DPS private landlord got some deposit, how to appeal?

[Sarper]

I private rented from Oct 2014 to July 2015 & landlord got £243 of deposit after using Deposit Protection Service & adjudication. (Email sent to me Dec 2015)

 

This so wrong, it is for gardening and when I moved in the landlord (couple) said Mr. Landlord was going to do one more mow and then after a week or two I was told a man was booked to come and cut the hedges. He never came round.

 

On day I went to sign assured shorthold tenancy agreement the landlady seemed to have changed her mind about me even though they chose me out of people they chose to show the house. I said I was not happy about a clause in the agreement & she said that I could stop now and not go ahead. I was taking tenancy from this date and had given notice on previous tenancy.

 

They did not give me a written inventory and took the tenancy agreement away so I had to ask for a copy later. There were a few things that happened that they handled in a non-professional manner and I gave notice as soon as I could.

 

The amount they got from adjudicator was for gardening. It was very rainy leading up to me leaving also I was busy organising move. I did a first strim of the garden which is very large and had already cut some of the hedge before. When the landlords came there at end of tenancy I was strimming still doing a second go but had not finished. They would not let me stay to finish or come back to finish even though they said people were coming to look at the property (in 4-5 days). It was July and I mentioned the nesting birds I had seen. The landlords claimed to have both spent hours and hours totalling £243 cutting 2 hedges and doing grass. In effect I've paid them to do their own garden.

 

The Deposit Protection Scheme wrote to me from 9 different email addresses! A lot of the time from their do_not_reply email so I was not sure which email to reply to them on. I found their website hard to see, written in light grey and small writing. I was not clear what was happening as the process went along and if they had received all my evidence which was done by email.

 

Please can someone tell me who to appeal to. I have written to the DPS saying I want to complain and can they send me a copy of their complaint procedure and they have replied saying they will reply to complaint and if not resolved will send me full policy.

 

Am I able to take landlord or DPS or both the a Small Claims Court? I used one years ago but don't know if they operate in a similar way now. What about the Financial Conduct Authority? An ombudsman?

 

Thank you for reading.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Sarper

[stu007]

Hi

 

Welcome to CAG

 

Please be patient I am sure other will be alone to give you advice.

 

When it went to the deposit schemes adjudication did you respond to them given your defence (evidence) to the claim?

[Sarper]

I gave some evidence and was away from home so said I would send more eg photos later. I then did that but because of confusing emails of DPS I wasn't sure if they actually received and sent again a week or two later.

[Steve__M]

Until you understand better what has actually happened it is difficult to offer advice.

 

For example: if they received your evidence and made a decision based on both sets of evidence, they would have provided a reason why.

 

If they did not receive your evidence then they would have found in favour of the landlord by default.

 

If you carefully read all your emails and work out what has happened, you might be able to explain the situation better.

 

If work on the garden was justified, unfortunately, if you had not completed the work in time the landlord was in his rights to ask you to stop. You cannot blame the landlord for the weather, which was fine on several days of June and July if I recall correctly (July 1st was the warmest ever day measured in the UK).

[Sarper]

The landlords partly sold me the desire to be a tenant there because of hedges on both side of the garden which they commented on providing privacy. On the day I signed the Agreement they said they were going to have the hedge (bramble) removed as they wanted to please their neighbour too. I objected to this and they did not remove but said someone was coming round to cut it. I said I would do it but they insisted the gardener was coming round. They never came round. Also Mr Landlord was going to do another mow of the lawn but never did. The other side was leylandii hedge, also with nesting birds.

 

The landlords claimed 18 hours gardening £270 which is a nonsense as there is no way it would have taken that long.

 

I don't know what work they did after I left so they could be claiming for removing bushes etc. and who is to say what is a good condition to leave a hedge in?

 

They apparently supplied photos but I have never seen what they supplied, even one month after they supplied photos, is this ok?

 

The decision means the adjudicator has accepted the word of the landlords over me, for example they said that they would have done more to the hedge but I requested not.

 

The time of year is important, there is no way I would be cutting right back a hedge with nesting birds. Presumably the landlords sent a photo at the end of August because this is when they cut the hedge right back. The DPS mentions re decisions that the time of year will be taken into account but it doesn't seem to be here. I was there from October to July, so less than a year of growth.

[renegadeimp]

Can you link that website

[Sarper]

I need to post 10 times to put a link, it's w dot depositprotection.com

 

https://www.depositprotection.com/

Edited January 13, 2016 by citizenB

[Steve__M]

The decision means the adjudicator has accepted the word of the landlords over me, for example they said that they would have done more to the hedge but I requested not.

 

Have DPS provided a written decision where they provide their reasoning?

 

I know you say they sent a lot of emails and you had difficulty with their website. Have you reviewed the emails and discovered that you missed an important one.

[citizenB]

I have posted the link in your thread above.

[Sarper]

citizenB Thanks for putting in link

[Sarper]

Have DPS provided a written decision where they provide their reasoning?

 

I know you say they sent a lot of emails and you had difficulty with their website. Have you reviewed the emails and discovered that you missed an important one.

 

I have been trying to make sense of it today. I can find the landlords original request for money but nothing about their submissions after that or any photos for me to review. Shouldn't I have had a chance to see what they said as the case went along? I can't find anything.

[Sarper]

Have DPS provided a written decision where they provide their reasoning?

 

I know you say they sent a lot of emails and you had difficulty with their website. Have you reviewed the emails and discovered that you missed an important one.

I only have the final decision where the landlords word seems to have been taken. The decision maker refers to the bramble side and says it was left at my request (I offered to cut it and did do a fair bit of trimming back over the year). The other side of leylandii is not mentioned as I never said anything about that at all,

 

The amount claimed is for gardening that the landlords did themselves. They had also tried to claim money for cleaning and for a stain they found on a windowsill but my side was taken for them as no evidence for stain area before and the cleaning, the house was not in a good state when I took over and I told them that the toilet was dirty, cupboards inside were dirty and other things were dirty too. I had some photos from start of tenancy of their dirty cupboards etc. The decision maker suddenly believes the landlords when it came to the garden. That amount is huge for me, I am on Housing Benefit even though working full time. For them, it just adds to the pot they earn from two lots of teaching and 2 houses they rent out. I intend to take this as far as I can. I know financial situation probably doesn't count but it should. Proportionately it has screwed my finances, I had no deposit for another place and ended up with bank charges on an overdraft that would not have been at that level. Proportionately it is an enormous percentage of my income.

[Steve__M]

Did they justify how they got to £270? Did you dispute the amount?

 

It sounds like you did supply evidence as some of the costs were cancelled. Unfortunately, they may say that they made their adjudication based on evidence in front of them.

 

Unfortunately, it seems the state of the inside is not offset against the state of the outside. Similar to you, I took over a dirty house with a cut lawn, and left a clean house with an uncut lawn and got charged (only £40 mind you).

[Sarper]

I disputed all of the amounts. They said 2 people (landlords) @ £15 an hour for the two. 18 hours of gardening.

 

Is there any chance a small claims court would take a more reasonable view?

Edited January 14, 2016 by Sarper

[mariner51]

Unlikely, but it will cost you ~£100 in up front SCC fee to find out.