Question

Deposits and Tenancy Deposit Schemes (England)

Deposit in dispute

19 Jun 2018 | 6 comments

Rather a strange situation

Tenant took to court for money order for some 20k of arrears. Claim was successful. Judgement was disputed and dismissed. 10k in protection scheme, Scheme admins are saying that thy won’t release to LL as the Tenant is disputing it. What kind of actions can be taken? Can another claim be taken out to get this depoist back. Tennat is apparently residIng in India

Answer

6 Comments

  1. guildy

    The landlord will need to respond to the dispute with paperwork and evidence that it’s owed to the landlord and then the scheme will decide who the money should go to. This could be done by the courts but as that’s been tried and dismissed, it would seem this is the only option left.

    • eden2011

      No the courts have not dismissed it, they dismissed the defendants application to set aside the judgement for teh money Claim, it’s not related. The reason I mentioned it was for background.  The tennat had 20 k of arrears and did a runner and then a mont claim was taken out, a money judgement came from that.
      All the time the deposit for that tenancy is in the scheme, the DPD won’t realease without a court order stating that this, as part of the money claim nothing was ordered in relation to the deposit  So the LL wanst this deposit released  

  2. guildy

    Okay.

    The DPS guidance is that unless the order actually stipulates that the DPS must pay a particular party then they won’t pay out just because a landlord has a judgment.

    Their argument is that all the order is is a money judgment. That doesn’t mean to say the money was owed from the tenancy. They could have had a business relationship and the judgment could relate to the business partnership rather than rent owed.

    However, there’s no reason why the order can’t be used as evidence when requesting the money. The papers submitted to the court showing the amounts due along with the order will all add to the evidence.

    The alternative is to get the order varied with the name and address of the DPS shown and that they’re ordered to pay the deposit held to the claimant landlord.

    • eden2011

      Any ideas how much it’s costs to vary an order ? Is it ann244 application which is 255?

  3. guildy

    Yes, it would be the application notice and we believe the fee will be £50 as it’s an application to vary without notice.

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