Letting Agent

yhaneef

Hello All,

We have just vacated a 2 bed property in London and we may have a dispute regarding the state of the property.

When we moved into the property the Check in itinerary was done by a company called Let2Go. The check in agent went through all the issues that he had found and we signed the document to agree with his findings. A couple of days later we received the check in report.

When we were moving out, we ensured that the property would be in at least a better condition than when we moved in (as per the check in report we received)

The Check out was done by a different company and when I questioned this, the check out agent said that the first company was missing too much detail and surprise surprise they found some issues that were not noted on the check in itinerary, such as bulbs not working in the en-suite toilet (even though none have blown since I was in the property) and marks on mattress, which I had never noticed as there had always been a mattress protector cover on it)

When questioning the check out agent, she said that we had 14 days after CHECK IN to dispute or add anything to the check in itinerary, however there is no paperwork from Let2go advising us of this

I am worried that we may be charged from our deposit regarding the above. Can they do this considering nothing was noted on the original check in itinerary?

The deposit is held by a third party and will only be released once all parties agree (letting agent, landlord and myself) agree on the any costs. What worries me about this is that the check out agent is supposed to be a completely independent party but whilst leaving the apartment we noticed that she was getting into the same car as the letting agent, she must have been his wife or G/f as when the letting agent saw me he was in a rush to leave! I fear that the company holding the deposit may also be affiliated with my letting agent in some way as well.

Any help is welcome :-)

dancingfairy

The deposit is supposed to be lodged with one of 3 schemes. I think 1 or 2 actually hold the cash and 1 scheme is insurance based but you have to have hadthe deposit registed if you are in England? This is your landlords responsibility to have done this and you can sue if this was not done properly.
I guess at the moment you have to wait and see what they say. Do you have the original inventory? Do you have any photos/evidence as to the state of the property when you left? I'm not sure if you had a chance to get some quick shots when you realised there might be a problem?
Did the orignal inventory specify the condition of things?
I'm sure one of the experts will be along to advise you properly later.
df

yhaneef

Yeah, i didn't think to take any photos, but i do have a copy of the original inventory, the original inventory was very inconsistent regarding the condition of that apartment, for some artefacts it wouldn't say anything and for others it would say 'is in good condition', etc. For the two things that I have mentioned, there was nothing mentioned in the inventory. :-s

BitterAndTwisted

Light-bulbs are considered to be "consumables" and are therefore the responsibility of the tenant to replace. Unfortunately, if there were non-working ones and the check-in inventory didn't note them you had the opportunity to make an amendment to it and initial it. I'm surprised that you didn't consider replacing it or them during your tenancy.

If there were marks on a mattress and they weren't noted on the inventory you should have noticed them and made a note on the inventory to that effect as well. You should expect a deduction to be made to your deposit if you cannot prove that the stains were not there when you moved in. That is what the inventory was for. I would not necessarily read anything sinister into the fact that there were two different parties doing the check-in and check-out. Personally, I think that's irrelevant. What is important is the documentary evidence.

G_M

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I would not necessarily read anything sinister into the fact that there were two different parties doing the check-in and check-out. Personally, I think that's irrelevant. What is important is the documentary evidence.

I agree. What matters is any differences between the 2.

BitterAndTwisted

Yep. The landlord has documentary evidence garnered by disinterested parties and the tenant has none.

Deductions will most probably be made and I don't think that they will be contestable. Sucks for the OP.

yhaneef

Yep however it looks like that the level of checks done but the agent that did the Check In and the Check Out is of different standards. Even the check out agent said that the letting agent stopped using the company that did the check in because they were missing much of the details. Also the check out agent said that we had 14 days to add any issues to the inventory, but there is no documentation from the company that did the check in to support this.

The level of detail checks done between the check in and the check out is different as well.

In regards to the light bulbs, we changed all the ones in the whole apartments that were due to be changed apart from the ones in the en-suite toilet as there was nothing in the check in in to saying how many were working and not working (however for every other room it was noted how many bulbs were working and ones that weren't). There are 6 blubs in the en-suite and 4 were working and none of them stopped working, so we never thought to have them replaced.

dancingfairy

Is the deposit protected? this is one of the key questions at the moment. If so and you get clobbered with charges you disagree with then you can use the arbitration process - if not then I believe you may be able to sue the landlord for 3 x the deposit but you need to know whether it is protected in one of the 3 main schemes first. Have you contacted the 3 schemes to check?
As it stands you probably will end up having to pay for the lightbulb and possibly the stain also - however I believe that they can't charge you for a brand new mattress unless it was brand new when you moved in - if it was say 4 years old when you moved in and the average life of a mattress is say 7 years and you were there for 2 years you have effetively only written off a max of 1 year's worth of using the matress (assuming the matress was that badly damaged) - this is how I believe the system works but they may just charge you for cleaning it instead.
You need to get checking the state of the deposit. The deposit schemes should tell you how long the landlord/agent has to contact you with any proposed deductions. Alternatively you can phone the letting agent/landlord and ask how long before you hear about your deposit and then report back here to see if they are taking the mick. or not.
Depending on what level of deductions they are suggesting you can then decide what to do but at the moment you are just speculating.
df

BitterAndTwisted

yhaneef wrote: »

Yep however it looks like that the level of checks done but the agent that did the Check In and the Check Out is of different standards.

Yep, that's what it sounds like.

Even the check out agent said that the letting agent stopped using the company that did the check in because they were missing much of the details.

I honestly don't think that's relevant. Incomplete details on the check-in would most often favour the tenant, I reckon.

Also the check out agent said that we had 14 days to add any issues to the inventory, but there is no documentation from the company that did the check in to support this.

It's usual in adult life to acquaint yourself with all the important information before the fact, rather than after it. That you didn't do that is unfortunate but not anyone else's fault imo.

The level of detail checks done between the check in and the check out is different as well.

If you didn't agree with the "level" or accuracy of the check-in inventory you could have objected in writing or declined to counter-sign it. It's unfortunate that you didn't do that under the circumstances as it was your own money at risk. Were you not aware that you could have done either of those?

In regards to the light bulbs, we changed all the ones in the whole apartments that were due to be changed apart from the ones in the en-suite toilet as there was nothing in the check in in to saying how many were working and not working (however for every other room it was noted how many bulbs were working and ones that weren't). There are 6 bulbs in the en-suite and 4 were working and none of them stopped working, so we never thought to have them replaced.

Quite honestly, I can't understand why you thought that if some non-working bulbs weren't noted in the check-in inventory then they wouldn't be important at check-out when those in other rooms were noted. Did it never occur to you that this was inconsistent and therefore illogical?

yhaneef

"I honestly don't think that's relevant. Incomplete details on the check-in would most often favour the tenant, I reckon."
But in our case it has worked the other way, things that should have documented were not. And we are out of pocket

"If you didn't agree with the "level" or accuracy of the check-in inventory you could have objected in writing or declined to counter-sign it. It's unfortunate that you didn't do that under the circumstances as it was your own money at risk. Were you not aware that you could have done either of those?"
Everything looked in order when we signed the document, the mattress stain is underneath the mattress protector which we have never removed (plus we had our own mattress topper which we have used since we moved in), hence it would have never occurred to us to have this checked.

The Check In documentation is in-consistent so could it be disputed?

What I am wanting to know is do i have a leg to stand on, in regards to disputing any of the above.

Thanks for all your help guys

dancingfairy

Sadly I think you've been done - either deliberately or otherwise. We have had the same problem - in the end we paid up as we weren't aware of our rights. Yes they can be really, really ,really nitpicky to the nth degree. Your best bet at the moment is damage limitation and to know for next time sadly.
df