[special]

Hello there,
we recently moved out of a house we rented from a landlord. He lived there with us as well and it was rather uncomfortable and horrible in my opinion. he is now withholding all our deposit. we have to go to court and now we would like to protect you guys from going there and signing and going through all we have to go through. what is the best way to do it?
and maybe you have been in the same position as me, can you give us some advice?
That would be very helpful.
Why doesnt gumtree have a landlored or house rating?? Like amazon or ebay?? Where ppl who lived in the house can rate their experience?
Please gumtree ppl, can you make that happen?
I went through a lot of pain with two landlords I found on gumtree already. If there would have been a rating or a feedback from ppl who lived their I am pretty sure I would not have chosen it.#
In my opinion, landlords have so many rights and do whatever they want with us.

I strongly suggest a landlord rating.
What do u think??


hope to hear from u!

[Bluey]

It's a good argument and an interesting one.

Purely from a personal point of view ( I am voluntary community mod so I am not a gumtree employee and I have nothing to do with the ads), I think this is a can of worms and largely unworkable in practice, pretty difficult to administer & control and open to abuse.

Probably from a legal perspective (due to libel, I should guess), it's going to be near impossible.

Even without this, if you have a rating system for landlords, then you would have to consent to a rating system for tenants. Would you be prepared for landlords to detail their unsatisfactory experiences about you which could be fictitious and hard for you to defend?

Accommodation is a private civil contract for a service, not the purchase of goods like Ebay which has a payment protection system through Paypal whereas any accommodation service has the deposit as protection.

At the end of the day, the selection of accommodation and the contract that you sign is a private transaction and I can't see the logic in involving an advertising site in what is a personal civil contract that you entered into of your own volition. Suppose a landlord had a good rating, you selected them but they turned out to be mean after all.

If you bought a car off the internet because it looked okay when you viewed it but it broke down shortly after buying it, would you hold the site responsible for your selection of the car and for not being able to identify that the seller is a complete geezer?

The law provides redress in the unfortunate circumstances that you describe in the same way that if you were a terrible tenant, the landlord could address it through a legal challenge.

I hope you win all your deposit back, plus expenses. Come back to the forum and let us know how you get on.

[special]

thank you very much for ur reply!
I know u are right, however I wish there would be something to help us sometimes, because not many ppl i know are happy with thei landlords. I feel, I as a tentant have no rights.
I know, rating and feedback could be a slander or lible issue, however nothing thats the truth can be considered libel.
I highly appreciate ur feedback and if u have some information about taking action in court, it would be fantastic if u could let us know.
Its just that i think as well that is wwould be beneficial for gumtree to re-examine their adverts sometimes and if a landlord gets only negative responses, to take him off the site, because eventually, if u can only find dodgy landlords on the sites, ppl will eventually stop looking there.

thank you again and i hope to hear again from u.

[Miss Frisky]

hi special,

the tenancy deposit scheme can into force on 6th April 2007, if u signed ur tenancy agreement on this date or after then u have far more rights than u realise, including ur deposit returned within 10 days of vacating a property.

However if u signed ur tenancy agreement before this time, the original Housing act 2004 clause still applies which states the landlord, by law has 28 day inwhich to return ur deposit.

He has to give u reasons inwriting why he is witholding ur deposit. eg: missed rent payment, damage to the property... he cannot take the deposit against general wear and tear as this is what happens to properties when people live in them.

I suggest u contact ur citezins advise burea or shelter http://england.shelter.org.uk they will give u the best upto date advice.

to be honest in the future i really wold suggest renting through an agent.. i know they charge reference fees etc.. but u have peace of mind that they have a professional obligation to follow the law.

hope this helps

[special]

thank you for ur help! I heard of the deposit scheme, however apparenlty only fall under that protection when being a assured short term tendency, which we are apperently not when we live with the landlord in one house and share facilities.
we apparenlty have a excluded tendency.
Do u know what to do then??

thanks so much for ur help. we moved again and this time we went through an agency. but that wouldnt be over gumtree, they dont over that rihgt?

help is appreciated!!!

have a good day

[Bluey]

Have a look at the Shelter website about how to take your landlord to court to get your deposit back. You can launch a small claims court claim through the HM Court moneyclaim online site and they have sample letters you can send to your landlord to give him one last opportunity to pay up before you submit it - sometimes that does the trick and it is a requirement that you are able to prove that you tried to negotiate before bringing the action.

Shelter offer free expert housing advice to tenants. Search the forum for information about the small claims court as a couple of tenants have been very successful.

My understanding is that TDS does not apply to a live-in landlord and their lodgers and only applies to those whose landlords live out and have self-contained accommodation via an AST. Therefore TDS does not appear to apply.

I also understand that the small claims court is very informal and helpful and that the onus will be on the landlord to prove and fully justify witholding the deposit - the burden will be on him and not on you.

Good luck, tell us how you get on.

Just as a final observation, we had a thread that was presumably pulled for libel reasons where a number of groups of tenants complained about their landlord and named him. It transpired that they just happened to have different landlords, entirely separate individuals, that shared the same name...

See why it can be a monster to administer this type of thing?