http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/residential-commercial-lettings/117572-unfair-deposit-deductions.html the templates/letters contained here are probably a better fit for your case

I think that the wording would have to be changed, the template given in the sticky at the top of this page infers that the deposit was never protected. and this is not true. I think that you'd need to ammend the details of this part To reflect the fact that the landlord was rejected by a TDS scheme and subsequently failed to find protection for the deposit.

it's easy, stop posting in it and it falls to the bottom of the page, then off the page.

if the landlord had fallen out with one TDS then he should have gone to another, there are 3 recognised ones. read the TDS docs that you got sent again... you'll find that the deposit has to be in a secure scheme if the landlord fails to secure the deposit then they are liable for up to three times the amount of the deposit.

if the washing machine was in the property when you moved in then it's the landlords. same as any other fixture/fittings etc, curtains chairs whatever. you should have an inventory, and the washing machine should be on the inventory... so it's definitely the landlords washing machine if it was 'rubbish' left by other tenants then he should have replaced it. you'll probably find that since the washing machine was installed by a tennant that the plumbing on it isn't so good specifically the waste pipe. (I've had this same non-draining washing machine problem before!). that said, whether the machine is yours or the landlords it is up to you to perform regular routine cleaning on the machine, (like emptying the lint filter!)

I'd do as above. a new shower head from B&Q is less than £10.

you've got photos of when you moved out. Request that they let you see the damage either by visit in person or by photo, or that you are allowed to return to fix the damage. possibly best to go with the letting agent back to the property, with time stamped photos of when you moved out so that you can show them that the house wasn't a mess when you left it.

isn't there a clause in the assured tenancy agreement that allows eviction with notice if the landlord needs to sell the house. you say that you got a visit from the 'guy' who came before the bailiff, was this guy telling you that you would be evicted? was this the notice?

this is one of the questions that i asked earlier. Hypothetically, I'l illustrate this to see if it ties in with what you're saying the bank takes say £100 and the over draft interest is 10%, savers interest is say 3% (for example) are you saying that they charge 100 +10 = 110 +11 = 121 +12 = 133 So I've been charged 133, (£100 charge + £33 interest) but I can charge 100 + 3 +10 + 3.03 = 116 +11 + 3.05 = 130 +12 + 3.1 = 145.18 (£100 + £33 interest + £12 (interest at 3%)) is this correct for what you are saying? basically I can charge them interest on the amount that they've borrowed from me. (I had suggested that the BoE base rate might be used as the banks would be agreeing to this interest rate for any other borrowing that they did).

save copies of receipts that you'd have kept for hiring a carpet cleaner etc. possibly try to find the receipts from the super market or whatever showing that you bought a load of cleaning products in the week before you moved out. this would show (if nothing else) that you have made provisions as if you were going to clean. for future tenancies, take photos before you move in, that way you can show any damage etc before you go there. take photos as you move out so that you can show that there was no damage. £600 for cleaning seems a lot to me, is this just cleaning or repairs as well. if you don't have receipts for a carpet cleaner then why? did you throw them away, or did you just clean for a while and think that'd be enough? was the house cleaned professionally before you moved in? and was it cleaned to the same standard before you moved out? I just ask this because I know that earlier in the year I was in a four person tenancy and it took all four of us a whole weekend to properly clean the house, carpets/kitchen/cooker/wash down walls/clean windows etc, even then the third party inventory people still found faults. you say three of you spent a few hours... (you might work faster than me though).

I beieve tat this is true. Under the data protection act a data collector has a responsibility to ensure that the data is correct. (can't remember the exact section that says that). I feel it should be their responsibility to ensure that the data is up to date. remembering that it's their business to keep data on people, they decided that they wanted to do that, nobody asked them to!, so they should surely have the responsibility to keep that information up to date. -at their cost... but that's just what I feel should happen, not what legally should happen. perhaps write to them reminding them of their duties.

Technically you must have a valid MOT and tax to drive on a public highway too. but there are exceptions. if your car fails it's MOT it is not roadworthy, but you are still entitled to drive it home to carry out repairs yourself, or indeed you are allowed to drive your car to another garage for repair. If that was the case you'd have to get your car fixed at the same garage as the MOT was done as you couldn't possibly move the car. this is simply not true. -and if it were true what do you do when you;ve gone to an MOT only garage that don't carry out repairs? long story short you can drive an untaxed/un-mot'd car directly to a booked MOT. directly from an MOT, directly to a garage to have repairs carried out. (with appointment booked).

uncomfortably numb. if you've never gone outside of your overdraft, or had a DD returned, a cheque bounce etc then you won't have incurred any charge. using your agree'd over draft with the agree'd interest is perfectly fine, and there are no unjust charges to refund. if you've had a cheque bounce, and been charged for that, or had a DD returned and they've charged for that, or you've gone outside of your agreed overdraft limit and have been charged for that then these are the charges that you can reclaim. this is because the banks should only charge a reasonable administration figure, realistically you can say that a realistic figure is something like £12, that's the amount of time you're paying for your bank to write you a letter to let you know. if you've been charged £20 for going over plus a further £20 per transaction thereafter that month. plus a higher rate of interest. plus a daily charge. that's the bit that's unfair, and arguably sets up a cycle since you're loosing hundreds each month you;re always being forced into your overdraft

Have to agree with the poster above. whilst it's an easy fix, why *should* the garage be fixing small items for free? that said, I'd had small things like this fixed for free by a garage before, and they've just advised me when I've come to pick up the car, this is your original fail, but then we put a bulb in and adjusted the headlight and here's your pass. a simple action like that made me go back because I had received exceptionally good service. (I don't go back there any more based on two other experiences from separate people who've had their cars mangled there, but that's a different story).

for the poster above saying that they were just trying to help out! I'm surprised that they replaced sensors etc. earlier in the year when I had my MOT my car passed it's emission test, (well below the limit), but failed on some other things. I took my time fixing the other things as it was the summer and I had my motorbike anyway to use, so I was out of time for a free re-test, I went to a different garage and the car passed on everything except the emissions test. which was now magically 4 times over the test limits. basically, what had happened is the first test was done as soon as I took the car into the garage, (so the car had been driven the engine was very warm, the second test I left the car with them, they left the car sitting about all day... -they argue that they measure the oil temp to make sure that the engine is up-to temp, but clearly it does make a difference. anyway, they advised that I just changed the fuel filter, and ran some cleaner through and changed the oil. I did this, and returned the next morning where the car passed... the point is, fuel cleaner - £5 engine flush - £5 oil - £10 fuel filter - £5 (all from Halfords). if they "just wanted to help" then there are plenty of well known "tricks" that they can use, without making a huge bill.

A few things about above. no the MOT station does not have to be the nearest, what if the nearest id renowned for giving poor service, nobody enforces you to take your car to a particular garage. MOT must be booked, car must be insured to drive on the road. -bear in mind that the insurance also pays for other people in the case that your car drives into them, this would cover mechanical fault, for example if you drove into them because your brakes failed. you can't have tax without a valid MOT so there is no need to tax. you have to take a reasonably direct route to the station, (A pre-booked test is not an excuse to drive a car wherever you like without valid insurance and tax). -you can't go on a nice long round trip 30 miles or so to get to the garage that's only 1 mile down the road. your insurance is NOT invalid if your car is not roadworthy, indeed if your car fails you're able to drive it home, complete with a certificate to prove that your car is not roadworthy! and indeed you can drive to any further appointments to get the car fixed. -assuming that those appointments are booked as well I assume. (for example to have the car fixed, or to have tyres changed). contrary to what the poster above said, if your car fails, you can still drive it, either home to fix it yourself, or to another garage to fix, there is no need or requirement to get a transporter to move the car! For OP. driving to get the car serviced would probably not be allowed. it wouldn't be a reasonable short stop, (e.g getting petrol/stopping at a cash point to get money to pay for the test etc). on the other hand, once your car has failed, say on emissions, taking your car to service would be a reasonable fix for that problem.

Hello, just a few quick questions, I'm rather confused, Apologies that this is a long post. I have kept most, paper statements from my bank going back to when my account first went to university opening a student account to present day. (some 9 years). First question, There are a few gaps in my records, (where I've lost a statement or two) is it safe to put together a case to present to the banks on the available evidence? for example if I were missing june 2008 statement I couldn't see the interest charged, if I decide not to claim this, will this weaken the 'case'? because I don't have all facts, or will the bank like this more as it lessens the amount that they will pay? Same for the interest amount. I've not really left my overdraft in a long time, but say for example I have a £2000 over draft and get paid £1500 a month, (and for the sake of argument am awed £1000 in bank charges, I'm £500 over drawn at the start of the month, and this rises steadily to near £2000, say I get up to 20th day of the month and I'm only £1000 over drawn, all the interest in the month is 'the banks' up to now, then I should only really have to pay the interest from the last few days, and not for the £500 at the start or the gradual rise. (so basically, only £1000 over ten days, not over 20 days, that's only 1/3rd, not 1/2 or the interest. but the interest over the month isn't actually that much. i know it'll add up over time. It's not that I want to 'give' them money, but I'd prefer the claim to be as quick and easy as possible. Second question? I assume that the first step in this process it to approach the bank and try to settle this debt gracefully without having to launch a court case. this thread mentions going to court, places to go for getting docs from the banks and the people to go to when they are slow to do this, but how do I approach my bank? is a letter to the branch manager enough? My bank is lloyds TSB, do I need to send it to their head office or a legal department etc? Third question, I see six years mentioned, what is this about? can I claim for the full 9 years that I have records for, (I incurred no charges before this anyway). Most of my charges were incurred whilst I was at university (6 or more years ago), whilst I haven't checked yet I wouldn't be surprised if the actual charges didn't make up the full amount of my overdraft (which I have never left for more than around a week since) -would this mean that I could say all interest since the date that charges became the total over draft amount is owed to me? (more than 6 years ago). I know it says above that this question has already been answered, but I can't find the answer. Fourthly, where do I stand since I have come out of my overdraft, but quickly go back in. each month I'll receive my wages, which are just enough for my means, so I'll come out of my overdraft, for a day or two then throughout the month go back down to scraping the barrel at the OD limit. it's been this way for a couple of years now, can the banks (successfully) argue that I've cleared the debt of illegal charges by coming out of the overdraft and not have to pay the past few years since clearly after rising above zero, and spending that caused me to go back into my over draft was my own doing not controlled or caused by the banks? so they should not be liable for over draft interest where this pattern has emerged? fifth quetion Landy_alert on june 14th suggested that when approaching the bank to reclaim debts they closed her aco****, froze interest on the overdraft, the solicitors sent nasty letters etc. Should I consider setting up a different account with a different bank first before approaching the bank at all? If my account is suspended (and I have only one account I'll have nowhere for my wages to be paid to, no way to pay my rent or service my other debts. basically, should I do the bottom covering exercise of opening a separate account at a separate bank. or should I trust that the bank can see I'm not in hardship, and that they shouldn't close my account. -at least if I were in hardship then they should have noticed this earlier! (and if they were to do such a thing, how easy is it to prove that this is a malicious act, -as far as I'm concerned it would be, I say "you owe me money that you took illegally" and they say "fine", and close my account leaving me pretty high and dry! but I understand that just saying "see event A and see event B it's obvious what happened!" isn't the kind of proof a judge would want -assuming it got that far, especially when the banks laywers would smile sweetly, "say he's not left his over draft in 9 years and we did this as it was in his best interests, as he's facing such hardship"). last question. someone said earlier that it was not possible to add interest at the current account rate to the amount that the bank owes you after that would have taken you out of your overdraft. -as there is the argument that I might have spent it). however, as I see it I've been a regular 'lender' to the bank for the better part of a decade, why can't a charge them interest say at the base rate of the time. The bank have used ME as a source of credit, if they went to the BoE and used them as creditors they would pay interest on that money. why can't I charge interest? I'm not talking about a silly amount, but the bank would surely agree to pay at least the BoE set base rate at the time. as that's at least what they'd pay on any other borrowing that they did at the time. and this would be separate and additional to claiming back the interest. because i'm not asking for interest on charges as a fee for borrowing, it's asking for interest back as this was a further 'illegal' charged based on the illegal charges at the start.