Rental deposit return

Information and questions about the Law in Spain and Andalucia.
bbobandannie
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Rental deposit return

Postby bbobandannie » Wed Mar 04, 2020 8:38 am

We moved out of a rental property, which as far as we are concerned was well looked after. We handed over fine and the landlord said he would refund the 2 months deposit to our account. He has since said he is not happy with the condition and is still waiting for the last quarters water bill. We moved out in November. I agree with a couple of his observations but many, the majority, are complete fabrications. He says that once that last water bill has been recieved and his list of repair bills has been completed he will decide what if anything is to be repaid.
The question is, do we have any legal recourse? Is there the equivalent of a small claims court?

elusive
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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby elusive » Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:00 am

Hes supposed to give it back to you within a month i think.have to double check. He has to deposit it with the junta within a month aswell. Ask him for the reciept showing he paid the deposit into the juntas deposit scheme.By law he is supposed do this and not keep it himself.there are fines etc for not doing so and a mention of hacienda (because theres a good chance he wont be declaring the income if he hasnt registared the deposit) normally makes them take notice

Its pretty standard for some landlords to steal the deposit. Best advice is dont pay more than one months deposit in cash as thats the law now. And dont pay your last months rent when you leave unless you trust your landlord. Its not very legal but.....
Last edited by elusive on Wed Mar 04, 2020 3:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

bbobandannie
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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby bbobandannie » Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:13 am

Elusive, sounds like good advice. Im fairly certain he didnt declare it. I'll wait and see what bills he comes up with before threats and legal advice. Thanks again its appreciated

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costakid
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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby costakid » Wed Mar 04, 2020 10:02 am

Landlords in Spain always try to keep the deposits usually spent it and dont want to return. That applies to the UK also. Keeping the last months rent seems to be best idea but in the UK you can be black marked for this as the agents check with previous landlords before they rent you a property. Catch 22 really.

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Wicksey
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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby Wicksey » Wed Mar 04, 2020 11:14 am

costakid wrote:Landlords in Spain always try to keep the deposits usually spent it and dont want to return. That applies to the UK also.
There are government backed tenancy deposit schemes in the UK where the landlord must register the deposit by law. They will negotiate between the two parties if there is any dispute. When I paid my tenants' deposit to it I gave all the details of the scheme to them so they could see I had done it correctly. It seems the Junta has one here as well from what elusive says.

bbobandannie
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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby bbobandannie » Wed Mar 04, 2020 11:27 am

Indeed, we are uk landlords in the UK and the deposit scheme does work well. We just never realised it existed here. Additionally, though the initial rental was for 2 years he did say that after 6 months we could go with 30 days notice without penalties. Now hes threatening to charge for a percentage of lost months. We stayed 18 months and gave 2 months notice. Internet says he can't do that as the 6 months then 30 days notice stands despite anything written into the contract.
He also wants payment for an outside stair tile that cracked, i walked on it it cracked because it was laid on rubble!! That's the kind of argument were up against.

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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby elusive » Wed Mar 04, 2020 3:41 pm

We rent ours in the uk aswell. Big difference here though is the rental agents just act as middle men for the most part. They connect the tennant and landlord, take their finders fee and leave you to it.you pay and deal with the landlord directly and any problems its up to you. Agent isnt intrested

Where in the uk you use an agent and they pretty much do and deal with everything (for a price!)

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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby elusive » Wed Mar 04, 2020 3:48 pm

bbobandannie wrote:Indeed, we are uk landlords in the UK and the deposit scheme does work well. We just never realised it existed here. Additionally, though the initial rental was for 2 years he did say that after 6 months we could go with 30 days notice without penalties. Now hes threatening to charge for a percentage of lost months. We stayed 18 months and gave 2 months notice. Internet says he can't do that as the 6 months then 30 days notice stands despite anything written into the contract.
He also wants payment for an outside stair tile that cracked, i walked on it it cracked because it was laid on rubble!! That's the kind of argument were up against.

Have a look at the below site. It gives you laws on longterm rents covering your time period?
contracts signed upto dec 2018 and tgen for ones signed after as the law changed. They tend to back down if you know your stuff or at least act as if you do!
https://www.citizensadvice.org.es/faqs-tags/rental-law/


https://www.citizensadvice.org.es/faq/r ... y-law-faq/

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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby gerrynag » Wed Mar 04, 2020 4:32 pm

I personally wouldn't wait for him to come up with any extra charges. He has had long enough to figure how much he thinks you owe him. When did you leave the rental ? The water bill normally comes in every 2 months, so if it is more than two months since the last bill, he will have received the new one. As suggested, probably best to tell him you are going to report him to the Junta for keeping your deposit, (and probably not paying tax on the rental). That might persuade him to cough up.

bbobandannie
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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby bbobandannie » Thu Mar 05, 2020 10:23 am

Good advice Gerry and appreciated. I read through the Citizens Advice info and it looks like were not covered by the latest legislation (pre 18 Dec 2018) so he could enforce the charges for not completing the agreed 2 years. I will give him another fortnight as he will definitely have the quarterly water bill which covers the exit date of 15 Nov 2019. At that stage then Ill mention the deposit retention scheme and if necessary threaten the Junta and mention tax payments.
At the moment he has been muttering to friends about repair costs and hasn't actually detailed them to me yet. However, armed with the info given, particularly the possible tax avoidance, I am confident well get the correct amount back.
its just a shame it has become so confrontational. We certainly have never treated our tenants this way. Though has already been mentioned, our agents do a lot more for their money.

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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby elusive » Thu Mar 05, 2020 2:20 pm

Have you actually got a written contract with him or was the agreement for leaving after 6 months verbal. Both stand in law but obviously a written contract is better

I think its one month for every year of the contract not honoured. So its just done % wise from that. ie you leave 6 months before the end of the contract you owe the landlord 2 weeks rent compensation.

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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby bbobandannie » Thu Mar 05, 2020 3:27 pm

Unfortunately the 2 years with a percentage payment for any months shorter was indeed in the contract but he did verbally contradict it by saying we could move earlier if needed. In fact, when I first questioned his first threats to hit us with damages I remarked that I was dissapointed as we had been good tenants and he replied "well i was also a good landlord as i haven't applied the charges for leaving early"
At the moment we are waiting to see what his workings out are and what his final list of percieved repair works will be. He has mentioned a door scratched by my dog, some grass killed by traffic in the garden, both of which I agree with but other things he has mentioned such as "hedges needed trimming (trimmed by me immediately after i moved in as they hadnt been done before we moved in, and repeated 6 months later) " broken tiles on the outside steps which snapped under normal use as they had been poorly laid. He also wants to charge for some small garden trellis which had in fact rotted. I did lift it out and re-treat what was salvageable but all the wooden pegs into the ground had rotted away. His answer to this was "they shouldnt have needed treating, they were treated when they were installed 14 years ago!! If anyone can point me to a wood treatment that guarantees no rot when stuck into the soil for 14 years i'd be very grateful. 2 months after we moved in the paint in the shower room was moldy and falling away. They had used orange normal paint and the extractor wasnt working. I repainted with proper waterproof (expensive) white paint and installed a new extractor fan. He has mentioned charging to have it repainted back to orange. At the time we didnt want to bother him so thought we were in fact maintaining or improving the property. There are also other costs to us which he hasn't taken into account. Pool timer replacement, pool pump control unit replacement, electric gate control box gaskets replace post floods etc etc. I will wait until his final bill, agree to the reasonable costs which i mentioned and take it from there.
As has been mentioned, i dont think he has the cash and is trying to get out of it

elusive
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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby elusive » Thu Mar 05, 2020 5:57 pm

Hes obviously using you to pay fo all the general wear and tear issues that is his responsibility. Your landlord sounds like ours. They dont mind taking the rent but have no intrest in updating or maintaining the property. When i think of how obsessed our agent is in the uk!!

TBH i think you should give way on the early moving fee and concentrate on all the extras hes trying to add on.

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peteroldracer
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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby peteroldracer » Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:21 pm

Just out of interest, is the landlord British or Spanish?
I used to cough to disguise a [email protected] I f@rt to disguise a cough.

bbobandannie
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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby bbobandannie » Fri Mar 06, 2020 8:47 am

The landlord is Spanish and I agree, re the payment for outstanding months. As mentioned before i will agree anything reasonable but wont be fleeced. Annoyingly he and the agent both remarked how amazingly well kept the place was when we handed it back. i had completely redecorated and gutted the place.
hopefully i will see his figures soon. its not in my nature to grass anyone but if it takes the threat of contacting Hacienda re tax declaration I will in this instance

elusive
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Re: Rental deposit return

Postby elusive » Fri Mar 06, 2020 2:03 pm

I totally agree. You have gone out of your way to make the house more livable. Decorating etc and will only help them when it comes to re rent. We had to redecorate two bedrooms when we moved in. Horrendous dark colours and paintless patches all over the walls where kids posters had once hung before been pulled off and taking half the paint with it. To try to hide it the landlord just moved the wardrobe!!! We only asked for the cost of the paint. I did the painting! But they said no. Imagine that in the uk. The agent wouldnt let it unless it had all been redecorated!

Dont feel bad about "grassing". Those who like to fiddle the system are normally those with the most money.he probably owns several houses and a nice summer house in the campo ontop! While the mugs with morals struggle on.


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