In a case that I’ve just won (in Cardiff County Court,) the landlord and tenant entered into a tenancy in January 2020 and a deposit of £1000 was paid.
The landlord did not protect it or give prescribed information.
The tenancy went to a statutory periodic tenancy and the landlord still did not protect the deposit or give prescribed information.
The tenancy came to an end in September 2020 when the deposit was refunded to the tenant in full.
In October 2020, a letter of claim was sent to the landlord for compensation under the Housing Act 2004, for failure to protect the deposit. The letter encouraged early settlement of the case to avoid further costs. The claim was made for 2 breaches and therefore a total claim of £6,000 was made.
The landlord admitted at Court receiving the letter, but they did nothing about it.
On behalf of the tenant, we made a Part 36 offer to settle the case early in the sum of £2,500. The offer was made in November 2020.
The landlord did not respond and Court proceedings were started.
A further Part 36 offer of £1,500 was made in December 2021 by the tenant and we urged the landlord to go and seek legal advice.
The landlord defended the claim stating that they had protected the deposit (although they did it in October 2020) and that they admitted knowing the law but didn’t do anything. The landlord claimed that only 1 penalty was due, not 2 penalties but in any event, because they had protected it in October 2020, the landlord was not liable to pay compensation.
The matter was listed for a hearing on 11 February 2022 in Cardiff. A week before, the landlord instructed solicitors to represent them and to also make an application to postpone the court hearing due to their solicitors not being available. The landlord’s new solicitors also submitted to us that no penalty was due given the deposit was protected. This was wrong (as the law had changed back in 2012). You would think solicitors should know the law!
I represented the tenant in the 90 minute hearing and the Judge agreed with me that the hearing should go ahead as the Landlord was represented by a Barrister. The issues left to be decided were:
- Was there 1 penalty or 2 penalty?
- How much compensation was payable?
The landlord’s barrister agreed that the law allowed for 2 penalties (therefore a minimum of £2,000 was going to be payable) and therefore it came down to how much was payable.
After hearing submissions from the Barrister and myself, the Judge awarded £3,000 compensation. In addition, because the tenant had beaten their own Part 36 offer (our next blog will be on this!) the tenant was awarded:
– 10% bonus on the £3,000
– Interest at 6% in the sum of £196.00
– Costs in the sum of £5,100.00
– Interest on those costs at 6%
In total, the Landlord was ordered to pay £8,932.00.
Whatever your problem, it is certainly worth getting your legal advice early. In this case if the Landlord had of done so, it is likely they would have saved a load of money. I estimate that had the Landlord received advice at the end of 2020, she only would have ended up paying around £3,500.00.
We can help with various types of Landlord and Tenant legal matters including Tenancy Deposit Claims (acting for tenants or landlords), Evictions, Rent Arrears Recovery and Commercial Leases.
As always, any questions or support with the above please email us at: [email protected] or phone 0151 230 8931.
