Please help re flat deposit

hjb123

Oh gosh. Well at least you know what she is claiming now and can think it over (whether thats a good thing or not I dont know!) but you can work out how to respond etc

Do the photos included show damage etc or what are they of? Do they have a date stamp or anything on them?

Good Luck!

clutton_2

EL - ""Makes for scary reading, which I am sure is the intention," - this is the game she has been playing with you for all these months.

When it gets to court, the judge will want to know why she has taken so long to respond, and why she claimed £815 (in your first post) and now has changed her mind to £546.12.

Have a couple of days off from this, and come back to it with fresh eyes ......

EagerLearner

Thanks guys - I will be going to work at 10:15 today so have a little more time.

Clutton - I think the £815 she mentioned verbally, so we can't really quote that I guess. Plus she claims she 'didn't know' about all this (in last court appearance) - which is bizzarre as on 11th September she tried to negotiate via letter (through letting agent), once we had started court case that she supposedly did not know about. Then she never chased us for remaining money, nor did letting agent.

HJB - the photos are of the oven (which has white residue from oven cleaner, we must have done it but we did clean the oven and had no idea after cleaning with water taht it would still leave white marks). Then there are attempted photos at the carpet marks (which look pitiful because the marks are tiny), plus photos of scuffs and of dents in paintwork on doorframe etc. Seeing as we had mentioned when we moved in that there were lots of scuffs, paint drips etc, I don't see how we can be proven to have done the marks she claims? We were so careful in that flat.

Most comments relate to dust/grease and other supposed bad cleaning on our part. Then she mentions 'damage' to 3 blinds which was just the stains on 2 of them not 3 (small ones), plus 'damage' to carpet. Yes ok we may have added to the existing stains, in 2 years of living there, but we certainly didn't purposely damage it/burn/tear or anything that would warrant new carpet.

There is a photo of the inner rubber of the washing machine with some grime.

None of the photos have dates so I can honestly say that they could be from our tenancy or they could be from previous tenant!

She has even had the gall to include text messages from us, none of which are bad, but relate to us asking about progress on the replacement radiator cover (we we admitted we did mark it, although it did have a mark when we moved in, noted on inventory) and when would we get paperwork.

MJMum

No dates = no proof?

EagerLearner

Hopefully MJMum, but I don't know enough about the process really.

All I know is that we left it spotless on the day we checked out, if they hired Aggie & Kim to inspect we may not have got 100% but hopefully close for normal human cleaning!

jhxmt

Hmm, I would have thought those text messages would work in your favour, surely? After all, they're showing that you actually proactive about a problem that you knew actually existed, so if anything I'd have thought they'd indicate that you were trying to take care of the place!

That's just my opinion, though.

No timestamps on the photographs? That could call them in to question. After all, in that case there's no guarantee that they were taken immediately after you moved out. Who's to say she didn't go round the flat with Gloria and make things a bit more obvious?

Not that I'm saying she did, but it's hardly impossible.

Most of what you've described sounds like 'fair wear and tear' to me. Stains from oven cleaner? They wash off easily, in my experience - white streaks inside normally just require another rinse, not professional cleaning!

EagerLearner

She even mentions nails in the wall, which were already there when we moved in but we didn't include in inventory I don't think (never would have thought of including something that was already there!).

Oven cleaning, dusting, general cleaning and window cleaning IF necessary, could have been done by same company surely - not £xxx for window cleaning, £xxx for oven cleaning, £xxxx for mark on washing machine and £xxx for general cleaning?

The mark on radiator, mark on blinds and mark on carpets, walls, I feel are not something we should pay for and these seem to be her main points.

Also why she owes the solicitors over £400 is beyond me.

Plus she has said we have tried to double claim - once against letting agent and now against her, which isn't true, we just took both parties to court for security and the other case was dismissed ages ago - how does that relate to her? I think what has happened is that the Letting Agent have invoiced her for their solicitor costs.

Wickedkitten

Talk about cheek. From the sound of it it just sounds like normal wear and tear from here.

clutton_2

have the court docs said that she is bringing a solicitor to court with her ?

EagerLearner

Thanks jhxmt and Wickedkitten - that's what it sounds like but we are scared she will make us out to have done all the things she says. We did attempt communication so many times and she just did nothing, all it would have taken was a call to the letting agent to assure us. Most good landlords would respond asap and just be fair.