Charity worker who was wrongly charged rent after moving out wins back £1,655
A charity worker and her flatmate who were wrongly accused of not paying rent after being asked to leave their property early have won back £1,655.
Hadley, 34, was forced to spend months fighting an estate agent to get the money back after they kept £1,725 of their £2,225 deposit to cover supposed rent arrears, cleaning fees and damages. Hadley told The Mirror the process was “incredibly stressful” and “nearly broke her”.
Hadley lived in a ground floor two-bed flat in Camden with her friend, who is a teacher, but the duo decided to leave after spending nearly four years there as their rent was set to rise by more than £400 a month. Hadley explained: “The letting agent rang us in April to tell us the rent was going up from £1,928 a month to £2,383. We just couldn't afford that. We had been thinking about moving since the start of the year, but with the rent rise, we couldn't justify staying so we agreed to leave."
The pair told the letting agent, Cedar Estates, on April 13 that they would not be renewing their contract, which was due to expire on June 24, and they began their search for a new home. But a few weeks later on May 4, the estate agent called Hadley and asked whether they could move out 20 days earlier than originally agreed as a new tenant was keen to move in. After agreeing, a Deed of Surrender - which is a legal document that is used to terminate a tenancy agreement early - was drawn up and delivered to the pair on May 17 to sign.
Hadley happily lived in rented Camden property for four years (Supplied)
Hadley said she was "incredibly grateful" to her parents who went "above and beyond" to support her during the ordeal (Supplied)After three follow-ups from Cedar Estates across multiple days, Hadley and her housemate signed the contract on May 19. Hadley added: “We signed and received confirmation that it was completed. Everything felt settled. We had the new flat secured, we started to plan the move and start packing, and as sad as I was to be leaving, I was looking forward to getting settled in a new place. Before we left, my mum travelled from the West Midlands and spent an entire day deep cleaning the flat with us, and we also hired a professional gardener.”
London flat for rent for £1,400 a month with bed tucked away in kitchen cupboard
However, a major spanner was thrown into the works a few days later when Cedar Estates informed the girls that due to “unforeseen visa issues” the new tenant could not move in. This was when Hadley found out that her landlord never signed the Deed of Surrender, with Cedar Estates telling her that they were now liable for the rent until the contract ended on June 24.
The pair moved out on June 5 as originally planned as they had only paid rent until this date. Hadley requested their deposit, but this was refused by Cedar Estates. They flagged a "rent arrears" issue on their tenancy, which meant the pair were also not able to receive a full refund on their overpaid council tax from Camden Council.
Hadley said: “At the end of our tenancy, we should've received our entire deposit back, but we were told that £270 was needed to cover cleaning fees, £150 was needed to replace a broken bathroom sink, and £1,305 to cover rent arrears, but we had paid all of our rent, there were no rent arrears whatsoever."
Hadley told the Mirror: "Why should we be responsible for the rental or council tax shortfall that resulted from something that was completely outside of our control as outgoing tenants?" (Supplied)After two months of trying to come to an agreement, Hadley felt there was “no other choice” but to open a dispute through the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS). This scheme is Government-backed and has two main services - to protect deposits and to help resolve deposit disputes.
Hadley explained: “We were given just 14 working days to collate all of our evidence, all our counterarguments to their claim and submit. I was lucky to have my dad to help us because he has a background in construction and some understanding of the law. He was able to help us map out our case and tell us what language and evidence we needed.”
Hadley gathered a mass amount of evidence for her TDS case which included a timeline of events, rent payment history, pictures, videos, and all communication between the two parties including emails, and phone calls. She added: “This wasn’t my full-time job, so I was putting together our case pretty much at every spare moment I had. It was a lot of pressure mentally and at this time, my housemate wanted to forfeit the entire deposit as she couldn't cope with the stress, anxiety and arguments it was causing.”
TDS published its conclusion on December 14 and sided with Hadley. This meant Hadley and her housemate would receive most of their money back, apart from £70 to cover cleaning fees. In total, the pair received back £1,655.
The decision report, seen by The Mirror, noted that Hadley and her housemate signed the Deed with the full understanding that they would leave early - and even though the landlord had not signed, the TDS was “satisfied” that Cedar Estate follow ups gave the pair confirmation that they had.
The TDS said it “acknowledged” Cedar Estate's argument that as the new tenants did not sign onto a new tenancy, the Deed was invalid - however, this term was “not included” within the written agreement so couldn’t be argued. The TDS also stated that no evidence was provided by Cedar Estates to show the tenants had pulled out before a new contract was signed, and they were not in breach of their obligation.
The TDS decision meant that Hadley was able to also recover £98 that was missing from her council tax overpayment due to the rent arrears dispute. However, this took two months because Cedar Estates raised an appeal.
UK house prices fall again - down 3.2% from last year peak, says Nationwide
Hadley said: “I was making a cup of tea in the kitchen when it came through, and honestly, the absolute elation I felt, and the utter relief was surreal. I felt incredibly proud, and I don’t want to sound dramatic but I felt like the ordinary people won and during this rental crisis, not everyone can say this.
"These cases are so complicated, and it was a very lonely process. I didn't have anyone to talk to about it, and I was so stressed waiting for the decision, that I had to disable email notifications on my phone."
“If it had gone the other way, I wasn’t going to fight it anymore, I physically couldn’t. But all I cared about was proving that the rent arrears were not accurate. That’s serious, and I did not want that following me around and impacting my life in the future.”
A spokesperson from Camden Council said: “We will always look to assist our residents as swiftly as possible with any issues or queries they have with their council tax. We appreciate the difficult position faced by the former tenants, however, Camden had to hold them liable until the original end date of the tenancy because the landlord continued to dispute this and did not sign the deed of surrender. This was despite the separate Tenancy Deposit Scheme decision.”
The TDS says disputes are raised in "low proportions" at typically fewer than 1% of tenancy deposits, with landlords and agents typically raising the dispute rather than the tenants. A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson admitted that cases such as Hadley’s can have a “real impact” on their “quality of life” and the TDS was set up to protect tenant’s deposits and help resolve these types of disputes.
The spokesperson added: “These schemes must provide free Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services designed to make disagreements over how the deposit should be returned faster and cheaper to resolve than going to court. Both tenants and landlords must provide evidence during the ADR process to ensure that the independent, impartial, and qualified adjudicator can make an informed decision. We continue to monitor the schemes’ performance targets, including the timeliness of ADR processes.”
A Cedar Estates spokesperson said: "We did all we could to help the tenants leave their tenancy early. But, as explained and made clear in the contract signed, this was only possible if we found another tenant to take over before the end of their contract.
"We did everything possible to find a new tenant, but unfortunately the tenants found did not pass the reference checks. We informed the tenants immediately and restarted marketing. We are sorry that, despite every effort, we could not find someone in time to release them early, however the disputed deposit was returned to the Tenants by the TDS."
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
