Yorkshire, and its for complete non compliance, ie the landlord never protected the deposit, and has not returned it

Hi, Looking through the forums I noticed that this company 'Painsmiths' was recomended by a few posters for tenancy deposit claims in relation to non tds scheme compliance, has anyone on here actually been sucessfull with this firm, since they seem to be increduably slack in my dealings with them so far, and haven't even recieved confirmation from them in over a week! If there are any other specialist law firms out there that operate on a no win no fee then please could you advise ASAP, as I'm desperate to get my deposit back from an errant landlord. Many thanks in advance!

Have now decided to instruct Painsmiths solicitors over this, on a no win no fee basis, has anyone dealt with them previously?

as above

Can anyone give me some solid advise on the questions above? please!

Ao I need to send a letter before action before submitting the court claim?

so how much will it cost me, and is there a definative template that I can use... Do I claim for 3x deposit as the penalty, and also the origional deposit plus 8% interest. What are the sucess rates for this action, and howlong will it take approx from lodging my papers

Hi, I desperately need some help with a private landlrd who we have rented off for nearly two years on an AST tenancy. After recieving our notce to quit couple of months ago, we complied and moved out last week. Since then we've been told that becase of some minor damage our deposit wouldn't be returned for at least 2-3weeks. After some quick searching on this site, I realised that our depost should have been held in a TDS scheme, whch we wernt aware of, and having checked with all three companies, none has ever had our deposit registered. Do we keep pushing for our deposit back from the landlord, or do we go after them for 3x bond through the courts since it was never registered or legally protected? If so how do we go about this, and how much will it cost, since I'm in the process of signing on at the moment

Hi Martin, Sorry, the account is old, over 15 years, I thought that it was statute barred, but after recieving the SAR I realised that I had made some payments in the prescribed period, hence why I sent the SLC an offer of payment.

I don't know why you didn't recieve my pm, definately sent it about the same time as posting

yes, it would, the debt is definately still with the SLC, as the DCA mentioned them a their client.

Hi Martin, Thanks for getting back so quickly, I have sent you a PM with some info on. I have reported the dca to the oft, consumer direct and Winchester trading standards. Not much from consumer direct or trading standards, passed it off to oft, who got me to fill in some forms saying I give them permission to act should they one day want to etc! I will also shortly be reporting the Student Loans company to the FSA since the old style morgage style loan that I have is covered under their remit, but will first have to go through there long and painfull customer complaints procedure. I am still waiting for the SLC to acknowledge my offer of payment to them, and my request that I only wish to deal with them, just one other thing, the debt hasn't been assigned through a notice of assignment, so I assume that I don't have to deal with this DCA on that basis, as they are merely acting as an agent of the oc??? Also if I can take them through the county court for harrasment, or something, who would I name, the SLC or the DCA, since this whole thing is really the SLC's doing anyway, and the DCA is merely their agent who they are using to try to enforce their agreement, irrespective of any laws which they may flout!

Hi All, This is my first post, but I have used this forum extensively for research into my current dilema. I have a large amount of arrears with the slc, and unfortunately have made payments to them in the past, so the debt isn't statute barred, as with all pre 98 loans the SLC has set the debt collectors onto me as apparently they're trying to collect all outstanding arrears from this period. I have done a subject access request with the slc, and the agreement came back clear and signed by both myself and the slc, as soon as I recieved this information, I sent the SLC an offer for monthly repayment as agreed by the citizens advice bureau, and stated that they are the creditor of this debt that I only wished to deal with them. I am still recieving threatograms from the debt collector, the latest informs me that I'm going to recieve a doorstep visit. I have previously reported this debt collector to the oft, trading standards/ consumer direct, for harrasment, and have sent them numerous recorded delivery letters one of which clearly stated as per the template on this website that I didn't wish to have any doorstep visits. I now feel that that this collection agency are purely harrasing me, and wish to take legal action against them for Harrasment, as I am now dealing with the the SLC over this matter. The SLC for there part haven't even acknowledged my offer of repayment, even though I sent it recorded delivery to them nearly a month ago! I'm not worried about going to court as I own very little, I just wish they'd either accept my repayment plan, the threatening letters and threats of doorstop visits would stop, or just take me to court, as I have sent all letters to both parties recorded delivery, and really don't earn very much at all, so would in all likelyhood end up paying less through the court than what I have offered them. I'm sorry to go on, but I am at my wits end over this, and really really need some more advice, as both companies seem to think that they are the law of this land! Please help