Spill the beans... on getting deposits back from landlords

It's simple......The deposit is an attempt to guarantee that people behave like normal human beings and leave their rented property in a condition which will be acceptable to subsequent tenants.

Main tips for students
Make sure:
1) There is no damage to fabric (walls, ceilings, carpets, flooring, switches, plug sockets, light fittings) or furniture.
2) Nothing on the original inventory is missing or broken.(cutlery, pots & pans, room bins etc)
3) The house is clean and tidy.
4) All rents have been paid in full and on time.
5) Bin bags of rubbish have been removed.
6) Recycling has been deposited correctly in the relevant bins.
7) Rubbish bins aren't filled to overflowing. (Remember the bin men won't take any bin if the lid isn't fully closed)
8) All utilities (Water, Gas, Electricity TV/Phone/Broadband packages are paid, contracts closed and and meter readings are agreed with your landlord

If there are any accidents or breakages please please please inform the landlord asap, so something can be done quickly.

This is a list of damage left by two DHSS tenants we had the year before last:
1) 30+ black bin liners of assorted rubbish and food left outside.
2) Unwashed stinking pet rat cages in rooms
3) Three major leaks to mains water pipes left unreported and untreated for 2 weeks.
4) Disconnected bath drain unreported with bath water exiting through the kitchen ceiling
5) All work surfaces in the kitchen covered in thick grease.
6) Two inches of food and fat/cooking oil etc under the cooker
7) Blowfly and bluebottle maggots and carpaces under the carpets. (The carpets had to be removed using a shovel as they were so sticky with spilt food)
8) Numerous dead flies on all windowsills (hundreds in total)
9) Filthy mattresses which had been slept on without any covers
10) Red hair dye staining the bath and grouting round tiles
11) Red/pink hair dye on walls round the beds....

the list goes on. The cost of the repairs were of course far in excess of the deposit they failed to pay!

Main tips for landlords:
1) Prepare your house WELL IN ADVANCE of student viewing dates (so you don't have to accept just anyone)
2) Visit and inspect often
3) Make friends with your local Neighbourhood Watch
4) NO DHSS. - in our experience
*No respect for property,
*Council pays rent in arrears
*You'll spend hours on the phone sorting out rental problems, *No deposits.
*Difficulty in legally removing undesirable tenants. (At least undesirable students have a finite 'shelf life'!)
All in all, it's really not worth the hassle. You may get nice tenants - they are out there - but you'd have to be very desperate as a landlord, to go down that road.

Fortunately, this year, after heeding our own advice, we've been very impressed with the condition in which our houses have been returned!

My husband and I are still struggling to get our deposit back from our previous landlords. The problem isn't the landlords - its the agents. The landlords were happy to let us not pay the last month on the basis that we had an inspection only a couple of months before they put the house on the market and that we've been the best tenants they'd ever had (in their words: e.g. we're the only tenants who asked how to treat the wooden work surfaces in the kitchen).

The agents on the other hand seemed to ignore the fact that our contract is with the landlord and not them, and they refused to allow us to do what we needed to do - they wouldn't allow the release of the deposit. Unfortunately, we had just gotten married and did not have enough saved up for a new deposit. The rental market had gone through the roof whilst we were living in that property and standard deposits were 6 weeks (we'd previously only paid 4). We suddenly had to find an extra £1k+. We didn't have a choice but to not pay the last few weeks worth of rent (as had been agreed with the landlord directly). If we hadn't, we wouldn't have been able to move out and that would have stalled the house sale which we equally did not want to do.

When they gave us notice, they told us the end date of our tenancy and said that we could move out earlier if we needed to but just to let them know when. We took this to mean (reasonably, we think) that if we moved out earlier we wouldn't be liable for rent of any period after that date. Otherwise, why would they have said we could move out earlier? It seems silly to say to someone, oh yes, move out earlier if you like, but you'll still be liable for the rent. If that had been clear then we wouldn't have moved out early! Anyways, on the basis of our understanding we did move out a week earlier than the end date.

We wholly accepted that they would be taking the unpaid rent due from the deposit (as I explained before, we didn't have a choice as we needed the money for the new deposit in order to move out on time). However, they are arguing that we are liable for the full month, and not just the 19 days we lived there. It all centres on the email we received giving us notice and telling us we could move out earlier if we wanted.

Initially they claimed we had left the house in a state and that they'd had to spend money on a cleaner. We refuted this claim as we were good tenants, we always notified them of anything that needed repairing (not that they ever repaired anything, we were living for months without kitchen cupboard doors, with faulty shower heads, with unbelievably creaky floor boards where you could hear the cat running around), we had a professional cleaner weekly, we treated all the surfaces in the kitchen and we left the garden looking an awful lot better than when we moved in (having removed over 100ft worth of bind weed and all the dandelions in the lawn). We even restored an old cast iron bench in the garden from a rusting pile into a really beautiful white bench. The place certainly did not require a full on professional clean and carpet clean beyond anything reasonable for 2 adults living in a property for over 2 years. We said, please let us see the evidence that this was required and that this was paid for - they refused. Eventually they admitted that it hadn't been done. Thank goodness we stood our ground.

The situation is now with the DPS (where our deposit is held). We have pleaded our case directly to the agents and to the landlords (who have been sufficiently wound up by the agents so that now they say we are harrassing them, after one email!) but to no avail. The arbitration process is underway and we should be receiving our evidence form shortly.

From a tenant's perspective: landlords please do not listen to your managing agents like a bible. The above situation was not necessary to anybody and it has done nothing but serve the interests of the agents (although we are still struggling to work out what their interest is in all this). The landlords agreed to us keeping the last month rent money and releasing the money early, as did we, they were satisfied that we hadn't left the house in a state etc etc. Now, several months and several bottles of wine to reduce the stress later, we still do not have our money back and neither do the landlords. It's a ridiculous situation and totally exasperating.

The only trouble I've had before is with an agent. I gave them 2 months notice that I'd be moving out at the end of my year's contract, and moved out on that date. My previous flatmate stayed in the flat, and found a new flatmate to join him, and they signed a new tenancy, completely separate from our previous one to keep everything clean and simple.

My deposit should have been returned to me within a month of moving out (which already seemed ridiculous given they'd had 2 months notice and had inspected the flat and found no damage before I left), but they kept it for nearly 3 months, as the new tenant taking over my room hadn't paid his deposit yet.

Maybe someone can enlighten me, but I still don't understand why, when my contract has been fully and legally closed, they can hold on to my money based on a new contract with a new tenant that has absolutely nothing to do with me. I can only assume the agency had serious cashflow issues and literally couldn't pay me my £800 back until they'd received the deposit from the new tenant.

I've been renting for several years, and only once have I had a landlord try to withhold my deposit - this was before the deposit protection rules came into place. We expected there might be a small deduction for cleaning, but nothing major, as we'd left the place in very good condition. However, he claimed he couldn't return any of it, and invented a bunch of spurious reasons. We tried to negotiate a fair settlement, but I think basically he had spent the money, and was now trying to get out of giving it back.

I was able to get some legal advice through my employer, and we ended up taking him to small claims court, which was not as scary as I thought it would be. We had taken photos on the day we moved out showing the condition of the flat, and he didn't have any receipts for the items he claimed he'd had to replace, so the hearing found in our favour and we got our deposit back.

I would definitely advise anyone in a similar situation to not be put off by a landlord who attempts to bully you. I was able to use the student legal advice centre at the university where I worked, but a lot of employers provide access to legal advice through a hotline. You may even be covered on your home contents insurance. Having someone on your side who's not emotionally involved in the whole thing is a big help, and will make it much less stressful.

I know that this is ethically unsound - but to guarantee getting your deposit back, simply withhold your last months rent, (or more if it is required to equal the deposit). This way, if any hoohaa arises, your landlord will have to go to court to pursue you for the owed rent - at which point the issue of deposit protection will obviously raise it's head.
Boot on other foot.

Please don't shout at me (I am a landlord, not a tenant). Lots of dodgier tenants already do this as a matter of routine anyway. If you consider yourself to be a good honest tenant with a potentially bad landlord, this is your answer.

Bear in mind, it is possible you might end up in court, so please be sure that your deposit has not been protected before doing this.

Any comments welcome.