My landlord is not returning my deposit and I need views

Former Member

I paid a deposit of 400 pounds when I started living with my landlord. I found the room on the website spareroom.co.uk and never really thought about an agreement or a contract. I had to give her a months notice which I did(21st May, 2014) and I had my rent(425) paid till 31st May, 2014. I left on 21st ie. she should have returned my 400 minus 21days of rent, which we agreed to be 100 pounds. She said she will do so when she gets paid on 25th.:chin::chin::chin:

I sent her a few texts requesting my deposit back or if she is at all going to return it. The last text I sent, I said I will take legal actions if necessary. Today, nearly 2 weeks later, she repied that she need to take THE CYCLE WALL ANCHOR out of her front wall and it might cost her in excess of 100 pounds and now I owe her money !!:shocking::shocking::shocking::shocking::shocking:

:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:
THE CYCLE WALL ANCHOR: About 15 days before I left I bought a cycle. She has a decent backyard whose doors go through her parking space. There would be enough space to take a cycle through if the car is parked properly. She was scared that I might put a scratch to her car, which is why she asked me to get wall anchors. So I bought http://www.wilko.com/hardware/master-lock-security-anchors-53mm-2pk/invt/0343384?VBMST=anchor and she got it fitted. She never mentioned that I will have to bear the cost of taking it out and it might be in excess of 100 pounds. The anchor was drilled between the bricks !! Moreover, 100 pounds to take the anchors out :crazyeyes seems a bit too much to me really.

Now, can I by law be responsible for that damage.

No seriously... if I would have had known and had the option, I would not have bought the bloody bike in the first place !!!!:yeees::yeees::yeees:

Please HELP... please please. I checked the legislation and read a bit but couldn't really find anything exact.

All suggestions are welcome. I will really appreciate if you could support it by evidence.

Former Member

Hey there and welcome to the boards.
This sounds like a frustrating situation but hopefully we can give you some ideas to think about to work through it.
You said you were living with your landlord which means that you are not given the same protection as most other private tenants.
If you want to check your tenancy status yourself then Shelter’s tenancy rights checker is really useful.

I know you said you didn’t think about an agreement, but did you sign anything? If so, what did it say?

I am going to assume you are an ‘excluded occupier’ for the rest of my post.

As an excluded occupier your landlord does not have to protect your deposit (the legislation you linked to refers to this).
Therefore I can see 2 ways you can try to get your deposit back; 1) negotiate with your landlord and if that doesn’t work then 2) making a court application.

It’s really worth trying to negotiate with you landlord first as a court application does incur costs and can take time to conclude. Tell your landlord it’s unreasonable to make you pay £100 just to remove some anchors and explain why you think this (e.g. will only take a few minutes to take out etc).

You could suggest that you help her remove the anchors and patch up any damage which would mean that she wouldn’t need to pay someone else to do it. This will take a bit of time on your part but it could mean getting back your full deposit.

Remember to put your points across in writing and get any agreement in writing too.

Hope this helps.

Former Member

You should speak again to ur landlord and tell him why this is the case and agree to have an agreement in paying a fair amount. I dont know why they charged u park ur bike up there buy maybe it was cuz u blocked someone's private property. You could go onto The Citizens Advice Bureau to find out more information on the matter. What exactly do u have to pay them which is the £400? I suppose if u left at an early date then u should be able to give them less then that but I dont know wh att was talked about between u two? More importantly are u living somewhere safe?

Former Member

It seems to me that she took on the responsibility of the cycle anchors when she had it fitted to the wall. If the anchors are a useful thing to have that's essentially an improvement to the house. I can't see any standpoint from which you'd be required to pay for the removal. (Also even if you were, unscrewing some anchors and filling the holes should not be anything more than a cheap odd job.)

Former Member

Thanks ever so much for the replies folks. Really appreciate it. I have not heard anything from her yet and I really don't want any kind of excessive prolonged grief over 100 pounds which I will earn a lot many times. Check out the image below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_cb5Mk8MlpxdTV3cW40RVFLN3c/edit?usp=sharing

I agree with @LittleOne that I fall into the "excluded occupier" category which complicates things way too much more for me. This indeed means that if she can prove that it is a damage done to her property then I have to pay (period). Which I think is unjust, but then I am the suffered so it will always be unjst from where I stand.

When I said that I don't think I asked her to drill the holes in her wall she replied me with this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_cb5Mk8MlpxTkdTSzA3d2laQ1k/edit?usp=sharing

She has contantly been very rude to me. I am 25, Indian and have no real friends here. I never distubed her, or had loads of friends over or came home drunk and paid my rent on or before time, everytime. I even gave her more than a months notice but here I am, typing my thoughts about how people can change with the color of money. Darn, I even invited her to visit me when I go back to india and cooked her chicken curry a few times. Kinda lifts my hope from humanity really.

Guys, thanks ever so much for all your replies again. Really helps.

Former Member

She's trying it on with you. There's no way those tiny things have caused 100 pounds worth of damage to the wall and, what is more, SHE installed them, it's up to her if they did. It's completely unreasonable for you to be expected to rectify "damage" caused by something that SHE installed.

Furthermore, and of course I don't know the specifics here, but I'd guess they are just screwed in to the wall? It'd be a few minutes work to unscrew them and fill the holes with filler, and one would assume that the instructions give the method for that if it's a DIY kit.

That said you may just want to agree with her to consider things all square and move on. By the sounds of it you don't have a protected deposit and she's basically being an arse so it may not be worth your time and effort to pursue.

Former Member

Looks like a simple DIY job which someone could fix for few pounds. However, this seems not to be the real matter and your situation is just being taken advantage of.

Former Member

I agree with mist. Except I wouldn't move on. Maybe because to me I wouldn't let the woman get away with it. If you're like me and moreover the principal then I would do the below.

Post her a letter informing her that she had the mounts fitted and the cost of removal is her own to cover.

Also state that if you do not have the deposit back within 21 days you will issue a letter before court action and you will bill further expenses at the standard approved court rate of £18 per hour plus all cost

If she doesn't, begin proceedings in small claims. You have a strong case and if you win you'll get your £100 plus costs