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markhod · Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 2 Location: Manchester

Hello,

I am having problems with recovering my deposit from my previous
landlord at my address in Manchester where I lived before moving to
Sheffield where I am now currently, and wondered if you could advise
me. I outline what I have done so far below:

The contract I had states that in order to get the deposit one condition
is to provide stamped as paid copies of the final bills for electrocitity, gas and water. (I didnt have a telephone line connected at the address)

I sent a letter to the landlord requesting my deposit with copies of the bills. He did not respond and when I phoned him to ask what was happening he said he needed stamped as paid bills covering the entire tenancy, not just the final bills.

So I sent a second letter accompnaied by photcopies of these bills and
received a letter in response which stated the council tax receipt was
not acceptable because it did not state the dates which it covered and
in addition that I must provide a letter from British Telecom stating I
never had a telephone service.

Therefore I sent a third letter with a photcopy of a letter from BT
stating I never had a service at the address of the flat I rented and I
also said I could only provide the councli tax receipt which I was
provided with and that it was not reasonable to withold the deposit
because he didnt accept the format of the receipt, especially since he
is incurring no financial loss due to this. I gave him a 7 day deadline
(which has now expired) to respond, stating that I had been advised to
take legal action in the County Court if he did not resolve the issue.
He has not responded as of yet.

So I seem to have reached a point where the only avenue left is legal
action, but I am bit wary of exactly where I stand and dont want to
initiate this if it will cost me a lot of money. Can you tell me if I am
being reasonable with my demands for the deposit or whether he really is
entitled to withold it until he has his requested level of proof (which
is of course impossible as far as I can tell for me to provide because I
cannot change the concil tax receipt I have for another one)? If I took
legal action via Small Claims exactly what do I stand to lose if I lose
the case: would I have to pay e.g. his costs for hiring a solicitor, his
travel costs to the court etc?

Another concern I have is my receipt for the deposit was given by the
estate agents I rented through, despite the actual deposit cheque being
in the name of the landlord. Does this matter?

I have sent all my letters my registered post - if I take legal action
do I need to have copies of the form he signed for the postman for each
letter, or is the receipt issued to me at the time of posting by the
Post Office enough?

Thanks for any help you can give,

Mark