Landlord Demanding All Our Deposit Money.. Help!!!

wIcKiD

Hi MSE's

I am sure this has probably been discussed here a million times, but I desperately need your expert advice.

The landlord/letting agent is charging us £1060 for a list of maintenance that needs to be done (most of it we are not responsible for). I don't understand what they mean by "Slight wear and tear is acceptable" in the contract as he was noting down minute details like dust on doors and windows, carpet stains, etc. The initial deposit amount was £1045. The rent was £695 and then increased to £710, which we never made any arrears.

1. The garden was only done up 4 months after we moved in even though we continued to pay the full rent. Now the landlord wants £200 for the garden. It is a fairly large garden, but all it needs now is the lawn mowing and the hedges trimming, which I could get done for £50 max. He is not agreeing to us getting the garden done.

2. The ceiling in one of the small rooms had collapsed long back and the landlord said that he would get it repaired. Around the same time, the wall in one of the bedrooms had developed few cracks which I had informed the landlord and the letting agent. The landlord had said that he would have a look at this as well when he came to do the ceiling. Now, they are saying that we never mentioned the cracks in the room and are charging us for this.

3. We were not provided a new bed and now they are charging us for a new bed saying that there are few stains on the bed.

4. Other charges were for stains on the wall, wallpaper peeled, missing paint, etc which I don't dispute.

I don't mind paying for any reasonable damages caused. I could get someone to do the entire work for less than half the quoted price. He was saying that if the patches are repainted, the walls won't look good and hence he will have to repaint the entire wall. Same with the carpet stains. Why use my money to do up the entire house so that he can rent it out to someone else? I am only liable to pay for the damages I have caused. He wants to get everything done the most professional way because someone else is paying for it. Since he does most of the work himself, I am sure this money is going to his own pocket. It is my hard-earned money and I am not giving it away!

What I want to know is, what can be done legally about this? How do I know if these charges are genuine? If anything can be done, how do I go about this? If I go for a dispute, what are my chances of winning it?

Thanks for taking time to read this. Your help in this matter would be much appreciated. Thanks.

dacouch

Did he do an inventory when you moved in ?

Is the deposit protected ?

When did you move in ?

tbs624

wIcKiD wrote: »

.The landlord/letting agent is charging us £1060 for a list of maintenance that needs to be done (most of it we are not responsible for). I don't understand what they mean by "Slight wear and tear is acceptable" in the contract as he was noting down minute details like dust on doors and windows, carpet stains, etc.

You are required to return the property in the same condition when let, save for fair wear and tear. FW&T does not include dirt or damage, but a LL cannot expect you to return it in a better condition nor use your deposit for "betterment".

wIcKiD wrote: »

1. The garden was only done up 4 months after we moved in even though we continued to pay the full rent. Now the landlord wants £200 for the garden. It is a fairly large garden, but all it needs now is the lawn mowing and the hedges trimming, which I could get done for £50 max. He is not agreeing to us getting the garden done.

If the lawn and the hedges needed doing then you should have done them

wIcKiD wrote: »

2. The ceiling in one of the small rooms had collapsed long back and the landlord said that he would get it repaired. Around the same time, the wall in one of the bedrooms had developed few cracks which I had informed the landlord and the letting agent. The landlord had said that he would have a look at this as well when he came to do the ceiling. Now, they are saying that we never mentioned the cracks in the room and are charging us for this.

Did you notifythe LL of these issues *in writing*?

wIcKiD wrote: »

3. We were not provided a new bed and now they are charging us for a new bed saying that there are few stains on the bed.

You can challenge them on this one, even if you have marked the bed. They have to look at what the item cost, how old it was at the start of your tenancy, its quality and how much use they could reasonably have expected to have got out of it before it needed replacing. So, say bed was £150 new, was 2 years old when your tenancy started and the LL would expect to replace after say 8 years (pushing it in a rental) If you have been in the property for 2 years, that means that the LL can only charge you for the equivalent of the remaining 4 years @18.75 per year. This also applies to the carpet.

wIcKiD wrote: »

4. Other charges were for stains on the wall, wallpaper peeled, missing paint, etc which I don't dispute.

I don't mind paying for any reasonable damages caused. I could get someone to do the entire work for less than half the quoted price. He was saying that if the patches are repainted, the walls won't look good and hence he will have to repaint the entire wall.

again LL would have to show whther wall had been freshly painted at the start of your tenancy and how often he would normally repaint, and charge you a relevant proportion

Was there an inventory taken at the start of the tenancy?

Has the LL scheme registered your tenancy deposit, as required by law, and given you the Scheme's prescribed information? If you don't know then check at DPS, TDS, mydeposits.co.uk (edit - Eng/Wales)

theartfullodger

dear wicked (....!!)

Can you kindly confirm which country (Engerland, Scotland... ) you are in???

If not in England the above answers may not be entirely correct...

Cheers!

Lodger

wIcKiD

dacouch wrote: »

Did he do an inventory when you moved in ?

Is the deposit protected ?

When did you move in ?

In response to your questions,

Yes, a DVD inventory was done by the letting agents (for which we were charged £50).

Yes, the money is held in DPS.

Moved in on 24/04/09. Moved out on 23/06/10.

wIcKiD

You are required to return the property in the same condition when let, save for fair wear and tear. FW&T does not include dirt or damage, but a LL cannot expect you to return it in a better condition nor use your deposit for "betterment".

For information purposes and future reference, can you please let me know what fair wear and tear actually includes?

If the lawn and the hedges needed doing then you should have done them

I agree, but we had to move out in a haste as I was due to start work in a different city.

Did you notify the LL of these issues *in writing*?

Not in writing

You can challenge them on this one, even if you have marked the bed. They have to look at what the item cost, how old it was at the start of your tenancy, its quality and how much use they could reasonably have expected to have got out of it before it needed replacing. So, say bed was £150 new, was 2 years old when your tenancy started and the LL would expect to replace after say 8 years (pushing it in a rental) If you have been in the property for 2 years, that means that the LL can only charge you for the equivalent of the remaining 4 years @18.75 per year. This also applies to the carpet.

Thanks for the info about the bed. Do I ask for an invoice for the bed (which he probably wouldn't have anyway)? The carpets in 2 of the bedrooms had few stains (drinks spilled I think) and they are charging us for replacing this.

again LL would have to show whether wall had been freshly painted at the start of your tenancy and how often he would normally repaint, and charge you a relevant proportion

The wall was freshly painted (or at least it looked like it did).

Was there an inventory taken at the start of the tenancy?

Yes, a DVD inventory was taken.

Has the LL scheme registered your tenancy deposit, as required by law, and given you the Scheme's prescribed information? If you don't know then check at DPS, TDS, mydeposits.co.uk (edit - Eng/Wales)

Deposit is protected by DPS. How does this actually work? Letting Agent had asked us for the DPS number. When I phoned for new DPS number, I was informed that it is my money and I don't have to give out the number to anyone if I didn't want to.

wIcKiD

theartfullodger wrote: »

dear wicked (....!!)

Can you kindly confirm which country (Engerland, Scotland... ) you are in???

If not in England the above answers may not be entirely correct...

Cheers!

Lodger

Yes, I am from England theartfullodger (....!!)

<sebb>

If your deposit is protected, your best bet is to raise a dispute with the DPS and let them decide.

I don't understand why you are being charged for a new carpet because of a stain. You should have to pay for cleaning it though if you admit to staining it.

FOURCANDLES_2

tbs624 wrote: »

You are required to return the property in the same condition when let, save for fair wear and tear. FW&T does not include dirt or damage, but a LL cannot expect you to return it in a better condition nor use your deposit for "betterment".

If the lawn and the hedges needed doing then you should have done them

Did you notifythe LL of these issues *in writing*?

You can challenge them on this one, even if you have marked the bed. They have to look at what the item cost, how old it was at the start of your tenancy, its quality and how much use they could reasonably have expected to have got out of it before it needed replacing. So, say bed was £150 new, was 2 years old when your tenancy started and the LL would expect to replace after say 8 years (pushing it in a rental) If you have been in the property for 2 years, that means that the LL can only charge you for the equivalent of the remaining 4 years @18.75 per year. This also applies to the carpet.

again LL would have to show whther wall had been freshly painted at the start of your tenancy and how often he would normally repaint, and charge you a relevant proportion

Was there an inventory taken at the start of the tenancy?

Has the LL scheme registered your tenancy deposit, as required by law, and given you the Scheme's prescribed information? If you don't know then check at DPS, TDS, mydeposits.co.uk (edit - Eng/Wales)

Just one point , we run a business where we look after peoples second homes and holiday homes we also do work for estate agents etc and one of the main things they call us in for is cleaning an end of let we give a price of around £350 for a 3 bed deep clean the estate agent deducts this from the deposit of the tenant or so we are told on the instructions of the landlord who has stated the cleaning carried out by the tenant was not up to his standard, we have done loads of these for the estate agents over the last 4 years and on checking my records they amount to 5 different estate agents.

wIcKiD

<sebb> wrote: »

If your deposit is protected, your best bet is to raise a dispute with the DPS and let them decide.

I don't understand why you are being charged for a new carpet because of a stain. You should have to pay for cleaning it though if you admit to staining it.

I raised the same question with the LA. He said some of the stains were deep and cannot be removed by cleaning. I cannot remember any such 'deep' stains. The only stains were caused by spilling drink/medicine.

wIcKiD

FOURCANDLES wrote: »

Just one point , we run a business where we look after peoples second homes and holiday homes we also do work for estate agents etc and one of the main things they call us in for is cleaning an end of let we give a price of around £350 for a 3 bed deep clean the estate agent deducts this from the deposit of the tenant or so we are told on the instructions of the landlord who has stated the cleaning carried out by the tenant was not up to his standard, we have done loads of these for the estate agents over the last 4 years and on checking my records they amount to 5 different estate agents.

But this must be specific to certain cities, isn't it? And the £350 is only for cleaning and doesn't include repairs, does it?