This lovemoney.com article titled Tenants: how to get your deposit back describes the trials and tribulations faced by tenants in the UK in getting their security deposits back after they vacate a rented house.
The article and all comments in response to it were focused around refund issues arising out of disputes over deductions. For the uninitiated, tenancy agreements in the UK – and many other countries – mandate that, when vacating the house, the tenant should leave the house in the same condition as it was when they occupied it. Any differences in the condition – burned carpet, for example – will attract charges that can be deducted by the landlord before refunding the deposit.
I went through a different – and arguably worse – experience, namely, years of delay despite reaching agreement on the deduction amount fairly fast.
Around four years ago, I was getting back to India after spending two years in London. The building management company – a reputed one in Docklands, if I may add – that was managing the apartment completed the takeover / survey on my last day in UK. I got the schedule of deductions some 15 days later by email. Some deductions were reasonable, others were not, but I was already in India by that time and logistically it wasn’t worth my while to get into a dispute. So, I signed the form accepting all the deductions and faxed it back to this company the same day.
Then started the wait.
When I followed up a few weeks later, the clerk in the company told me that she hadn’t received my fax. I reminded her that I’d scanned the signed form and had emailed it to her regular email address the same day that I’d faxed it. She denied receiving the email but promised to get on the job if I re-faxed the form. Which I did immediately. A month later, there was still no response. I decided to escalate this matter to the company’s Estate Manager. He blamed some system problems, promised immediate action and spent the rest of the international call – I was paying, sigh! – telling me stories of how he enjoyed himself during his previous trip to India and how he looked forward to connecting with me the next time he visited India a couple of months later.
Months have turned to years. My reminders are getting more and more strident. Long story short, I left the apartment in July 2008 and still haven’t received my deposit.