Beyond recovering the deposit itself, Housing Act 2004 s.214 lets tenants claim a penalty of one to three times the deposit when it was protected late or never - even if the tenancy has ended and even if the deposit has since been returned.
Courts weigh severity and conduct: instant cure after a reminder trends 1x; months of ignoring letters with the deposit never protected trends 2-3x; repeat landlord behaviour or s.21-relevant failure pushes the top band. Your LBA that cites s.213-215 precisely is itself evidence the landlord was on notice - which supports the higher end when ignored.
Money Claim Online (or N1 paper) with: tenancy agreement, deposit payment proof, the scheme-checker result showing late/no protection, the letter before action, and the calculation (deposit x claimed multiplier). Court fee scales with the claim value and adds to the judgment debt if you win.
Typically five weeks' rent for annual rent under £50,000 (six weeks above). The compensation formula uses THAT figure: an unprotected £1,200 deposit means a claimable penalty range of £1,200-£3,600 plus the deposit itself.
Yes - s.214 Housing Act 2004 gives a statutory right to 1-3x the deposit for protection failures, enforceable at the county court. This is separate from the deposit return itself and survives the end of the tenancy (six-year limitation window).
Directly: unprotected = the core case. Late-protected (after day 30) = the same claim for the late period; protection 'now' does not erase the accrued breach. Returned deposit + never protected = still claimable.
That is the RETURN claim (deposit + interest). Compensation is a different trigger: protection timing, not return timing. Check your protection date on the scheme checker - if it is after day 30 or absent, both claims stack in one Money Claim Online filing.
Ladder: written request -> scheme route -> letter before action -> MCOL. If the protection check also shows late/never protection, add the s.214 compensation claim to the same proceedings - one fee, two statutory rights.
10 days from tenancy end. Compensation claims have their own clock: six years from the protection failure to issue proceedings - long, but evidence decays; file while records are fresh.