Deposit reduction for items left in fridge

litrelord

Hello, hoping someone can give us some advise on ‘fair charges’ being taken from the deposit on the house we’ve just finished renting. This probably seems a bit petty compared to some of the horror stories that you hear but we recently moved out of the property and stupidly forgot to empty the fridge before we left. The fridge was still turned on so there wasn’t anything rotting and starting to smell, we’d also completely emptied the fridge a couple of days before and cleaned it thoroughly before putting back what we thought we’d use in the last couple of days of the tenancy (although we ended up being naughty and eating out because we were too tired!)

The landlord wanted to deduct £100 from the deposit for having to empty the fridge which they then reduced to £50 but I still think this seems absurdly high for spending 5 minutes throwing away a few items of food. Also, not that this really makes a difference but their dad went and did this and he lives just round the corner from the property. I think I’m just annoyed because we put so much effort into making sure the house was perfect when we left, cleaner than when we moved in actually, and tried to be as accommodating as possible when they were showing prospective tenants round.

So do we just ‘suck it up’ and kick ourselves for wasting £50 on a silly mistake or do we enter into dispute with the deposit protection scheme?

Would welcome thoughts from tenants and landlords on whether we’re wasting our time being stubborn.

Thanks

Nick

DVardysShadow

Offer £25 without prejudice. Take it to dispute if this is not accepted.

00ec25

by the time the next tenant moved in the food could have gone mouldy, therefore the LL was right to clean it up

but £50 appears too high for that alone, so dispute it asking for a breakdown of costs

the LL can only charge for the time to clean the fridge and any materials used - if your food was in packaging then it should not have contaminated the fridge and so the firdge would not need cleaning. Can you prove what was left behind and how it was wrapped to support your counterclaim for excessive cost?

moromir

- Did your agreement make any mention of ensuring the fridge freezer is defrosted and switched off when you vacate the property? Mine does.

- Do note that it is not just a case of '5 minutes to empty the fridge'. The Landlord has to take the time to travel to the property, he has the costs or inconvenience of bringing refuse sacks to empty the items into, if you left the wheelie bin full he has to make arrangements to dispose of the items elsewhere, including possibly transporting them in his car (I know I wouldn't want a sack of open food items in my car), if the stuff fit in the wheelie bin the Landlord has to return to make sure the bin is out for collection, etc.

- Just because an item is in a fridge does not somehow make it imperivous to becoming mouldy or rotting. Infact overfilled fridges have a predisposition to excess moisture pooling and causing items to rot.

- The geographical location of the Landlord is irrelevent.

- Did your agreement make any mention of cleaning the property/ bringing it back to its original condition? Unless the fridge came with a bunch of open food then you haven't fufilled this and clearly haven't cleaned the fridge, as the Landlord will also need to do this in order for it to be sanitary for the next tenant, I think you're getting off light at @ £50!

G_M

Personally I'd have just thrown the stuff in a black bag/wheelie bin when doing my routine round of the property prior to arranging next letting. It's par for the course that tenants leave the odd item, or that a paint scratch needs touching up. I wouldn't have deducted anything.

sooz

Had the fridge been cleaned & the freezer defrosted?
If not, there is the cost incurred of someone doing this.

Did the landlord do this, or pay someone to do this for him/her?

£25 as suggested by another poster sounds reasonable for a couple of hours work by a cleaning company.

poppysarah

Can you ask to see the bill for their "cleaning"

litrelord

Thanks for all the replies.

The fridge and freezer had been thoroughly cleaned and defrosted so that wasn't an issue.

Just to be clear, I'll happily admit that we were in the wrong to not empty it, this was a genuine mistake rather than laziness though.

I believe the landlord emptied the fridge themselves but if they continue to insist on £50 I'll ask them to show us a bill anyway.

I wasn't aware of a stipulation that the fridge is switched off when leaving the property but it would make sense to have it written in to the contract. I'll have a look at the tenancy agreement again to make sure. And no, the house didn't come with half opened food when we moved in

I can't prove how the food was wrapped unfortunately but I'll put together a list if we do go into dispute over this.

Thanks again to all.

Nick

clutton_2

if there were absolutely no other issues at all, I might not make a deduction if it was just a couple of things...

otherwise £25 seems about fair

Sammy85_2

I would offer to pay £25 and tell them you're sorry for leaving the food in the fridge. I'd also make it clear that that is the final offer and you are willing to dispute it with the deposit scheme should they not accept it.