Rental - Retaining deposit, but excessive charges.

mattyprice4004

Hi there, a quick overview:

- I rented a house from June 2011 until 5th April 2012. The property was on a 6 month tenancy agreement, but the last few months were on a rolling agreement with no new contract signed.

- House was redecorated before we moved in, new carpets and painting only.

- When moving out, the letting agent informs us that there were defects with the property. Admittedly the oven did need cleaning, which we were charged nearly £100 for. I'm happy to pay this as it's correct (although steep!)

- They claim the WHOLE HOUSE needs repainting. I feel this is excessive, there were 2 marks on the paintwork (one near the kitchen, one on a hallway wall) which wouldn't clean out, however the paint was 8 months old and they still had half a tub of the original paint under the stairs - the colour would have probably matched OK. They want to charge £240 for this.

- They have also given us a £90 charge for gardening. When we moved in the garden wasn't well kept, and I also feel £90 is excessive as it's a small garden.

I've written to the letting agents with no reply.

Do you think I can chase for the return of the remainder? I'm happy to pay reasonable charges, I'd be happy to pay £60.00 for the gardening (my parent's gardener said this is the highest amount he'd charge to tidy up a medium sized garden area with some bedding plants) and £60.00 for the painting, which would cover 2 hours @ £30.00, a rate given to me by a local decorating firm. It shouldn't take more than 2 hours to repaint 2 very small marks on a wall.

In my letter I asked for invoices for the repairs, but didn't receive any kind of reply.

The deposit was £650, and I have cashed the cheque for the £200 odd they returned.

Thanks.

Tirian

They're chancing it. There is no way that any of the deposit protection schemes would agree to these deductions - or the claim that an entire house needs repainting for the sake of two small marks.

There is also no obligation on you to return the property in better condition than you received it, so I would be inclined to reject the garden claim outright unless it is in fact in worse condition than when you moved in.

Depends how much you need/want the money and how soon. If you go to arbitration through the deposit protection scheme, it could take several months to get a result. However if you use the prospect of taking the dispute to arbitration you should be able to get the deductions substantially reduced, as they probably know full well that they'd never get what they're proposing and would have to go through a whole lot of hassle through the arbitration process.

pmlindyloo

Did you have an inventory taken at the beginning of the tenancy? What did it say on there about the garden?

Deducting money from a deposit nearly always hinges on the inventory done at the beginning of the tenancy and the check out inventory done at the end (plus any other evidence like dated photographs). Then the cost of any repairs etc would be taken into account.

As already said the whole point of protecting deposits in the protection services is to have an independent 'body' involved in the dispute.

Your deposit was protected wasn't it?

A dispute has bee raised hasn't it?

Tirian

Whoah there ... pointless and counterproductive to raise a dispute through the scheme if you can come to a quick and satisfactory resolution directly. It's a lengthy, bureaucratic and tedious process and if you can avoid it then you should.

If, however, you make clear to the landlord/agency that you are prepared to use the dispute service should they not agree to sensible deductions that may help you get what you want (since it's unlikely that they will want to expend the time and effort on the dispute process either).

Helsieboo

Poor you, I went through similar with my old rental property.

First of all, try to come to a reasonable agreement if you can. Going through the dispute services is a bit of hassle and time consuming.

My advice though is to keep everything you have - check in, check out, quotes, photos, all communications so if it does go to a dispute service, you can send it all on. I had to do this and eventually it went my way so it was all worth it, but it is a bit of work!