Housing Legal

Housing Legal Housing Legal offers legal advice to Landlords and Tenants on evictions, tenancy deposit issues and disrepair.

Even as we are battling Covid-19, Landlords are still required to protect your tenancy deposit. If your current landlord...
10/04/2020

Even as we are battling Covid-19, Landlords are still required to protect your tenancy deposit. If your current landlords or previous landlord has failed to protect your tenancy deposit you may be entitled to compensation.

Since 2007 all private landlords are required by law to protect your tenancy deposit. This means landlords are required to place your entire deposit into a deposit protection scheme. These deposit protection schemes are authorised by the government to hold your deposit securely for you, the tenant. Once the tenancy comes to end, the landlord is expected to return the full deposit to you via the deposit protection scheme.

However, if there has been an issue during the tenancy such as rent not being paid, or damage to the property, then the landlord may apply to the tenant deposit protection scheme to reclaim these costs. In this event the deposit protection scheme would intermediate between the tenant and landlord to arrive at a fair resolution.

When a tenant provides the landlord a deposit, the landlord has 30 days to place it within a government licensed deposit protection scheme and provide the tenant with details of this.
This law was introduced because prior to it landlords would routinely withhold a tenant’s deposit. The aim of the law is therefore aimed to level the power imbalance which exists between and landlord and tenant and to ensure that tenant deposits are not unfairly withheld.

At the end of a tenancy, if the landlord wants to make deductions from your deposit he needs to prove his case. If the landlord fails to do so, the deposit protection scheme is obligated to return your full deposit. However, some rogue landlords are still not protecting their tenant’s deposit and we at Housing Legal can help you here. Housing Legal may be able to recover your deposit and in addition compensation which may be worth thousands of pounds.

Contact us for an initial free, no obligation consultation. In certain cases we can consider a no win no fee arrangement.

Housing Legal offer advice to Tenants and Landlords on issues such as eviction, tenancy deposits and disrepair.
31/03/2020

Housing Legal offer advice to Tenants and Landlords on issues such as eviction, tenancy deposits and disrepair.

Has your Landlord failed to protect your deposit?If your Landlord has failed to protect your rental deposit properly or ...
31/03/2020

Has your Landlord failed to protect your deposit?

If your Landlord has failed to protect your rental deposit properly or at all, you may be entitled to compensation.

Since 2007, Landlords have had a legal responsibility to ensure that all tenancy deposits are protected in a government back scheme. Currently there are three schemes in which a tenant’s deposit must be protected, these are:

a) Deposit Protection Scheme: https://www.depositprotection.com/

b) MyDeposits: https://www.mydeposits.co.uk/

c) Tenancy Deposit Scheme: https://www.tenancydepositscheme.com/

Furthermore, the law requires your Landlord to provide certain information to you within 30 days. If the Landlord has failed to secure your deposit in one of the above schemes, or has failed to provide you with the necessary information within the time limit, you may be able to claim for compensation. The amount varies between 1 and 3 times the amount of your deposit and other factors influence this amount.

There are some exceptions to this law. These include If you're a resident landlord i.e. you live in the property or you live in student Hall’s of residence directly let out by universities or colleges. If, however, you live privately as a student and have a particular type of rental contract (called an assured short hold tenancy agreement) you may be covered by the Act.

The first thing to do is to check your deposit is protected by one of the above companies and the information was provided to you within 30 days. If not, or if you have any questions get in touch with us at Housing Legal.

Eviction rules updated in view of Coronavirus BillThe Government has now added detail to its proposal of emergency legis...
27/03/2020

Eviction rules updated in view of Coronavirus Bill

The Government has now added detail to its proposal of emergency legislation in order to cease evictions for an initial 3 month period in response to the worsening coronavirus pandemic.

The move comes after the Government was urged to make arrangements to help tenants during the crisis, given that they were proposing to assist homeowners with mortgage “holidays”. The Government has stated that they would not want tenants to be evicted from their homes at this difficult time.

The Coronavirus Bill is now going through the process of becoming law and has added detail to what this will entail. For assured tenancies, essentially a Landlord must now give a period of 3 months notice rather than the usual 2. It is important to note that other arrangements are in place for other forms of tenancies such as protected tenancies. It is also important to note that this 3 month period may be extended

Understandably, Landlords are concerned about how the new law will affect them. Although the Government has stated that this is not a rent freeze and rent remains payable, the concern is that arrears will accrue during this period, which will lead to significant problems after the 3 month delay and possibly a surge in possession cases in the Court system.

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