deposit not covered by scheme at beginning of tenancy...

A question about : deposit not covered by scheme at beginning of tenancy...

Hi all,

To cut a very long story short i have been having issues with a landlord not returning my deposit which i am disputing. I live in an apartment block which has changed ownership several times.

At the beginning of my tenancy in 2012 the building was owned by a company, lets call them company A. They were an administration company and all paperwork etc was done through the letting agent, but company A was the landlord. I do not remember receiving prescribed information or details of the deposit scheme within 30 days of paying it.

In april 2014 a new company, company B took ownership of the property and sent me prescribed information etc. All gravy On looking at my tenancy deposit summary it says my tenancy started on 12/10/12 but the deposit wasnt registered until 16/04/2014 with TDS... i assume proving it was not held with that scheme at least?

My question is that even if the deposit has been transferred from the old owner to the new can i still seek to claim compensation from company A for failing to cover my deposit? I wish to use it more as a tool in gaining my deposit back but will seek to claim compensation if i lose my deposit...

Thank you for your responses i hope it makes sense

Best answers:

• I'm not aware of the utcome of any cases like this, but my assumption is
  * the new owner/landlord takes over all the responibilities /liabilies of the old landlord. This would include liability for any penalty for failure to protect. So yes, you could claim the penalty and probably win
  * the court would certainly note the change of ownership, and that the new LL had protected the deposit pretty soon (immediately?) after taking ownership. So would likely impose the minimum penalty (1 times the deposit)
  edit - just seen pyueck's post above. I'd not considered suing the old LL. Hmmm... he's not the LL so can he be sued? On other hand as P says, liaility is for 6 yeats....
• You probably need to tell us the start and end date of each tenancy if you want to know which landlord to go after in relation to each tenancy.
  I suspect that your first tenancy, started in 2012, ended before the new landlord came in in April 2014, in which case any liability would solely be company A's in relation to that specific tenancy.
• Thank you for your swift answers. The letting agency has been the same throughout the change of the owners. It is Through the letting agencies that the deposit has been thrown into question as to whether it will be returned. I am hoping that by raising this issue they will back down and make an effort to get the landlord on side to return the deposit. If not and i lose my deposit i can at least take some comfort in trying to obtain some compensation.
  I dont mean to be a "sue everyone person" but i dont want to be Ј700 out of pocket either!
  Again thank you for your responses
• So I take you no longer want a reply to your original questions, then...
• Not sure if its relevant but my tenancy with company A started from around 12/10/12. I received a letter from the letting agency on 28/04/14 stating the landlord had changed and the deposit had been reregistered in the new landlords name company B on the TDS scheme,.. i wasnt aware it had been registered in the first place... any way i did not sign a new tenancy until october 2014 with company B after a rent increase... like i said i am not sure if that is relevant!
• A number of reported "damages" to various parts of carpets, doorframes marks on thr walls etc which i deem to have been caused through generally living somewhere for almost 2 and a half years. Replacement of carpets is the main issue. I have already sought advice on this matter. I just need to work out who would be liable for the deposit protection failure if it came to it
• Yes they took an inventory. Like i said i have that matter in hand it is the seperate issue of failure to protect the deposit i am interestex in