Question

Deposits and Tenancy Deposit Schemes (England)

Non Protection of a Deposit

3 Apr 2018 | 3 comments

A deposit of £525 was paid for an original tenancy of 6 months. There have been an additional two tenancy agreements signed. The deposit has never been protected. Can the tenant claim for three separate breaches and therefore be entitled to between £1575 and £4725 (excluding the return of the deposit). If so, is there any authority, ideally case law.

Are legal costs recoverable in pursuing non-protection of a deposit? Again, if so, what is the authority for this?

Thank you in advance

Answer

3 Comments

  1. guildy

    Yes, where there has been a total failure to protect, each renewal and the statutory periodic is a failure. The deemed re-protection and re-giving of prescribed information only applies when it was correctly protected and prescribed information given when first received.

    There may have been cases but we can’t locate any at this time. However, it’s in the legislation itself so not so important.

    Costs are applicable because a claim for compensation is a part 8 claim and not small claims. Part 8 claims have no limit to costs (subject to them being incurred within the rules).

    Please see this article for details

  2. Wax786

    Hi, in the circumstances above, if there was a “counter claim”, say damage to the property etc which was, say £8,500 (deliberately kept under the small claims court threshold in this scenario), would this constitute a “dispute” and could the Landlord then apply for the case to be transferred to the Small Claims Court (therefore treated the claim as if it was a Part 7 claim – thus each party bears their own costs).
    Or, would there need to be a proper “dispute” regarding the circumstances of the Deposit protection and /or Prescribed information given, such as the Landlord confirming that they did deposit the money with the DPS, but cannot now produce a copy of the receipt (as its over 4 years ago when the deposit was protected). The Landlord can however produce a copy of the email from the DPS showing when the deposit was (partially retuned) returned to the Tenant.
    Could any of the above scenarios get the matter moved from the Part 8 Claim to the small claims court to avoid Standard costs?

    • guildy

      To the best of our knowledge, once it’s in Part 8, no action would then transfer it to small claims. However, it may be possible to transfer to small claims if all parties agree and jointly ask the court to allocate to the small claims track. You would need to speak with the court on how to do that though (if it’s possible).

      The landlord should be able to login to their DPS account and see all history of all deposits regardless of the length of time.

Submit a Comment

View your previously asked questions. (Will only show questions from August 2020)

(Link above back to topic only works for questions added after end of August 2020)