Withholding security deposit cos of a hedge!!

MrsDerekShepherd

Hi all. I was renting a property with my husband and 2 children and we just recently moved out. Now the owners are disputing an issue with the garden hedge and are withholding our deposit. To fill you in, our neighbour had a party and set off some sky lanterns..one of which blew into the tall hedge in our back garden and it caught fire. So we trimmed the hedge as it was a hole. Now I know I should perhaps have phoned the letting agent to do it but at the time, it didnt seem like a big deal. Now though the owners have said it was a feature of the garden and they want to employ a gardener to fix it? Ok....so their gardener quoted £90 which I was fine to have deducted from our deposit but the owner (who is a pain in the erky) wants to wait til after the work has been done and inspected by himself!! Its bloody snowing in Scotland so who knows when that will be. Now we are a week from xmas with 2 kids and no money. I know the letting agent secretly sides with us but what is likely to be the outcome??

Meatballs

Tell them to recover the money from the neighbour if they want it, they caused the damage.

DVardysShadow

You should not even concede the £90. It is down to the neighbour. As you are in Scotland, I believe there is no obligation to protect your deposit, so you should just take the line that you will sue and quite quickly.

As an aside, these sky lanterns really are not terribly clever devices - I suppose nothing will be done until one lands in an oil refinery.

Doozergirl

I can't believe you are even taking responsibility for the £90. It wasn't your fault!

poppysarah

It's a hedge. They grow back.

BitterAndTwisted

I don't understand how a £90 charge could be justified for a gardener to do anything about a hole in a hedge unless they have some kind of magic powers.

Challenge the charge and threaten legal action. In the meantime there is no justification for not returning the balance of the deposit to you right now.

carolinehunt200

I think your house owner is withholding the money unncessarily.

tbs624

Tell them that you wish to dispute the deduction and that, in the meantime, you are formally requesting the return of the balance of your deposit.

You should however have notified the damage to the LA/LL in the first place. Ts should photograph damage such as this and send the photo to the LA/LL , so that LA/LL has the opportunity to deal with as they wish. It could possibly be argued that your "trimming" of the hedge has added to the fire damage caused by the neighbour's party antics, rather than improved matters.

If the LL doesn't agree to drop the proposed deduction then your only option is a letter before action, setting out your argument and a final request for them to cough up the remainder of your tenancy deposit or it's off to the Sheriff Court.

tbs624

theartfullodger wrote: »

R
PPS I agree, tell him to sue the perpetrators. If an Council gritter drove through the back garden demolishing shed, hedge & ruining garden no sane LL would expect to get that paid for by the tenant. Won't stop him trying, mind...

But they might expect the T to foot some of the bill if the T (a) failed to report the matter to the LA/LL and (b) made things worse by having a go at "putting things right" in a less than satisfactory manner.

We don't know what state the T's trimming has left the hedge in - T may be a gifted topiarist with a precision hedge trimmer or a maniac with a rusty pair of shears .........;)