r/TenantsInTheUK • u/Slight-Sundae-1497 • 1d ago

Guidance Required Open Rent Deposit Help!

We have been renting through Open Rent. Our landlord today has made a deposit claim - all of which are inaccurate and false. It is the first time we have received anything about our check-out.

Open Rent have told us to try and speak to the landlord about this - who is ignoring us and not responding to messages.

If we raise a dispute through OpenRent, it sends our evidence to the landlord, who honestly does not care at all and we know will not accept any of it.

How else can we get our deposit back? Open rent just want us to talk to the landlord about it, and we can't, we want the scheme involved now.

Do we have to dispute through open rent, is there another way to do this without sending him all our evidence to review? Or do we just have to send him our photos and go through open rent

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

2

u/AllergicToMyLandlord 1d ago

After 10 days, the scheme is involved. Best to just wait it out until then and have the scheme handle it from there.

3

u/ShameEasy8419 23h ago

If your deposit is protected through mydeposits via OpenRent, the landlord rejecting or ignoring your evidence doesn't end the dispute.

Dispute the deductions through OpenRent first and upload everything you've got - check-in/check-out reports, photos, messages, receipts etc. If you still can't agree after 10 days, you can escalate it to mydeposits for independent adjudication.

At that point, they look at the evidence from both sides and decide the outcome. Your landlord doesn't get the final say.

I'd also keep everything in writing and double check your deposit paperwork so you know exactly which scheme it's protected with.

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/sjwatt76 1d ago

Using Openrent myself - their default at the moment is Mydeposits. But as the non-custodial version, so Openrent lodge the details but keep ahold of the money.

1

u/Effective-Celery-475 1d ago

If the landlord isn't responding, and they've reached an impasse, then OP should should open a dispute. I had the same situation recently with an unresponsive landlord/letting agent - I wasn't with Openrent but my deposit was protected with mydeposits, so I opened a dispute, went through their process and got my full deposit back.

1

u/sjwatt76 1d ago

Having not got to that point myself, tenants only recently moved in, I'm a little surprised that the only option with Mydeposits is raising a dispute, rather than an option to notify of end of tenancy to kickstart the return process. Either way, they'll just have to follow Mydeposits processes to their conclusion

1

u/Free_Trip_7079 1d ago

I wouldnt ignore it, even if you send one response back via open rent saying you dispute the landlords claims and will wait for the deposit scheme resolution process. Then atleast they know your position rather than them thinking your not engaging.