Advice on getting deposit back

[Borboski]

So... this is a shitty situation is £375 flies off, never to be seen again.

Before Xmas I was in a houseshare in Chorlton. I was too far from another part of town so moved back to Didsbury.  I found a house that seemed ok, was probably only going to stay 6 months, and so moved in with the girl.  She said she was training to be a paramedic and had two dogs.  I thought that she owned the house...

So I came round with cash for a deposit, and didn't get a receipt off her.  It didn't look like I'd be signing a contract but I foolishly thought we'd sort it out when I moved in.  She had a housemate in there at the time, who was moving out.

About four days after I gave her £375 she texted me to say we needed to talk.  It turned out that she was renting through an agency (and subletting) and she'd been told they were selling the house so she'd been given about 6 weeks notice.

Obviously I should have taken my deposit back (she offered) but I'd already lost my room in Chorlton - and I thought moving in with her was the right thing to do.  She wasn't going to find anyone else at short notice.  So I moved in over Xmas.

I soon realised that her dogs absolutely stank, and the penny dropped that she hadn't informed the landlord.  Surprise, surprise, 5 weeks after moving out I've texted her a few times about getting my 375 back and she's replied to say that the agency want to withhold it all - replacing carpets, curtains, etc.

She seems pretty stressed, and she's broke, so I'm trying to not pressure her too much.  Do I have any rights in this situation.  She's arguing with the agency but I don't think she's got a leg to stand on.  If I rented out a house, and said no dogs, I'd be very pissed off if they put them in - the house fucking stank of dog.  So I feel like my best option is to ask if she can give me £30 a month, getting it upfront seems unlikely.  I don't actually know where she lives, but I could find out as I know her car and I think the street.

She's responded to all my texts, telling me how stressed and broke she is, but at no point has said sorry or acknowledged that she owes me cash.

She's bit of a twat really (and looking back I feel very stupid for being so trusting...  She wasn't a paramedic, she was unempoyed.  And the house wasn't sold, it was put back on the market for rent. So my guess is that her housemate moved out, she knew she could no longer afford to live there, so she looked to "snare" someone to pay half the rent for a month or two).

[HappyTree]

I came round with cash for a deposit, and didn't get a receipt off her.

But worry not. The only way to become wise is to mess up. The most wise people have messed up the most.

By all means suggest to her to pay back in instalments. Nothing more to lose by trying. Bonne chance!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Definitely hit the landlord's son with a sledgehammer.

[biggytitbo]

Leave a deposit in her letterbox.

[mook]

am i reading this right? did the OP stay in the house for the 6 weeks rent free?

[Borboski]

No - I paid two weeks went, then a full month.  The rent for 475 - so by moving in I gave her 850 quid that I suspect she wouldn't have had otherwise (as she would have had to have told other prospective housemates that she had been given notice - although who knows, she lurked me in).

She hasn't deleted me from facebook so I'm hoping that she is intending to pay me back...  but like I say she hasn't responded to anything like that on a text.  She just mentions "Stressed.com right now mate. Had to get an emergency loan last week so I could get petrol."

I just thought it was fucking simple, if you rent DON'T GET DOGS WITHOUT PERMISSION.  I didn't realise people were that stupid to realise that it's dodgey, my mistake as I should have asked or insisted she kept me deposit seperate (she obviously used it for rent).

[Tiny Poster]

Just kill her for using the wholly unnecessary suffix ".com". Please.

[rudi]

Absolutely; it makes my teeth itch.

Oh, and you have virtually no chance other than through threats/her goodwill. Sorry mate.

[Steve Lampkins]

You messed it up by sleeping with her (probably).[nb]Based on your form[/nb]

[danyulx]

I've never had a landlord (legit or otherwise) who wasn't a total arsehole.. there's something clearly wrong with The Profession. Quick tip: The more friendly and accommodating they seem on first meeting the more psychotic, evil and prone to trying to con you out of monies they actually will be, behind the facade. I don't know the woman but all this woe-is-me, "I'm stressed and broke" nonsense reeks of downright fraudulency. Tell her to fucking sell back whatever is it she wasted your money on - that she was meant to be holding back for you - what's she playing at!

I got had off for £200 deposit myself start of the year. Only a short-term 3-month room let, and before moving out I got blamed for some black mould that had formed on the window-side wall, because, in her words, I "hadn't opened the window enough".. so therefore she sadly couldn't give me my deposit back as she needs it to sort the bloody mould out, which will cost exactly that much to do, to the pence. Despite me renting the room from October - January. A time of year I take it only Eskimos happily open their windows at.

I later found out, the other week, I could have actually sued her for its formation. As black mould is potentially DEADLY, it could've poisoned me to death in my sleep.. and its formation is exclusively down to the building not being correctly insulated or something. A human being is incapable of causing it.. not even a human being like me.

Sadly, due to having enough trauma on my plate with other things at time, I just told her to go fuck herself, let her keep the money and forgot about it. Maybe £375 would've swung it though.

She probably pulls this trick off everytime.

Sorry I can't help you.

Threatening to go to police may help. Just tell her outright: "I want my money by [such-and-such a date] or I'm going to the police!"

Don't actually go the police though. They'll probably just point and laugh at you.

Why in Christ's sweet name don't you like dogs, though? What's not to like?

[Dead kate moss]

1. You can try dirtying her name to everyone, hoping shame will make her find the money to pay you back. Probably won't work.

2. You could try taking her to the small claims court, but without a receipt you'd probably have to trick her into putting it into writing that she owes you the money. Then even if you win, she may not get any money back off her if she pleads poverty, or accept five pounds a month. Probably too much hassle and might not work.

3. Live and learn.

I've had one good landlord out of about twenty. Over the course of nine years he let me fall way behind in the rent, eventually letting me off about a grand when I moved out. All letting agents are scum who will steal all your deposit.

[danyulx]

4. Consider looking at going down the "sexual favour in lieu of monetary payment" route, if she is in fact as certifably skint as she says, and not a complete pig to look at. I'm not sure what £375 will get you these days though.

[Borboski]

I have a psychotic debt collector friend who has offered to take the debt on.   This would be very bad for her... and possibly not the best thing that I could do as he is... a little dodgy to say the least.  But it's useful to have something up my sleeve.

[NoSleep]

With fucking mates like that and girlfriends like this, "discernment" must be your middle name.

[Goldentony]

Fucking SHOOT THEM

[El Unicornio, mang]

I always hate giving deposits when I move in to places as I invariably think of it not so much a deposit as a gift of money which I'll never see again. I doubt any landlords put the money aside for when you move out, more like it goes into their own pool of money and then when it comes time to cough up they take great umbrage at having to give up a chunk of "their" cash and getting nothing in return. It's easier for them to keep it, safe in the knowledge that very few people are going to pursue getting it back further than a few angry emails/phone calls.

[Zetetic]

In the UK at least, most tenants hand it over to a custodial deposit protection scheme rather than a landlord.

Edit: Am I actually correct with 'most'?

[Hank_Kingsley]

I thought Borboski was married with kids? Who is this impostor?

[Dead kate moss]

In the UK at least, most tenants hand it over to a custodial deposit protection scheme rather than a landlord.

Edit: Am I actually correct with 'most'?

It is now law that all deposits are handed over to this third party, with the tenant getting any interest. Landlords and letting agents still have numerous ways of not giving it all back though. Professional clean, £350!  Hold on, cleaners are about a tenner an hour, is this really going to take 35 hours to get back to the same quite dirty condition it was in when I moved in?

[Zetetic]

Not all deposits have to be handed over to a custodial protection scheme - (some?) landlords are still allowed to use one of the insurance-based ones, apparently.

[Ronnie the Raincoat]

Borborksi is fucked by this emotionally blackmailing thieving twat, but I'd like to share a story of a good landlord. I've had two which is more than my fair share.

The first one was a loud-sexing Italian who lived next door to what I affectionately called, "The Bunker".  It was basically a converted garage with no windows but a frosted glass door and a giant metal gate I shut at night.  It had a little bathroom and, "kitchenette" to put it politely.  But I dolled it up and had some of my happiest times there.  The landlord was a proper, "Ciao!" on a moped Italian and had a sexy wife and a thousand kittens. I left the tenancy early to move in with my boyfriend at the time, and he let me pay just the rent of the weeks I was going to be there and gave me my deposit back.

My current landlord is also pretty good.  He had 2 adverts up for this place- one on Gumtree and one with agents.  The agent rent was £50 a week more expensive, and we came from Gumtree.  There was an agent couple interested, but we got it anyway and the rent remained cheap.  He has raised it, but only because I pleaded with him to let me have my cats.  The raise was by £50 a month and it was to cover leaving the place empty an extra week or two at the end and the cost of a deep clean to get cat smells and stuff out.  Which I think is fair enough.  He said if they wreck anything we can fix it or it'll come out of the deposit but that's it. He redid the tenancy agreement to include the cats, too.

Recently, we've had a leak coming from upstairs and he has been great in trying to get it sorted.  He's been coming round about twice a week and pressuring the upstairs landlord to do his bit.  He hasn't, so he's going through the council.  He said he is going to claim compensation for us due to us living with an almost unusable bathroom now (the ceiling came through!) and we'll get it in full.  He is generally nice and affable and quick to sort things out.  He also said- and I have never heard a landlord say this in my life- "Ooh, you've made it lovely in here" when he came into our living room.

All my other landlords have been utter cunts, though, including the fucker who had me living in a flat with sealed-by-paint -and-black-mould-for-a-year and then took all my deposit at the end, and put the flat back on the market for an extra £300 a month.

[wasp_f15ting]

I have had a similar problem..

I lived in a family house (attic room) for the past 8 months (during the week when I worked in London), and like yourself paid £450 deposit down when I moved in. On my last month, I asked them whether they will be able to pay the full deposit back, if they couldn't I asked them to deduct the last months rent. (In retrospect I should have stuck to this!). But they promised me they would have the money a week before I left London for Manchester.. come the final week, they apparently both lost their jobs and were unable to pay me..

£450 down, I made them sign a promissory note outlining the amount owed, in the hope that they would pay me a week down the line (as they had signed). A week down the line they get defrauded by Nigerians or some fucks.. this keeps going on for a couple of weeks and I lose my rag and threaten legal action. Then finally they paid me 1/3 of it back last month and have promised to pay the remainder in 2 more monthly installments. I never signed a contract when I started my stay with them.. in retrospect I would suggest anyone to sign one of these with a secured deposit scheme. It causes so much bloody hassle and somehow I feel like the criminal asking for my money back!

[HappyTree]

I went to a lawyer and got a whole agreement written that made it clear I had not broken anything and would get my full deposit back, if the landlady agreed. She had to terminate the lease because she had decided to throw me out because her own electrical wiring was faulty and she didn't like me insisting she fix it.

She took 90 minutes, going round trying to claim things were broken when they weren't, and finally reluctantly agreed - with much sighing and dramatic looks - to sign the agreement and specify when I'd get the deposit back. Then after I left she took a hammer to her own toilet, took a photo and claimed I'd done it, so she would not be paying my deposit back. I have never met anyone so wilfully dishonest in my life, it was quite an experience. Over the years it's got to the point where it is not really worth my time or money taking care of an apartment or fixing anything. Landlords just steal the deposit anyway so I might as well get my money's worth. In fact I have never been given my deposit back in any place I've rented. They see it as free money.

[I accept the terms of the]

"Needed a professional clean" is definitely an agency trick. Mine did it to my last flat, even though I left it in an immaculate condition and it had already been signed off without issue by the DPS. I would have taken them to issue if I didn't NEED the £1000+ deposit back (the cleaning was only £70) and they hadn't only charged me £15 for the toilet seat that my girlfriend broke because she doesn't know how to shit properly. I doubt they priced that properly, because it was quite an unusual shape and probably actually cost £100.

[Borboski]

I thought Borboski was married with kids? Who is this impostor?

Had a tough year.

[vrailaine]

is there any chance that the interchanges on facebook or wherever can kinda count as evidence?

[HappyTree]

Emails count as much as letters, I do believe. Facebook, probably not.

[Zetetic]

I would've thought Facebook's perfectly viable (and indeed much harder to fake than e-mails).

[Dead kate moss]

I won a small claims court action with only (printed out) emails as evidence. If the other side says they have been invented and they haven't that's probably perjury or something.