Tenant seeks advice on the validity of extra charges made by her landlord

This is a question to the blog clinic from Hillary (not her real name) who is a tenant

We were shown round a property and agreed to take it. (property was with landlord, not agency)

We were sent terms and conditions which we agreed, signed and sent back
We paid £200 check in fee and £200 application fee and agreed a move in date. We also paid £600 deposit but he kept £100 for ‘deposit administration’ and gave £500 to DPS

On the DAY WE MOVED IN the landlord gave us a tenancy agreement. This was different to the terms and conditions we had previously agreed to. There were extra charges of £400 to move out and mentioned ‘service charges’ which were not explained. We were not told how much the ‘service charge’ was or how often is was paid.

We queried but we told it’s just a charge you have to pay. We explained we were unhappy and had we known we wouldn’t have taken the flat. However, we did sign the contract. We had to. If we didn’t sign we wouldn’t have been given the keys and would be been homeless.

2 weeks later we’re landed with a bill for £130 a month in service charge for the building. There are about 40 flats in that building. I’ve spoken to 5 other landlords in the building, NONE of them charge service charge. We are the only ones.

We paid the service charge for 3 months, then wrote a formal complaint and withheld it. Our complaint was never answered.

Our fixed term ran out on 1st Feb. We emailed our notice on 3rd Jan, 28 days notice. He claims because notice was given in on 3rd this is not a month so we owe him another months rent. Nowhere in our contract does it say how much notice is needed.

He has disputed our deposit return and won’t use DPS resolution service.

Basically, we were forced to sign a contract that was different to what we’d previously seen or we had nowhere to live. He now wants to keep our deposit plus get us to pay another month’s rent and the 3 months service charge we withheld, with arrears on this charge.

Can he do this?

Answer

He sounds like bad news! Let’s take your points one by one:

Rent in lieu of notice.

Whether your landlord can claim this will depend on when you moved out.

• If you moved out on or before the last day of the fixed term, then your landlord is not entitled to anything
• If you moved out after the fixed term ended, then a new periodic tenancy will have been created automatically (s5 of the Housing Act 1988) and you will be required to give notice to end this. So he may be entitled to rent in lieu.

The validity of the second tenancy agreement

This is very sharp practice as you had already signed a tenancy agreement and had put yourself in a position where you would be rendered homeless if the landlord did not hand over the keys.

I think it is arguable that the second tenancy could be invalid as it was signed under duress.

The deposit

You say that your landlord deducted £100 off the deposit and kept it for ‘administration’. In my view, that is not something he is entitled to do. If he charged £600 for a deposit then that was the deposit money. If he failed to protect it all then that would put him in breach of the tenancy deposit regulations.

This is good news for you as it means that you are entitled to bring a claim against him for the return of the deposit – without any deductions – and for a penalty of up to 3x the deposit sum.

What you should do:

Your landlord has refused to engage with the DPS adjudication process. That is actually good news for you as a County Court Judge can consider other claims which an adjudicator under a deposit scheme cannot.

I suggest that you write a letter to the landlord asking for the return of your deposit money within 7 days otherwise you will be going to court to claim:

• The return of the deposit money – in full
• The penalty for non-protection of the deposit – of 3x the deposit sum ie £1,800
• The return of all service charge fees paid and
• Any other new charges under the second agreement – as this agreement is invalid as it was signed under duress

If he fails to respond (as he may well do) then bring proceedings in the county court for those things. You will find that the Judge will almost certainly have a lot of sympathy for you (and will be horrified at your landlord’s behaviour) and you should get at least your deposit back and the penalty.

However, before going to court I suggest you get some help in drafting up the forms. See this post for guidance on this. If at all possible try to get help from a housing solicitor, for example at Shelter or a Law Centre.

This case is a strong argument for licensing landlords.