Deposit advice please?

daisy1985

Hoping somebody can help me?

Myself and hubby have rented a house for 5 years and we were issued with a section 21 notice a couple of weeks ago as landlords situation had changed and he needs to move back in.

Letting agents were really sympathetic as landlord has been a bit of a pain for them, and need to be out 10 days before our new baby is due! They have agreed we could move out anytime before then aslong as we give a minimum 2 weeks notice. Fair enough.

We received an email with tenant checklist on to advise what state the property needs to be left in which is pretty much standard, ie: clean fridge, cupboards, carpets, oven etc it then goes on to state what the charges would be for each item if these are not to be done. Some of which seem ridiculous but easily within our control so not too worried.

The problem is we have raised on each inspection any probs with the property, leak under kitchen sink, crack in bathroom sink when we moved in, light switch relays not working, lights not working in general, extractor fans in bathrooms not working, things that we can live with but nonetheless never been fixed but we have never been that bothered and hoping this is not ging to come back and bite us on the bum. Some of the charges in the checkout booklet relate to these items so I have sent an email just to confirm that as these have been raised already they wouldn't be deduted from our deposit but we do not seem to get a straight answer from them.

The letting agent we have now has only been managing the property for 18months and have admitted they do not have a copy of anything from prev letting agent who we took original tenancy out with (inventory, complaints etc) and when i said well we have advised you of probs she said she would have to look into it as that letting agents has now been bought out by a bigger company and their owner/manager has left so not quite sure how this affects us and surely paperwork should have just transferred over?

Where would we stand if any of our deposit is disputed for these items? Thanks in advance for any help

anselld

The onus is on the LA/LL to prove that damage was caused by you, normally by a signed check-in inventory describing the state at start of tenancy.

They are in a weak position if they cannot produce a signed check-in inventory.

You are in a strong position if you can show evidence that faults were present at start and were reported as such.

Just make sure you know which scheme the deposit is in and be prepared to follow the claim procedure as necessary.

daisy1985

Thank you, I was hoping as much

The property has been well maintained by us, painted at least once a year, and carpets cleaned approx every 6 - 9 months and we have some receipts for this too as landlord agreed to help with costs (never happened even though we have email to say he would)

Our deposit is with DPS, although it shows it has only been with them since July 2011 so assume this is when new agent received from prev agent as they had probs obtaining it? Does this have any impact on us and should a new inventory been done from then?

Just hoping for a stress free move and our money back ASAP as got to use savings for new deposit/fee's and with baby on way and maternity pay etc want everything sorted.