupidity on her part or has she got a trick up her sleeve?

Mrshed, your retraction is music to my ears! I would under normal circumstances settle for just th deposit and court fee, but wihout sounding vindictive- she has been SO rude and unhelpfull through all this I don't believe she would pay any out of court settlement amount anyway.

Thanks it's good to hear that there are examples of this happening,had I not asked on here I have not been told by the court or anyone else to try and further speak to her, so I wouldve ignored her email. I would emphasize with evidence in court that I made probably 10 or more requests to settle it before court and each time she eithe came back with a nonsence excuse or simply said "take me to court then" the judge can't say I haven't tried!

ok thanks, i appreciate any time taken to offer advice, and im sure it comes with the best intentions. it looks like im gonna have to seek proper legal advice on this matter so i dont implicate myself in anyway, as you can probably tell my ex LL is relentlessly deviant and cunning, and her response to my claim form was just insulting, she made out that i was making it all up despite the hard evidence being right infront of her. i am aware that it could well be the case that shes trying to provoke me into saying or doing something that will jeapordise the case. i just find it hard to swallow that if she returns the deposit, all the time, effort and money ive spent putting all this together will be in vain and shell get away with having broke the law. to repeat an analogy i spotted in that thread, if i stole a mars bar from my corner shop and then returned it after they threatened me with legal action, i dont think id get away with it. its quite a frustrating and sad way to conclude this

ive also just read back through this thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/residential-commercial-lettings/117280-tenancy-deposit-scheme-4.html in which a lot of people argue the same case as me, that section 214 is in force to make the landlord pay the 3x compensation regardless of whether they protect at a later date/return the deposit - as a response to them braking the law. all leaves me with a bit of a headache as to whether i reply to her email and what id say :S

im really sorry to keep bouncing this issue back at you mr shed but... “Section 214” application to the county court The application under section 214 can only be made on limited grounds. If the court is satisfied that those grounds have been met, the court must either order the repayment of the deposit or order the person who appears to be holding the deposit to pay it into a designated account under a authorised custodial tenancy deposit scheme. The court must also order the landlord to pay a sum of money equal to three times the amount of the deposit." this suggests that once proceedings under the n208 form have started, there is no leway on the matter. the landlord must be forced to pay the compensation whether they like it or not. i really dont believe i should settle for an amout far less than what im entitled to, and what i would surely recieve at the court hearing. it doesnt mention anywhere in the tennancy deposit protection document that the claim would be dropped if the defendant repays the deposit only as a settlement.

ok thanks for your help, im gonna ask for the deposit and the court fees back as well, are there any other ways i could bump up my settlement request?

Ok I'll consider that, to be honest I feel agrieved to enter negotiations because I tried SO hard for 7 weeks to settle this before taking it to court and her attitude was always "fine, sue me I don't care, I'm not paying you" and I remained patient and calm even while she resorted to abusing me verbally.now I've entered the claim she's suddenly being cooperative. Without sounding greedy, I don't feel just the return of the deposit makes up for the time I've spent on this and the stress it's caused. If I settle, then she's basically got away with it

So 11 days passed after my claim went in, and out of the blue my ex LL emailed me basically saying there had been a hold up with paying back the deposit because the 3 tennants paid it individually ( not true as I have a photocopy of a cheque showing it was paid as one amount) and now she claims she's only waiting for confirmation from all 3 of us and shell return the deposit immediately. It then goes on to say that my court claim is wrong, as she for the 100th time insists the deposit was registered with x-associates (I won't give the name but you get the idea) even though x-associates aren't one of the 3 government schemes so they aren't a legal scheme. She then says she doesn't understand how I can claimthe deposit and 3x the amount...suggesting she actually knows nothing aboutthe DPS penalty advice. Needless to say I haven't replied, nor do I intend to acceptany payment from her, but am I in any way obliged to negotiate at this stage? I'm more than happy to go to court in December because I firmly believe we have a solid case and this desperate attempt to settle is far to late, and a show of her despiration while losing the battle. Do I need to tell her that I'm past willing to negotiate?

i submitted my n208 claim today and paid the £150 fee, which is annoying of course, as this proceedure wouldve been free if the deposit was in a scheme etc...youve read it all before on here my question is this: what happens if my landlady pays back the deposit in the next few weeks? if i recieve a cheque or bank transfer what do i do? obviously notify the court, but does that mean ive lost the £150? it seems like there have suddenly been a lot more cases posted on this forum of landlords not protecting deposits and it seems to be an increasing problem, what if anything are the government doing to enforce the DPS law? it seems like landlords are getting away with murder!

Are there many success stories regarding tennants sueing their landlord for unprotected deposits? There seem to be many cases but not many have their conclusions. I'm in the process of submitting my court claim on Monday, after several requests for my deposit be returned after thr 3 schemes confirmed they don't hold it. Also what evidence aside from these 3 letters of confirmation and copies of emailed correspondance with my LL(if you can call it that) do I need to submit with my completed n208 form?

thankyou very much kentish lass, your help is much appreciated. i had another email today, ignoring my question asking for details of the DPS and diverting atention onto the delay getting a second report from the estate agent, she also says she has "called back the deposit". i replied simply stating if she cant provide details we will persue legal action. to which her response was "as you wish". as you suggested, we will not attempt any more communication and i guess i need to get to work on the form.

thanks, im aware that not even providing the prescribed information is a breach of the law and have informed her of this. whats unbelievable here, is she claims to be a solicitor! and is fully aware of the rules and regulations of the deposit protection schemes because she changed estate agents midway through our contract because she claimed the previous one hadnt protected our money. she demanded we write to our 1st estate agent demanding the deposit was transferred to the 2nd agent, and that they would take full control of the house. not really knowing at the time, we did this, and the 1st estate agent even provided us a photocopy of the cheque. which is now usefull in proving she holds the money. but this also proves that she knows about the schemes! what is she playing at?!