My bond

[fannyannie]

We have recently moved house. Our previous landlord is refusing to give us our bond back which is almost �700! He told us that everything was fine with the house and we would get our bond back that weekend. That was 2 weeks ago. Now he is refusing to acknowledge us, he wont answer any phone calls or messages that are left to him. He is completely avoiding us. We really need that money back and I don't know what to do

[Archburner]

Get advice as soon as possible fron the Citizen's Advice Bureau, since it seems to me they could easily take up your case which is a valid one. They could write to him on your behalf and may even get a solicitor involved and if you win, he would have to repay your bond as well as paying his costs.

[saxy_jag]

My son had one like this. They pushed but in the end only got back about half of their bond - the landlord said the place had needed cleaning, but I helped them move out and I know it was spotless when they left.

Putting it down to experience, when they knew the flat had been re-let, they wrote a letter to the new tenants explaining all that had happened. Hopefully they took it on board.

They'd also had a lot of trouble from the upstairs neighbours - loud music, beer (and worse) spilt on their car and filling everyone's bins up with their rubbish. Before he left, my son diligently went all round the neighbours' car shoving chewing gum into the locks.

[Motoxchick25]

Did you move into this property after 7th April 2007 - if so you should have been protected by the Tenancy Deposit Scheme - if you weren't protected you can go down the route of the small claims in the county court! There is more info on the direct.gov website!

[kira000]

I had this problem on a previous flat.

I basically wrote a very polite letter stating the facts, that the landlord had confirmed that there was no issue with the state of the flat when we left, and that as per our tenancy agreement, the deposit was due to be returned within 4 weeks of vacating the property, which had not happened.

I then stated that the amount was now due, and gave a deadline (7 days hence) by which the deposit cheque was to be received, and stating that if it was not received by this date, then i would be filing a claim to the small claims court for the fll deposit plus the costs of filling the claim.

For added ooomf to show i was serious, i prefilled in the court claims document with all the details of when he had agreed the flat was ok, when the deposit was due back and any communication i had had or tried to make with him, and sent him a copy.

I got the money back shortly after!!

[sandmaster]

Motoxchick & Kira are right. Send him a nice letter stating the facts as you see them. Give him a reasonable period to respond and refund the money (7 days is enough) then file at County Court. This can be easily done online. Did it last year for my daughter and had a refund before the papers were submitted.