I was living in a house with some friends.
We had a fixed term contract of a year.
We notified the letting agents
that at the end of the one year contract
I would be moving out and that
the three remaining tenants would take out a new
contract for another year
with a new fourth tenant to replace me.
They then got in touch and said
this won`t be possible and they advised
that whoever replaced me in the houseshare
pay me my quarter of the deposit upfront.
I started to worry.
because £700 is a lot of money.
So I contacted Shelter
and they advised me about my rights
and how to express this in a letter.
In Sophie's case the estate agent
suggested that the incoming tenant
just pay the deposit to the outgoing tenant.
Shelter would never suggest that anyone does this
because the incoming tenant may find themselves
with problems when they try and get the deposit back
at the end of the tenancy
because it hasn't been protected in their name.
So essentially they don't have a protected deposit.
If you are leaving a tenancy
make sure that you either serve the correct notice
or you've come to an agreement with your landlord
that the tenancy is definitely coming to an end.
Write to your landlord or your landlord’s agent
and ask for the deposit to be returned.
If you encounter any problems getting your deposit back
contact your tenancy deposit scheme
and use their alternative dispute resolution service.
If the landlord refuses to cooperate with the scheme
then you can send them a formal letter before action
which can be downloaded from our website.
In Sophie's case sending this formal letter before action
got her deposit returned immediately.
The key factor in getting my deposit back was
Shelter helping me to feel confident
that I was actually being misinformed
and once I had more clarity about my legal position
I had a confidence to actually demand
what I was legally entitled to.
