Ex-Landlord witholding deposit - Help Please

mair1

I know this a bit of a cheek - but I have written a letter to land lord and wondered if there is anyone out there who would let me know if I have worded it correctly

This is the main body of the text:


I am in receipt of your letter dated April 25th and received April 29th 2006 and am more than astounded by it. When I met with you on the 10th April you were pleased with the handover of the house and stated that our deposit would be refunded in full so long as the light fitting in the second bedroom was replaced in white and that the plug fitting in the same bedroom which had been broken be replaced - both of these have been done.

As you said in your letter we have been in the property for 4 years and as such you should allow wear and tear to the property. In all of the time we had been in the property we have never contacted you about any problems and have always done our very best to sort any that occurred ourselves.

1. Walls – after four years wear you could never expect them to be perfect whether re-touched or not.

2 Wallpaper in Dining Room due to arch– there was never a guard around the edges of the wallpaper and so after four years of 5 persons (2 adults and 3 children) living in the house and passing by the edges of this wallpaper you could not expect it to be in perfect condition

3 Wallpaper in Dining Room due to curtain track removal – the entire wood plank that was nailed to the wall and supporting your original track fell away from the wall and we replaced it with a pole. We did not bother you at the time and for this we apologise however it was not our fault that the wooden plank supporting the track came away from the wall.

4 Ceilings and paintwork – your letter suggests that there has been cigarette smoking in the house and this is most definitely not the case– if anyone has smoked they have always done so in the garden of the property and away from the house. Any woodwork paint or ceiling paint will deteriorate in colour over a period of four years and that is assuming that it had been newly painted upon our occupation of the house.

5 Oven – As I explained to you at our handover - the oven supplied in the house was ‘condemned’ by the GAS-ELEC people you employed to carry out inspection. On the first occasion that GAS-ELEC checked the oven they noted on the paperwork that it was not particularly safe (although not condemned) and as far as my wife can remember from the paperwork the engineer completed at the time it was recommended to you that it be replaced. On the second occasion that they attended they condemned the Oven and placed a sticker across the switch detailing this and stated that if we used the oven it was “at our own risk”. You commissioned these people to check the house so you must have received both of these reports and yet made no effort to contact us regarding the dangerous nature of the oven you left.

We replaced the oven because of the above and because we were trying to be easy tenants and assumed that you had simply read and agreed with the report and as easy tenants were relying on us to rectify things. You expressed no concern about this at our handover and were more concerned that we would be leaving the oven as opposed to taking it with us.

6 Bathroom – As I explained to you at our handover - there had been a small accidental flood in the bathroom and we had replaced your carpet, which was somewhat worn, with Aqua-Loc flooring, if this is unacceptable to you then I can agree the replacement of carpet, but will need to see all receipts for any work done and will expect these to be from a professional body and not a friend doing work for you and will expect to see that the carpet fitted is of the same nature as the carpet we inherited when we rented the house. I would add that you were quite happy with the bathroom at the handover.

You thanked us in your letter dated 29th March for being “great tenants” and in your telephone conversation with my wife in the week prior to the handover you again said “how lucky you had been in having us as tenants”. We left your property in a clean and orderly state as you agreed on April 10th and you are not now entitled to use our deposit in order to redecorate your property for your next tenants.

In addition I would add that we paid you our final month’s rent which meant that the property was effectively ours until the 27th April, however upon your request we agreed to a checkout on April 10th, and as previously stated when you went through the property you agreed to return our deposit. You have had over two weeks to contact us about the post-checkout problems you feel you have but have made no effort to do so and have instead of allowing us a right to reply to any of these issues have instead gone ahead and made changes to the property. I would add that that in this time we were still paying for the property.

In light of all of the above I would like you, within the next five days, to return our deposit in full along with the £503.00 (which is 900.00 pcm x 12 / 365 x 17) which is the additional rent you have had the benefit of whilst we have vacated the house.

If it is the case that we do not receive the monies owed to us by May 10th then we will immediately submit a claim to the County Court regarding this matter and will include in the claim any charges we incur in pursuing you for the return of our monies.

many thanks to anyone who may have had time to read through this and advise if it is an appropriate letter to send

madfrenchgirl

seems fair enough to me! but you might need some further proof-reading by other people.

what a piece of scum she is... i hope you get your money back!

lynzpower

Excellent letter

Id also add to your bit here
6 Bathroom – As I explained to you at our handover - there had been a small accidental flood in the bathroom and we had replaced your carpet, which was somewhat worn, with Aqua-Loc flooring, if this is unacceptable to you then I can agree the replacement of carpet, but will need to see all receipts for any work done and will expect these to be from a professional body and not a friend doing work for you and will expect to see that the carpet fitted is of the same nature as the carpet we inherited when we rented the house. I would add that you were quite happy with the bathroom at the handover.

" As you will be aware, regulations state that in order for your choice of contractor to be accepted by the Small Claims Court, you have to get three seperate quotes ( not estimates) , from three seperate companies for the remedial work. You should retain this for any court appearances. You shall choose the cheapest of these three quotes and present invoices and reciepts to the court when this is raised in court. YOu will be aware that failiure to do so will result in the monies being refunded to us. In any case, I believe that your actions in trhis regard are unreasonable, and if this issue was problematic to you, I would have expected you to have raised it at the time, or at the least, when we were undertaking a final inspection. As you chose not to do so, one can assume that you were happy with the work that had been done.

black-saturn

It sounds like yet another landlord trying to get out of paying a deposit back. Thats the kind of letter I've had to write after every house I've been in.

mair1

Thank you so much for that - as you can imagine we have been extremely infuriated by this (would use another word but is 17.53 and before watershed so wont) we have been really good tenants and this came as a bolt out of the blue. Thanks again your advice is very much appreciated.

mair1

lynzpower wrote:

Excellent letter

Id also add to your bit here
6 Bathroom – As I explained to you at our handover - there had been a small accidental flood in the bathroom and we had replaced your carpet, which was somewhat worn, with Aqua-Loc flooring, if this is unacceptable to you then I can agree the replacement of carpet, but will need to see all receipts for any work done and will expect these to be from a professional body and not a friend doing work for you and will expect to see that the carpet fitted is of the same nature as the carpet we inherited when we rented the house. I would add that you were quite happy with the bathroom at the handover.

" As you will be aware, regulations state that in order for your choice of contractor to be accepted by the Small Claims Court, you have to get three seperate quotes ( not estimates) , from three seperate companies for the remedial work. You should retain this for any court appearances. You shall choose the cheapest of these three quotes and present invoices and reciepts to the court when this is raised in court. YOu will be aware that failiure to do so will result in the monies being refunded to us. In any case, I believe that your actions in trhis regard are unreasonable, and if this issue was problematic to you, I would have expected you to have raised it at the time, or at the least, when we were undertaking a final inspection. As you chose not to do so, one can assume that you were happy with the work that had been done.

As I havent taken her to court yet is it acceptable for me to say that if she had any problems with bathroom she should have contacted us with 3 seperate quotes for remedial work prior to having anything done? -

Although I am sure (although need reassurance sometimes) that she does not have a leg to stand on as carpet in bathroom was past its best and we - at our own expense replaced it with very good quality flooring.

mair1

black-saturn, dont know how to press your thanks button but would like to thank you anyway. Did you always receive deposit back?

black-saturn

The thanks button seems to not be working at the moment.

I've never had the deposit back from the 3 privately rented places I have lived in.

I had similar excuses to the ones you must have had. One of them charged me to wallpaper a whole room because I had put a smoke alarm up. I've also had them charge me to have carpets steam cleaned because they said I have let cats poo on it. I have never had a cat in my life - I hate cats. I have also had the scenario about the condemned oven. One of the properties I was in I had to leave a bed, a sofa and a telly behind as there just wasnt room in the new place and no one wanted to buy them. They charged me for removal of those items. But when I was walking past about a month later they were still there. So he had took my money and not done anything. Then he added more furniture to it and called it a furnished house. But I got my own back by telling the new tenant that my waters broke in that bed when I was in labour (which they did) and then the landlord had to pay for a new one :rotfl: And all the agents of these houses have been members of ARLA too.

You could try posting on this board for some advice:
http://www.rla.org.uk/rla.exe?input=../rla/scrp/forum.htm

Oh and contact ARLA too.

mair1

Did you take it to court?

mair1

Sent our letter by registered delivery and have tracked it so know it was received. If I do not receive a cheque by tomorrow (which was the deadline we set) I want to take it to court straight away. Can anyone suggest best way to do it - should it be online as I have seen a courts site called "moneyclaim" or should I phone local court and get paperwork sent through. Has anyone had experience in making a small claim and can they advise how straight forward it is.
Many thanks