Deposit Return Dragging On

mausy

I came across this forum yesterday and thought it might be an excellent place to seek some advice on the next step in the return of the deposit from my previous flat, which is dragging on and beginning to really annoy me.

I left my last flat in August and the day after I moved I logged onto Deposit Protection Service using the password e-mailed to me when the deposit was protected and requested the return. I then promptly forgot about everything until November when I received an e-mail from the Letting Agent who protected the deposit (although the property was not managed by them but by the Landlord himself, it is in their name with the DPS, probably for the bestas the Landlord speaks minimal English making him hard to deal with) saying they wished to deduct £100 of the deposit for cleaning.

I requested receipts, then as he requested gave him a forwarding address to send the receipt to. This was my sister's address as for various reasons I did not want the agent to have my own, still very local address. He was given the address on 23rd November but by the time she went away for Christmas on 14th December nothing had arrived, despite what I consider a decent time frame.

He's now e-mailing me asking why I haven't cleared DPS to return the money yet, but I have no intention of doing so until I've seen the evidence that the cleaning actually happened (although I suspect the cleaning "company" will probably be something registered in a relative's name used soley to provide receipts for them to con tenants out of their deposit-it's a bit of a cowboy type agency, it appears) - am I allowed to insist on evidence to back up the deductions?

I'm considering, as a next step to open it as a dispute with DPS, partly because I think I heard somewhere that in a dispute they will return the undisputed amount (I have e-mails and such with him telling me I can have the rest back, they just want the £100) and just hold the disputed amount while negotiations happen. Is this true? Has anyone got any experience of dealing with a dispute through DPS and how it works that they would be willing to share.

I guess it boils down to thefact that I just want as much back as possible, and although in theory I'm willing to accept deposit-£100 back, I want him to be able to prove that the £100 has been spent on cleaning the flat as opposed to lining his own pocket. Is this wrong?

Any wise advice please?

Fire_Fox

Welcome to MSE! This issue comes up time and time again on the boards, if you use the search function you will get a broad range of responses from professional landlords, tenants and legal bods.

BitterAndTwisted

Did you have check-in and check-out inventories done detailing the condition of the property before and after you moved in? Did you clean it from top to bottom when you vacated? If there's any money being withheld it's the landlord doing with withholding, not the necessarily the agent.

If monies have been spent cleaning the property then there should be documentation somewhere noting what cleaning was required, so ask for it. In instances like this it's often carpets and ovens that need attention.