Tenant claiming deposit not returned, 5+ years later

[outoftheblue]

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, not too sure of my position or what I should do about the following...

We used to rent two rooms in our house to lodgers. In 2004, we had two girls staying with us - friends from overseas.

They moved out towards the end (Nov/Dec 2004). Yesterday, I received a phone call from one of them, claiming we have not returned her security deposit. She has been ranting and raving for the last 24 hours, via numerous emails to my work address, making all sorts of threats and accusations.

I no longer have any paperwork relating to her stay, I think I threw it all out early last year (after 4 years of no need for it I didn't think it was important). I also have only very vague memories of what happened. There was certainly no dispute about the deposit at the time as I would remember if there had been. (We have had at least 15 more tenants since, all have always received their full deposits on leaving with absolutely no complications).

All I do remember, is that there was a very high phone bill (couple of hunder pounds I think), mostly to overseas numbers, and neither of the girls would claim them. I believe I held back some deposit for this.

The only correspondence that I have from the time is an email she has forwarded to me - which I sent to her in early January 2005. In it, I say

"I will transfer the remaining deposit to your account, once I

have taken the final payments for the phone bill.

There are some numbers that are not yet claimed, so could you let me know which are yours? If you prefer I can just split them 50:50."

As far as I can remember I never had any respone to this email. I believe just withheld the total amount of the phone bill from each of their deposits until this was resolved.

I also think it is possible that I paid a share of the deposit in cash on the day they left (we have had a number of tenants from overseas and I have been happy to do this as they didn't want to pay anything into a UK bank, the day they were leaving). Again though, this far down the line I have no paperwork relating to any of this and can't prove anything.

I am reluctant to get in to any discussion about this with her as I don't have any paper work - I am not certain of the dates she lived there, the amount of deposit paid, any amount repaid to her already or the cost of the phone bill. However, I am thinking I should put all of this in a letter to her and hope she can be reasonable. If she keeps pursuing it what are my options?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

[Mortitia]

I would say it is up to this tenant if she believes she has a case to bring it formally to the courts with her own paperwork - suggest that. That will probably stop her dead as I doubt she has any more paperwork than you.

Since 2004 was some 3 years before 'protected deposits' came in it is a bit late for her to be coming back at you for this OR maybe someone has informed her INCORRECTLY that deposits not protected can be claimed back X3. I wouldn't mind betting this is the case so she maybe trying this as a scam hoping you will pay up.

If you transferred the money back to her then would not your bank have a record of this as an international transfer/transaction - check with them?

This may teach you to keep your records for 12 years - my accountant recommends this.

Hope this helps,

Mortitia

[Melboy]

Personally I would ignore the silly ******** and tell her to contact her solicitor who will talk to your solicitor and you can bet your life you will hear no more from her.

Anybody who waits several years to lodge for a refund of deposit legal or otherwise is a Numb- Nut.

I'll go with Mortitia though someone has told her that you can get 3x deposit from a landlord for non registering deposits and of course in your circumstances the protected deposit law does not apply.

Mel.

[outoftheblue]

Personally I would ignore the silly ******** and tell her to contact her solicitor who will talk to your solicitor and you can bet your life you will hear no more from her.

Anybody who waits several years to lodge for a refund of deposit legal or otherwise is a Numb- Nut.

I'll go with Mortitia though someone has told her that you can get 3x deposit from a landlord for non registering deposits and of course in your circumstances the protected deposit law does not apply.

Mel.

Many thanks for both responses.

She has really got me confused, she has now sent me 19 emails ranting and raving about this.

I have asked her to send me a copy of the contract so I can confirm the dates she was there and how much deposit she paid. Without this I really can't investigate or resolve the issue. With it, I can look into my financial records in more detail and I have also written to BT to see if they can reproduce the phone bill.

However, she refuses to send me any paperwork.

If she wants to take this further then presumably she will have to send me a letter before action?

If she does, I gather she will finally have to include the information I am asking her for?

[Mortitia]

Stop panicking.

Emails are free, quick and easy to send and she knows you will look at them. Designate her to your spam box and delete or just keep sending her the same reply over and over. Or totally ignore.

Any further action will have to come by letter on paper and any case will have to have a copy of her contract and paperwork so until than happens (if it does) rest easy.

Like I said previously I bet she has no paperwork and this is a bit of a scam.

Mortitia

[totheletter]

My understanding of the law is that normal "debts", remain enforceable via the courts for 6 years from the date of the debt arising; or thereafter from the date of the last acknowledgement of the debt - e.g. an interim payment. Property related debts (capital if my memory serves me) can remain enforceable for 12 years. So the minimum enforcement time is 6 years. This is why businesses are advised to retain all records for at least this long in order to protect themselves. After 6 years the debt is still owed but is not legally enforceable. I think courts would favour the tenant in such a scenario. The landlord at court is likely to be expected to retain evidence of payment or otherwise. This means furnishing the evidence of repayment or paying the deposit (possibly again). Personally if I were unsure i would not sleep if i knew there was a chance I had not paid, so i would just pay it and put it down to experience. At least you will not have to spend disproportional time defending that which you cannot substantiate anyway. Personally I never pay cash for this very reason. I am even reluctant to receive cash since if the notes are forgeries the tenant would likely argue they were genuine and the loss falls on the landlord again for lack of evidence. Establish online banking and if you accept cash, deposit the very same notes asap and include a reference to accompany payment - I use the number of the house and the letters of the street as a reference plus the surname of the payer. E.g. Tom Smith pays £325 today for rented house 123 Any Road = 123AR/TSmith £325 25/7/10 cash. Ditto in reverse when refunding. Hope this helps! good luck!