Landlord deposit dispute

Ritty182

Hi,

Just finished renting a house we had been in for the last 3 years. We are a family with young children and 2 cats, the LL knew this when we started and said would be fine just need to pay extra £300 deposit(£1400 in total).
We thought we had been pretty good tenants, never had to call LL out, and LL never spent any money on property while were in (we even had to repair leaking tap as LL wouldn't) and had to put up with touchy white goods.
Unfortunately one of our cats was unwell for week or so and took to urinating on carpets in one of the rooms and left 6-7 patches. We did have all the carpets pro cleaned before check out. The stains were the only thing mentioned on check out apart from minor bit of wiping down and few scratches from the cats and LL said they had been happy with us as tenants.
I put forward an offer for LL to keep £300 from the deposit ( the carpet is at least 7 years old) to put to wards new carpet. The LL laughed in my face and said cost them £1000's to put etc... and would be in touch with a full breakdown and offer and complained they can't get another tenant because of the stains(even though they are asking £200 a month more than identical house 3 doors away)
Do you think our offer was reasonable or expect more?

Thanks

clutton_2

exactly what date did you move in ? as this will determine whether you should have b een covered by the Deposit Protection schemes ? also when did you last sign a tenancy agreement ?

Ritty182

Yeah deposit with DPS, even though it has only just passed to them in May this year.

mynameisdave

Depends on the size of the room I'd say. I had a carpet fitted in my place 12 months ago and they were asking £2.50 a square meter so a 16m2 room gives the LL about £10 per sq meter to play with and a hefty amount for inconvenience.

He is not going to need to replace underlay so he shouldn't be factoring in that.

If it ever got a formal dispute stage in court I would expect the judge to request proof from the landlord that it cost so much. TBH I don't believe him that it cost thousands. Maybe it cost him a thousand to carpet the whole flat, but not one room.

pinksleepybear

It depends on the size of the room, but a 7 year old carpet isn't likely to be worth more than say, £50.

Tell your landlord that he isn't entitled to use your deposit to improve his property. If you damaged a 7 year old carpet, he should claim the price of a 7 year old carpet.

Make sure you make it clear that you're withdrawing your offer of £300!

Ritty182

The carpet is matching through out, but it is about 7-8 years old. He is trying to sell to exec but kitchen bathroom etc are 10-15 years old.

moromir

Just a note - if a cat has weed on the carpet - its highly likely to have gone through to the underlay and if your underlay is porous or the cat went near the edge of the room / corner, its likely its gone down to the floor board level if not further into the floor. Getting rid of odour thats gotten into a room's floor like that is difficult, expensive and time consuming.

Are you sure there wasn't any further damage like this that the Landlord is claiming for?

tbs624

mynameisdave wrote: »

.He is not going to need to replace underlay so he shouldn't be factoring in that.

Really? How do you know this? If I was an incoming T of a property where ill cats had piddled I think I'd prefer not to get the odour wafting up when the heating goes on in the autumn.

pinksleepybear wrote:

It depends on the size of the room, but a 7 year old carpet isn't likely to be worth more than say, £50.

You are assuming that this is a cheap carpet, but it may not be.

The LL will have to look at the age of the carpet at the start of the tenancy, allow for the length of the tenancy and look at how much longer the carpet could reasonably have been expected to last and charge the T an appropriate percentage, plus any necessary cleaning of the floor.

What the LL should be looking at then is, say the carpet cost him 450 quid and was new at the start of the tenancy, and could be expected to last around 10 years = 45 quid per annum. Carpet is 7 years old but the OP's cat's piddle has deprived the LL of the three remaining years of decent carpet life, so apportion the costs at around £150 to the T/OP. Obviously this example excludes underlay/floor cleaning

Ritty - my suggestion would be that you keep it formal and polite, and in writing, with a copy kept by you. Ask the LL to confirm (a) when the carpet was originally bought (b) how many years he would expect it to last in a rental property (c) the make/name of the carpet so you can check for yourself (d) whether the underlay has been affected. You may wish to hold back on your original offer of £300 as he has refused it, and you may feel you were overgenerous, or you may wish to reiterate.

If you can't agree, then it's scheme arbitration or court

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

exactly what date did you move in ? as this will determine whether you should have b een covered by the Deposit Protection schemes ? also when did you last sign a tenancy agreement ?

Not the date that the T moves in which determines it but the date on which the deposit is received by the LL/LA

mynameisdave

tbs624 wrote: »

Really? How do you know this? If I was an incoming T of a property where ill cats had piddled I think I'd prefer not to get the odour wafting up when the heating goes on in the autumn.

probably not...

Better?

Also, from personal experience of our last cat that had kidney troubles, cat urine in a carpet doesn't hang around forever. A couple of good shampoos got rid of it.

Ritty182

Thanks for advice, will withdraw what I thought it was a reasonable offer.