Hello there,
Im reaching out for a little bit of advice.
We are going back a little bit, January 2013 to be precise when myself and my partner moved into a small property in Cornwall. We paid a £500 deposit to the landlord who confirmed that the deposit would be refunded on completion of the inspection/hand over of keys etc.
Now being fairly young and nieve we weren’t aware of the DPS and just thought that the deposit was managed by the landlord and was up to them to do what they would like, that was until he refused to return our deposit. At the time we did some digging and soon found out about the DPS and that our deposit should have been helpd in a DPS within 30 days, something that they did not do – I had checked with all of the relevant deposit schemes all of whom had no information of a deposit for the property we were renting.
As im sure you can appreciate, being young and understanding the legal jargon behind the DPS and being faced with court, we decided that we should just potentially leave it and move on. That said the way we were treated by the landlord has always stuck with us and we feel it’s only right to persue matters now that we are a little more clued up.
The agreed duration of our tenancy was 3 months however no contract was provided or signed although we do have email traces where the landlord agrees to our conditions, and have full proof of payment of the deposit. Upon vacating there was further correspondence by email where we asked the landlord for our deposit back but then refused, stipulating that that property was left dirty (something which we dispute) and that was cause along with excessive internet charges (£80) which we were never informed of at the beginning of our tenancy.
In short, would I be right in saying that the landlord by LAW regardless of how the property was left, or the duration of our tenancy, should have still placed the deposit in a DPS and that we should in-fact continue to persue matters and refund of our deposit?
TIA