security bond on apartment

[inafix]

Hi guys, my son is unable to get his security deposit back off his landlord,he only had a six month rental and left the property in a fist class condition.we are having trouble locating him and would like to know what road to go down without involving solicitors.

[redcrx]

have you no address for him? I would write giving a set amount of time for the return of monies (or explanation as to why its held) before taking it to court

[inafix]

we think its a false address has the registered letter came back

[redcrx]

http://www.direct.gov...anddisputes/DG_189243 was it in a tenant deposit protection scheme?

[buildersmate]

Most of what you need to know is within the link that Redman gave you.
Assuming he had a short-term tenancy agreement (and the only reason why he wouldn't have is if it was just a local informal agreement - which it shouldn't have been) then the landlord was breaking the law if he failed to place the deposit into one of the three approved schemes.
If that was the case then the route to recompense is via the County Court - as the link makes clear. You should be able to invoke the Small Claims Procedure to do this.
If it was deposited, you need to find which scheme it was deposited with and make a claim to them.
If you are struggling to find the landlord, what about the agent where the rent has been paid to? If not, get onto the Land Registry website and find the registered proprietor of the property - that LR record will also show an address - though the address may not always be the home address of the landlord (people sometimes use their solicitor's address to avoid address identification).

[inafix]

Thankyou so much for your replies, i will pass all the info onto my son and see where we go from here.

[themas]

Its possible the registered letter came back because he refused to sign for it for some reason.

I agree you need to follow the Court route. If he had put the deposit into one of the schemes he has - by law - to let the tenant know in writing within 14 days which scheme it is in. It's possible he just didn't do this so it's worth checking with each scheme whether they have (or did have) the deposit. If they did, they should have an address.

Just a note of caution. You could be spending money on the Court fee & not get it back if he genuinely can't be traced (or if he really doesn't have any money).