Agency charging bills to deposit?

Rohaq

I've recently left rented student accommodation, and the agency that we were renting from refused to give us back our deposit based on a number of charges they wanted to make. The ones causing me concern are £188 for contract cleaning, and £262.40 for the water bill.

They sent a number of pictures of various bits of dust (these were taken after almost a month after leaving the property, so dust will have accumulated despite our best efforts), a few small cleaning items left in cupboards, some plastic bags on top of the kitchen cupboards, a freezer that was switched off and left to defrost (I was using it to store food until I left, so I couldn't exactly switch it off beforehand) and a cable modem we didn't have the tools to remove.

Whilst I can understand that they may want to make a small charge to remove the items, £188 seems incredibly excessive for cleaning. Can anyone comment on whether it's worth disputing this?

The second point is that they want to charge us for the water bill through our deposit. I checked the tenancy agreement, and I can indeed see that this was specified when we signed it, however I was under the impression that landlords cannot legally charge bills and use the tenancy deposit to pay them off, as this must either be included in the agreed rent, or the tenant should be allowed to deal with the utility company directly, so that they are entering an agreement with the utility provider and are provided with original copies of the utility bills.

I'm pretty sure the rules were changed to this, or something similar to this, in order to protect the security deposits of tenants 2 or 3 years ago, alongside similar laws stating that deposits need to be kept in a dedicated bank account to prevent them from being used for other charges. As such, is it legal for our landlord to have included this in their contract, and is it legal for them to be charging us this now? If not, what specific Acts should I be quoting here?

may_fair

• Was this an AST in England/Wales?
• You mention "we" and "us". Was it a joint tenancy with all of you on a single contract, or did you have individual contracts for your rooms?
• Is your deposit protected by an approved scheme?
• What does your contract say about allowable deductions from the deposit?
• Was an inventory/condition report conducted at check-in? Signed off by you?
• How clean was the property at check-in? (because you're not required to leave it any cleaner than it was at the start of the tenancy)

(BTW £188 for professional cleaning isn't, in itself, wildly excessive - depends on property size/location/what's included).

prudryden

My contracts read:
Schedule 4
1. thru 1.3 .......
1.4. The Agent with the consent of the Landlord and the Tenant may deduct monies from the Deposit to compensate the Landlord for losses caused for any or all of the following reasons:
1. thru 5. ....
6. any unpaid account or charge for water, electricity or gas or other fuels used by the Tenant in the Premises

So, the tenant would have to consent before any monies could be deducted. If you do not consent, then you must challenge the claimed deduction from the deposit.
The cleaning is as above by Mayfair.

Rohaq

may_fair wrote: »

• Was this an AST in England/Wales?
• You mention "we" and "us". Was it a joint tenancy with all of you on a single contract, or did you have individual contracts for your rooms?
• Is your deposit protected by an approved scheme?
• What does your contract say about allowable deductions from the deposit?
• Was an inventory/condition report conducted at check-in? Signed off by you?
• How clean was the property at check-in? (because you're not required to leave it any cleaner than it was at the start of the tenancy)

(BTW £188 for professional cleaning isn't, in itself, wildly excessive - depends on property size/location/what's included).

This was in England, and it was a joint tenancy.

Looking through the contract, there is a section on allowable deductions for bills:

[THE TENANTS AGREE: ]
To pay for all charges for gas, electricity, water rates, telephone and internet consumed or supplied to the premises during the period of the tenancy and any council tax charges, arising by any tenant ceasing to attract “student” status or otherwise making the house liable to council tax. Water rates can be requested to be paid by Landlord and deducted from deposits

I'm unsure about the inventory when we moved in, I scanned the property for any major issues, and reported a few problems, that were sorted. I can't remember the specifics at this point though, and should have kept a record.

Looking here:
direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/Privaterenting/Tenancies/DG_189120

it says:

Protecting deposits by student tenants
If your tenants are students, you must protect their deposits using a TDP scheme if:

• they have an assured shorthold tenancy
• you received their full deposits on or after 6 April 2007

You must protect students' or any other tenants' deposits even if they were paid by someone else - for example, their parents.

Our deposits were paid in full after April 2007, so our letting agency should have been using the TDP scheme. Does this protect our deposit from being used to pay a utility bill at the end of the tenancy?

may_fair

Rohaq wrote: »

This was in England, and it was a joint tenancy.

Looking through the contract, there is a section on allowable deductions for bills:

Is there nothing else about deposit deductions? The bit you quote is more about your general liabilities. I'm not really sure about the water bill, the wording's a bit vague - I checked OFT guidance on unfair terms in tenancy agreements
and it seems to say it's not unfair, per se, (and certainly not unlawful - N.B. OFT guidance is not statute) but in your case the vagueness could make it difficult for LL to enforce - see the bottom of page 97 (page 101 on the pdf).

I'm unsure about the inventory when we moved in, I scanned the property for any major issues, and reported a few problems, that were sorted. I can't remember the specifics at this point though, and should have kept a record.

No, the inventory/condition report is something the LL should have done when you moved in, to protect his interests (not yours), because if there's a dispute he needs evidence of condition at the start of the tenancy. Without such evidence, he will seriously struggle to prove you're liable for the cleaning cost.

Our deposits were paid in full after April 2007, so our letting agency should have been using the TDP scheme. Does this protect our deposit from being used to pay a utility bill at the end of the tenancy?

Deposit protection applies to AST tenancies in England/Wales (whether you're a student or not). The only implication of LL failing to protect is that you only have one method of dispute resolution available if you can't agree deductions with the LL: claiming in the county court against LL (easily DIY'ed - court fees are low in the small claims track and you don't need a solicitor). All of the joint tenants would have to bring the claim as co-claimants because you are, together, 'the Tenant'.

Emmzi

You've never cleaned up after a defrosted freezer, have you... water everywhere! I'd have lived on tins for the last week.

In honesty I think you are being unreasonable. You do need to pay the water bill, why shouldn't you? And the cleaning charge seems reasonable.

hazyjo

Did you at least leave the door open of the freezer and place towels underneath and a washing up bowl inside? Obviously you're not familiar with things like defrosting freezers - you really should have used the food and defrosted it at least a day before moving out.

The cleaning bill doesn't sound excessive to me.

Can't really see how it matters who pays the water bill. Surely if you get the deposit money back, you'll then have the hassle of paying it direct anyway. I'd rather someone just sorted that for me if the option was there. Any reason why you weren't paying the bills when they arrived? Were they not in your name?

Jx

prudryden

Rohaq wrote: »

This was in England, and it was a joint tenancy.

Looking through the contract, there is a section on allowable deductions for bills:


I'm unsure about the inventory when we moved in, I scanned the property for any major issues, and reported a few problems, that were sorted. I can't remember the specifics at this point though, and should have kept a record.

Looking here:
direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/Privaterenting/Tenancies/DG_189120

it says:

Our deposits were paid in full after April 2007, so our letting agency should have been using the TDP scheme. Does this protect our deposit from being used to pay a utility bill at the end of the tenancy?

No, it only protects you from the LL deducting monies arbitrarily without your consent. You must contest any planned deduction within @20 days of being notified. Water rates would provisionably be an acceptable deduction under normal circumstances especially if it was included in the contract.

Rohaq

Right, thanks for the clarification everybody!

clutton_2

Read your agreement

""THE TENANTS AGREE: ]

To pay for all charges for gas, electricity, water rates, telephone and internet consumed or supplied to the premises during the period of the tenancy and any council tax charges, arising by any tenant ceasing to attract “student” status or otherwise making the house liable to council tax. Water rates can be requested to be paid by Landlord and deducted from deposits


did you disscuss this with the LL on move-in and decide how you were going to pay the water bill ? If you didn't then this is why he is now deducting the water bill from your deposit.

Pleeease read your next tenancy agreement more carefully... what you sign binds you in law.....