To my former landlord. Fuck you you cheap fuck. I hope you become bankrupt and end up living in a fucking box under a fucking bridge.
I lived in your flat for 2 years. I kept it up, I maintained it, I cleaned it, I painted it, I washed the windows and vacuumed the floors and repaired the plumbing. I repaired things without calling you, I paid my rent on time. I told you the carpets needed replacing as one was torn pretty badly, and that the previous tenant (before me) had left some scratches in the bedroom wall that would likely need to be filled in with plaster before being repainted, and that you’d probably want to repaint after I moved out to make it more attractive to the next tenant. I also told you that the ancient dishwasher had finally given up the ghost and would need to be replaced and that the gas ignitor on the stovetop was broken and you had to light the gas burners with matches or a lighter; I had already replaced the clothes washer. I congratulated you on the remodel of the million-pound house you bought and completely remodeled next door. I asked about your family. I thought we had a friendly relationship, as well as a professional understanding between us.
So why can’t you repay the 400 pounds I gave you as a deposit? Did the purchase and complete gutting and remodel of your million-pound house cause you to get so broke you can’t afford to pay back your loyal and honest tenant the money I paid you over 2 years ago? Or was it the coke-head dipshit you hired as your estate agent, who took over the ‘contract’ with me, your tenant (and neighbor), by verbally attacking me and calling me a cheat and a liar? Who miraculously decided that the cost of the ‘repairs’ from the damage I did to the flat in the 2 years I lived there was equal to the 400 I was owed?
As a corollary question - why are the truly rich always so fucking cheap? This guy can spend millions and millions on his house, drives a Range Rover, and wears expensive suits, but can’t pay his tenant back 400quid and can’t pay the downstairs neighbor’s 200-300 pound costs for a simple fucking plumbing leak until he’s taking to court?
I doubt I would win - the contract we did have was for a year and expired and was not renewed… I should have got another one, but figured we had a good relationship and didn’t need one. When he / the estate agent scumbag tried to up my rent and get a new contract, I decided to move out instead and now he’s refusing to pay the deposit.
I find it hard to believe that letting a lease expire = free money for the landlord.
There appear to be renters rights groups in London: http://www.londontenants.org/Links.htm
Look one up, and see what they say.
Aye; as I understand it, the presumption after a contract expires is of a rolling one-month contract on the previous terms; there’s no reason whatsoever that your deposit is forfeit simply because you haven’t signed a renewal. If the flat truly is in as good condition as you say, then at the very least a threat of small claims court might convince him to cough up some of the money. Also note that the deposit cannot be withheld for normal wear and tear. The OFT has some more information.
That said, this really is an annoying area of renting in which tenants usually get shafted, simply because the landlord generally has more resources and thus power. The best thing IMO is to insist that your landlord agrees your deposit refund with you before you pay the last month’s rent; that way in a dispute you have at least some leverage (although many landlords ask for more than a month’s deposit now for precisely this reason).
ETA: have you already moved out? Did you take photos of the condition of the flat as you left it?
Small claims court(well that’s what it’s called over here). Landlords try this shit all the time. All but one has tried it on with me. The threat of the court always got my deposit back.
Sounds like deposits work very differently in London than New Jersey. Here the deposit is held in a Escrow Account and the landlord rarely wins cases like this.
We got back our deposit and some interest on it.
Friends that were in situations like your just went to small claims court and they all won.
Has your landlord given you a specific documented list of everything that’s been damaged by you? You might want to request one, and toss in the word “court” while you’re at it.
Motherfuckers always keep something, these days. Dishonest cunts did it to me last time - the house was fucking pristine when I moved out; I spent an entire fucking week, 6-8 hours a day, making the bastard way better than it was when I moved in. They still kept £80 for “cleaning the carpets”. What do you think I was doing with the fucking carpet shampoo, Shake’n’Vac and Dyson, you bastards?
£400 is too much to let them get away with - I recommend trying a tenants’ association. Get documenting stuff, too - even though your lease expired, you should still have some statutory rights.
While you might be able to win, a lot of people don’t have the option of going to court, or don’t have the stomach for it, or figure they won’t win, and never get their money back.
This is why lots of people who have 1 month rent deposits just don’t pay the last month’s rent. They figure (quite rightly) that it’s better to be the person with the money, than the person asking for the money.
THey’ve started to do that here, with an independent org holding onto the money. That’s what I’ve done with my current landlord.
With this guy, I think it was the sketchy estate agent. I am going to give him one more chance, then talk to the local Citizens Advice Bureau and see what they can do - it’s like small claims court in the US.
It just pisses me off - had a great relationship, and I was a pretty good tenant - I never really bothered him and paid the rent on time. Yet he witholds the money. What a dick.
Makes me glad that I don’t rent. Is it really that bad?
BTW: What resources does it take to go to small claims court? I thought it was a relatively painless and lawyer free situation. Am I very wrong about this? I don’t recall my one friend that talked about his nasty piece of work landlord, needing a lawyer.
The other two friends never really went into any details and I recall everything being resolved within a few months.
Is there any proof that this stuff was discussed before you initially moved in? Unless there’s documentation showing that there were scratches and bad paint and a torn carpet, etc., before you got there, it becomes your word against his.
I admit I don’t have a lot of experience about renting, but before I moved into my apartment they gave me a sheet to fill out regarding the condition of the place. I wrote down every little thing I could think of, every cracked tile and leaky faucet, so they can’t say I caused any of it.
General cleaning is not a valid (ie. legal, at least in Ireland) reason to withhold deposit money. It is expected that a Landlord will have to do a bit of a clean, even a fresh coat of paint for a new tenant. Unless you’ve caused actual damage, left bills etc. or removed the property specifically mentioned in the lease they shouldn’t take anything.
Nowadays I’m of the opinion that on principal alone I’ll take the fuckers to the small claims court. Although that way only costs a small fee I’d actually be willing to spend more that the actual deposit just to make sure the prick/bitch doesn’t fuck me. A bit of disposable income and narkiness with age has done wonders for my stubbornness when it comes to fuckers trying to do me over.
Hard to say, a lot of it is hearsay, what happened to a FoaF, or what you hear on message boards. When you have a stack of money at stake that you don’t want to be without for a few months, you think about playing hardball with your landlord.
While you don’t need a lawyer for small claims court, it’s not something people are familiar with. I imagine it would feel daunting for many when they start thinking about filling out forms, making arguments in front of a judge, paying fees, and maybe not getting a penny out of the process when it’s all over.
I just wanna put a big sign up in front of the million-pound house to advertise to all of his neighbors that the resident is a cheap fuck who won’t pay an honest bill but will scam everyone he can.
I won’t, as I know that’s pretty stupid, but I am quite tempted.
I have a story of the opposite. When I moved out of my apartment, the garbage disposal had broken (and I didn’t tell the management), and there was a little hole in one of bedroom doors (that I caused). I’d lived in the place nearly 5 years, and their policy is to replace the carpets after 5 years, so the fact that there was some pet urine stains on the carpet didn’t stop them from giving me my 500 dollars back.
I totally expected them to keep the deposit for the repairs and carpet cleaning they had to do after I left, but I got every cent back. Strange huh?
I’m going through something similar with an old landlord. She kept almost the entire $2000 security deposit for (mostly) BS reasons. The fridge just stopped working literally the last day we lived there. We didn’t do anything to it, yet she charged us to repair it.
A roommate caused a grease fire, which resulted in smoke damage. We cleaned up everything and repainted, and she even said we did a good job, and yet there was a charge for cleaning and painting. There was wind damage to a front door we were charged for, we were charged for cleaning (again, she said the cleaning job we did was fine on the final inspection,) and so forth.
Thankfully, there’s a statute here that gives landlord 14 days to return the SD or they forfeit they right to keep any of it, so I’ve informed her of that and she has given no response, so it looks like I’m off to small claims court.