Hi All I have found myself in a very stressful situation with an ex landlord and would really appreciate some advice Basically on 31st March 2012 my partner and i signed a short assured tenancy lease with my then landlord, we paid the deposit in cash (£750) and first months rent. All went well from then, landlord responded to issues and repairs etc and when we asked permissions such as connecting sky tv etc we constantly got "yes, do what you want" Fast forward 12 months - The original lease was for 6 months, which we never actually officially renewed, we sort of just carried on paying rent and stayed there for 1 year in total. A day or so after we moved out i contacted the landlord to ask about deposit he said yes, we will check the property and get back to you, i called again 1 week later to be told he is not dealing with it and the person who is is on holiday for 2 weeks ( i have to say he is the landlord on the lease and not through a leting agent, so i was very confused by who the extra people could be) anyway several phonecalls to him and excuse after excuse saying he is not th one responsible and he has written a letter to the person/people who are, i finally called his bluff. I contacted the person he says is responsible who told me, that he owns the building however has let the residential properties to my landlord who can sublet to people (hence why we paid him and he signed the lease) - I told my landlord about this conversation and he got very angry obviously because i now know the truth that he has been lying - he said that he had reports we were smoking in the property and had pets (he said verbally we could have our cat and we don't smoke) so he says we breached lease and as he had to paint and fill pin holes from some pictures on the wall - he is not giving us anything and we will need to take him to court. that was Friday and i now dont know what to do! it is worth saying that i know he did not pay the deposit into a protection scheme and when asked he is not even aware what that is and laughed at me. and there was no inventory for the flat. I know he is going to be as difficult as he can be for no reason. Thanks and sorry for the essay. HP