tenant pulling a fast one?

BitterAndTwisted

I'm not sure about time-limit, is there any information of the protection scheme's site to advise?

If you still have the receipt for the original table you need to work out exactly what the expected life-span of it would be (ten years?) and then deduct a percentage for the age that it would have been at the surrender. The difference of the two figures is what the tenant owes you to replace it.

And no, he is not entitled to make any deductions for lack of use of one lavvy, especially when there was more than one in the property. Claim the lot! Take the !!!!!! to court!

Brb

Talk about take the !!!!. How dare someone throw out your property. If there is anything in a property I don't want/like then I ASK if LL ok to remove it/me remove it, or ok to store in loft (Current LLs took down their wardrobe and shoved in loft for me). Does nobody have respect enough these days to talk to their LLs, it's a 2 way street after all!.

Crappy Ts !!!! me off just as much as crappy LLs.

No deduction for lack of lavvy and get what you're due for the table (none of this £40 rubbish they're offering).

We're not all like that x

MrsAmanda_2

I can't believe this is still rumbling on (well, actually, given the tenant's previous behaviour, I can well believe it) but the deposit is still not settled.

He's still insisting the dining table was only worth a £40 cheapie from Ikea (bloody cheek) but because we didn't keep the receipt, and he threw it away, I don't know how to prove otherwise. We shred our credit card statements, too, and I doubt we still have the card we'd have bought it with as we're card tarts and swap a lot.

He's also saying that he repeatedly asked us, through the letting agent, for compensation for the water damage from the leak upstairs. The flat wasn't uninhabitable for that time, it just looked a bit ugly. Admittedly, it was several months, but the letting agent are partly culpable for the delay as we had to chase and chase for the paperwork and information to pursue the insurance claim. There was also the matter of the faulty toilet, but he gave us no time to repair it before deciding to withold rent.

He should have given us 6wks notice to vacate the flat, we got less than two. As far as we were concerned, that was his 'compensation' but he views it differently.

Upshot is, we either accept the pittance he's offering (we'll be down several hundred quid) or we take it to The Dispute Service. I'm just reading up on their website, but does anyone have any experience of them? If we go to TDS is it an all or nothing situation, like losing a court case? Could we come out of this with even less money than he's offering?

MrsAmanda_2

Hrmn, having just read on the TDS website that there is a fee of £500 + vat for dispute resolution, that rather answers my own question. We don't want to pay that much, it would wipe out the money we're owed.
If we go to TDS would we be liable for the fee ourselves or would it be split between us and tenant?

Wings

I have been through the same with former tenants, and really what ever advice is accorded to the OP, only the OP knows the tenants, their financial position, employment and their possible reactions to the OP taking legal action.

Always in such situations, arrears and damage etc., i attempt to uncover their employer or forwarding address, then let the tenant leave the premises, and finally change the locks.

Whilst i register/protect tenant's Deposits, i do the same with Mydeposit, so physically retaining the Deposit. If i decide to withhold some or all of their Deposit, then i write to the tenant setting out my reasons for the deduction/s.

Any arrears after the above deduction/s, i then decide if it is worth the stress, time going through the courts to recover the monies.