A-Infos (en) Britain, brighton solfed: G4Lets rent strike: tenants successfully regain their deposits

This summer, over a dozen G4Lets tenants successfully withheld their final month's rent 
payment to claim back their tenancy deposit. G4Lets are notorious deposit thieves, usually 
taking most or all of a deposit for dubious and inflated charges that take months to 
challenge through their chosen deposit protection scheme, MyDeposits. ---- This year, 
since the spring, a number of G4Lets tenants have been organising with us to avoid this 
scenario themselves. G4Lets rent exclusively to students and most of their tenancies 
finish around the same time, in the summer months. Over the past two years, we have 
organised with tenants who have had thousands of pounds stolen from their deposits by 
G4Lets. These tenants were only able to reclaim part of this money via MyDeposits' dispute 
resolution service. Dispute resolution with MyDeposits takes three to four months, 
involves a lot of paperwork, and is at points incredibly vague, such as about the 
definition of the notoriously broad category of ‘fair wear and tear'. Further, their 
insurance-based protection scheme allows landlords to keep hold of, and thus earn interest 
on, the deposit for the entirety of the tenancy. It's no wonder they are the go-to 
protection scheme for gutter agencies like G4Lets.

Based on these previous experiences, this year we suggested to G4Lets' tenants that the 
quickest way to get their deposit back would be to not pay their final month's rent. This 
way, the agency keeps the deposit to pay the rent but can't make any dodgy deductions, and 
the tenant walks away with their deposit without the hassle of having to engage with the 
deposit protection scheme. This is a tactic for resisting landlord and letting agency 
exploitation that many engage in on their own on a regular basis. We suggested to the 
G4Lets tenants that they do this collectively, giving them the protection and solidarity 
of mass action. Over a dozen tenants decided to do this, coming along to drop-ins to talk 
through the details, discussing the issue with housemates and encouraging them to 
participate, and staying in regular contact with us and other tenants during the strike 
itself. In response to these tenants withholding their final month's rent, G4Lets took 
this money from their deposits. This meant that the tenants walked away with their 
deposits with minimal hassle, and that G4Lets weren't able to make any dodgy deductions, 
since the entirety of the deposit was spent on paying the final month's rent.

This has been a really encouraging action; firstly because it was a simple but effective 
way of dealing with the problem of deposit theft, and secondly because it was undertaken 
collectively, protecting the tenants from repercussions and showing what can be achieved 
when we act together.

There are also a few useful lessons that can be learned. These include that if you are 
going to reclaim your deposit this way, it's important to withhold the amount of rent that 
matches the cost of your deposit. This might be six weeks rent rather than four. You're 
still safe from eviction if you do this, as you can see in our guide to withholding rent 
to get your deposit back here. If you don't do this, the agency will almost certainly keep 
the missing rent from your deposit and whatever money is left over, as a couple of tenants 
experienced. It's also important to remember that if you have withheld your final month's 
rent, you shouldn't provide your current landlord or letting agency as a reference, as 
they will probably have something to say about this. If you are in this situation, there 
are alternative ways that you can provide a ‘previous landlord' reference - get in touch 
with us for some advice on that.

We're pleased that these tenants were spared the hardship of being out of pocket and the 
hassle of going through dispute resolution. Practical, collective action remains our 
strongest, most useful defence against the attacks on our lives by landlords and letting 
agencies.

Problems with your landlord? Email: housing@brightonsolfed.org.uk

http://www.brightonsolfed.org.uk/brighton/g4lets-rent-strike-tenants-successfully-regain-their-deposits
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