Yet another question about rental deposits!!

mrsnow101

Hi,

We have just moved out of our flat, and to be honest, we were expecting a proportion of our deposit to be retained for some minor things- we had been there a few years and I guess some times accidents can just happen.

Any way, the land lord wants £150 from us, mainly for a half inch tear in the sofa (which neither of us can remember doing, but quite possibly could have been us as the sofa was new when we moved in), and a cracked mirror on the wardrobe- which we definately did do.

It's an ikea wardrobe, and apparently it's not possible to buy a replacement door (ikea don't do this?!?), and they also no longer stock that particular wardrobe (from what the landlord says).

Honest opinions please- am I getting stiffed here?? I'm sure you can buy replacement wardrobe doors, and I can't imagine they would be that expensive!

<sebb>

What is the breakdown? How much for the wardrobe and how much for the sofa? To be honest, it doesn't sound that unreasonable to me. I can believe that you cant get a replacement door for the wardrobe. The usual rule is that you must allow for depreciation on the item, so for example if you had damaged a 10 year old carpet, the LL would struggle to charge you anything because it could be argued that the carpet should need to be replaced after 5-10 years anyway. However, I think even cheap IKEA wardrobes can have a fairly long life time. How old was the sofa? Was it a replaceable IKEA cover? Sometimes they can be bought for as little as £20.

Ask for receipts for the replacement items. I don't think he can charge you the full cost of replacement if he doesnt intent to replace them. But he can charge you something for the damage you admit you caused.

Alternatively, if your deposit is protected, the just lodge the dispute with the relevant scheme and let them decide!

m1ntie

To be honest for a rip in a brand new sofa and a cracked wardrobe mirror I think you are getting off extremelely easily.

Just the hastle factor of getting replacements/repairs is worth £150.

Cannon_Fodder

He/you could have claimed for them on insurance, if you had accidental damage cover, but then you'd probably have at least £50 to £100 excess. Times two.

I guess if he had got AD cover and the tenancy contract insisted on using it, if the excess was £150 a go, you'd be facing £300...

Why on earth didn't you attempt to put things right as soon as damaged ?

You could at least have been fore-armed with knowledge that Ikea do/don't stock it, do/don't replace doors. If they did, just gone and done fixed it.

(If it had been a claim to an insurance company and was 3 months after the event, they'd tell you the claim was denied because you had not acted quickly enough to mitigate the loss - i.e. waiting so long the item becomes out of stock, making its replacement unreasonably expensive.)

Maybe £150 is not the true cost, but if it teaches you a lesson, it will have been fair.