Blooming landlord is doing my nut in. Problem with my bond

NUFCnutter

I moved out of my old property on the 18th July 2008, after living at my privately rented property for 2 years (June 14th 2006- July 18th 2008). Before I left I made sure that everything was as it was when I moved in. Now I admit the carpet in the living room was dirty before we shampooed, as there was 2 years of wear and tear with three children (one of who is now a toddler) not filthy mind you but a few light stains, but we shampooed it before I left and it was clean when I handed the keys in. I phoned the agent who works for my landlord to see what is happening with the bond and have been told that the landlord is not happy. He says that there is a wooden pelmet missing from the kitchen (the pelmet was not there when I moved in), the carpet is "filthy", (Well no its not, its been shampooed) and that there are drops of coke on one of the walls in the house (but they are not sure which one). I am not impressed at all, because the pelmet has never been there, the carpet is the best it can be and I never noticed any spills of coke when I inspected the house before I handed the keys back.

While I have been in the property there has been loads of problems from slugs invading every night, to the back door leaking in, to the kid's bedroom window being unable to open, and a gutter down pipe which has poured water all over the back wall every time it has rained. The letting agent has never sorted any of these problems out.

We also had a problem with a fire in the dining room leaking high levels of carbon monoxide and a slow gas leak from the fire in the living room. These were sorted out immediately. In winds last year the back gate was ripped off, and my dad rehung it, rather than me go through the letting agent for nothing to happen.

So what can I do? The letting agent says my landlord is not back until the end of the week from his holidays. I am not prepared to lose £475 for what I consider niggly problems. I never had an inventory from the landlord when I moved in, so where do I go from here?

moneysavinmonkey

you post is full of contradictions so i'm not sure exactly what to make of this.

couple of questions so we can advise further....

Did you have an inventory done at the beginning and end of your tenancy?

Has the agent indicated what deductions from your deposit they are proposing to make + given you an itemised cost breakdown?

NUFCnutter

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

you post is full of contradictions so i'm not sure exactly what to make of this. Such as?

couple of questions so we can advise further....

Did you have an inventory done at the beginning and end of your tenancy? No

Has the agent indicated what deductions from your deposit they are proposing to make + given you an itemised cost breakdown? No

Any further advice would be grand

noyk

The landlord must prove that things are not in the state he left them. Since no inventory was done, there is no proof. In writing ask for your money back within 7 days or your will initiate court action to reclaim it (small claims, do a search on this forum - most likely you won't have to bother with it). He doesnt have a leg to stand on.

barnaby-bear

NUF!!!!ter wrote: »

I moved out of my old property on the 18th July 2008, after living at my privately rented property for 2 years (June 14th 2006- July 18th 2008). Before I left I made sure that everything was as it was when I moved in. Now I admit the carpet in the living room was dirty, as there was 2 years of wear and tear with three children (one of who is now a toddler), but we shampooed it before I left. I phoned the agent who works for my landlord to see what is happening with the bond and have been told that the landlord is not happy. He says that there is a wooden pelmet missing from the kitchen (the pelmet was not there when I moved in), the carpet is "filthy", (Well no its not, its been shampooed) and that there are drops of coke on one of the walls in the house (but they are not sure which one). I am not impressed at all, because the pelmet has never been there, the carpet is the best it can be and I never noticed any spills of coke when I inspected the house before I handed the keys back.

While I have been in the property there has been loads of problems from slugs invading every night, to the back door leaking in, to the kid's bedroom window being unable to open, and a gutter down pipe which has poured water all over the back door every time it has rained. The letting agent has never sorted any of the problems out. We also had a problem with a fire in the dining room leaking high levels of carbon monoxide and a slow gas leak from the fire in the living room. These were sorted out immediately. In winds last year the back gate was ripped off, and my dad rehung it, rather than me go through the letting agent for nothing to happen.

So what can I do? The letting agent says my landlord is not back until the end of the week from his holidays. I am not prepared to lose £475 for what I consider niggly problems. I never had an inventory from the landlord when I moved in, so where do I go from here?

Dirt isn't fair wear and tear. If you shampooed it you shouldn't be admitting it was dirty. The LL doesn't care if you were single or had 7 kids he expects it back as clean as he let it. His legal proof of cleanliness is the signed inventory on the start of the tenancy, if that's absent you may get away with it by arguing he can't prove it was your muck rather than existing muck.

NUFCnutter

I meant it was dirty before we shampooed it. It wasn't dirty after we shampooed it with a machine. I made sure that I cleaned from top to bottom before I handed the keys in. I replaced the shower curtain which was grubby and a mirror which was broken. Washed out all the cupboards, skirting boards, windows. Washed carpets. Even took the curtains down and washed and dried them before rehanging them. Have ammended the original post.

NUFCnutter

The other thing that has hacked me off is that despite me being in contact with the LA several times since I moved because of a postal redirection problem, they have only addressed this when I phoned up today and asked what has happened to my bond money. It has not been mentioned before that, despite the LA telling me that there have been several viewings of the property since I moved out.

moneysavinmonkey

you have changed your post now but it did say before that you had problems and the agent never sorted anything followed by they sorted out problems with the gas immediately!!

If you did not report the gate as broken and give the LA/LL opportunity to fix it this is irrelevant.

Without seeing your house (!!) it sounds like there may be some light stains (stain to me is something that doesn't come out with cleaning) + possibly a couple of areas of cleaning that have been missed. Easily done even with best intentions there is always a bit that gets missed!

Letting agent should provide you with quotes for getting these put right e.g. proportion of replacement carpet (bearing in mind age of carpet + extent of stains etc) + cost of cleaning (no more than a couple hours if you did a good job).

I would expect you to still get some of your deposit back.
Alternatively as you have no check-in/out inventory you could simply write a couple letters to LA asking for full deposit back and denying the damage was done in your tenancy, then file money-claim to try and get your whole deposit back.

Another question:
Did you report all the faults mentioned (slugs/damp etc) in writing?

NUFCnutter

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

you have changed your post now but it did say before that you had problems and the agent never sorted anything followed by they sorted out problems with the gas immediately!! They were seperate sentences mind you, they hadn't sorted any of the problems that I wrote in previously, but did sort the gas out. I am sorry if that read wrong.

If you did not report the gate as broken and give the LA/LL opportunity to fix it this is irrelevant. I did report it, but as they had not been to sort out slugs/window not opening/back door raining in etc I left it a couple of weeks and then my dad rehung it. In 18 months after that they never sent anyone to rehang the gate.

Without seeing your house (!!) it sounds like there may be some light stains (stain to me is something that doesn't come out with cleaning) + possibly a couple of areas of cleaning that have been missed. Easily done even with best intentions there is always a bit that gets missed!

Letting agent should provide you with quotes for getting these put right e.g. proportion of replacement carpet (bearing in mind age of carpet + extent of stains etc) + cost of cleaning (no more than a couple hours if you did a good job).

I would expect you to still get some of your deposit back.
Alternatively as you have no check-in/out inventory you could simply write a couple letters to LA asking for full deposit back and denying the damage was done in your tenancy, then file money-claim to try and get your whole deposit back.

Another question:
Did you report all the faults mentioned (slugs/damp etc) in writing? Unfortunately no. But I tollerated them. They were annoying but not something I wanted to kick up a stink about, and not something that I will kick a stink up about now. I just mentioned them in this post to try and show that I am not unreasonable tbh. I have tollerated this.

I have paid my rent up to date and kept the house clean (well apart from the carpet, but to be fair I would say that it was in a normal condition for a light beige carpet that had a young family in the house and was clean when I left it), tidy and well maintained. After speaking with my mam, she reminded me that there was a stain on the carpet when we moved in anyway, so my kids have added a couple of small stains that didn't come out when shampooed, the carpet is definitely clean though.

moneysavinmonkey

I would say that it was in a normal condition for a light beige carpet that had a young family in the house

To me wear and tear is things like the carpet getting worn down, faded, or frayed around the edges - not marks and stains. You have to pay for any marks/stains even if you think they are 'normal' for a young family as that is not what wear and tear means. If you have tenants insurance you may be able to claim on this depending on your coverage.

Having said that, how can you landlord prove what marks were caused by your family and which were there already if they have no inventory!! So you may have a good chance to get all your deposit back despite this.

First step is to write to landlord. There are loads of threads on here where people have claimed their deposit back so you should be able to find a template letter on one of these.

nerdycatlover

Can I just butt in here? Sorry to hear of your trouble with getting your deposit back. It seems to boil down to a someone`s opinion of what constitutes "dirty/damaged/ and or missing." My kids have rented different places since Uni and always had bother on moving out.So, this is what we do now; Make sure you get an inventory and it is signed by the agent. If there are any stains or marks when you move in, take photos and keep them ( digital ones are dated) so they can`t argue you did them. (I think after a place has been let for 2 or 3 yrs, it should be redecorated anyway or at least a coat of fresh paint ready for a new tenant at the Landlord`s expense.After all, they can claim the tax back on it.) Also, it sounds like there was no up to date Gas Inspection Certificate when you took the place on, also worth checking.
Sorry, that`s not much use to you now, but maybe in the future ? All The Best.