Property Law
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Hello and thank you for your question. My name is ***** ***** I will be very pleased to assist you. I'm a practising lawyer in England with over 15 years’ experience. Please be aware that although I will endeavour to reply to you promptly, I am also in full time private practice and so I may not be available to respond immediately and it may also take me a few minutes to prepare a reply. The site will notify you as soon as I respond. I look forward to working with you to answer your question fully.
may I clarify that this is a residential premises rather than a commercial premises please? I note you refer to your " commercial landlord"?
thank you for the clarification. You make reference above to the previous landlords failing to protect your deposit. May I clarify what protection you are referring to please? Generally, the requirement to protect deposit any relates to residential tenancies granted under an assured short hold tenancy
thank you for confirmation. The landlord and tenant law is a complex area of law and the complexity generally increases yearly - on the basis that this is a commercial process, I cannot see any need for the landlord to protect your deposit as such. That is not to say of course that the landlord is not liable to you in respect of your deposit and if the premises has been sold to a new landlord, then that new landlord effectively simply steps into the shoes of the original landlord and you can treat the new landlord in effect as if nothing has changed being able to exercise the full range of rights as you had as against the original landlord.
This will include liability in respect of your deposit which now falls to the new landlord if they have acquired ownership. Whether or not the new landlord actually obtained the deposit from the previous landlord is entirely a matter as between them and the previous landlord and has no bearing upon the right to make the claim in this respect.
the lease may contain express provisions as regards ***** ***** the landlord must repay the deposit. Otherwise, if it does not, the deposit would ordinarily become repayable upon termination of the lease and if the landlord fails to repay it within a reasonable period which need not exceed 28 days, after that point, proceedings could be contemplated in the County Court
I'm glad the above answers all your questions for now. If you have any follow up questions please revert to me.
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