A landlord has been ordered to pay more than £1,000 of a ‘holding deposit’ back to a tenant after a tribunal judge ruled against him.

Tenant Nelson Baltimor paid £1,351 as a deposit to Constantin Boca of Kilburn Property Investors Ltd to ‘reserve’ a flat on Kilburn High Road in London (pictured right).

In a WhatsApp conversation between the two parties, the deposit arrangement was agreed, but when Boca emailed a tenancy agreement with details of how much he wanted up front in rental payments, Baltimor decided to pull out.

As well as the holding deposit, the tenant was asked to pay a security deposit of £1,395, which was the equivalent of one month’s rent, and £4,185, three months’ rent in advance.

When Baltimor asked for his holding deposit back, in December 2020, Boca refused, so Baltimor asked the residential property tribunal to look at the case.

No evidence

Tribunal judge D. Brandler decided that Boca could not withhold the entire deposit as he was only able to hold one week’s rent, according to the Tenant Fees Act 2019.

“The tribunal finds that it was the applicant who terminated the agreement. The landlord is therefore entitled to retain the permitted amount of holding deposit of £321,” the judge said.

“The tribunal finds no evidence to support the respondent’s [Constantin Boca] assertion of lost revenue from failing to rent the property from the 19/12/2020, which in any event is not a defence to retaining a prohibited payment.”

The tribunal ordered that the applicant [Nelson Baltimor] is entitled to the return of £1,074 of the holding deposit.

Read more about Tenant Fees Act tribunals.