Dispute with letting agent

youngone90

Hi, hoping someone can offer advice on the following:-

I was in a tenancy agreement with a letting agent from 12th April 2012 until 11th May 2013. Upon the start date i had released £395.00 of my funds to be held (by Lettings Protection Service Scotland) as a security deposit. Following the end of tenancy inspection i received an email on 22nd May 2013 from the letting agent stating they are to claim £88.00 of this, for (in their words) "cleaning throughout, including oven and carpet clean". No further information was given.

It's now in my hands to accept or dispute the £88.00 via LPS Scotland. If i dispute this amount i then have a choice to use an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme or it may be taken to court as a civil dispute. ADR scheme uses a seperate third party adjudicator, but other than this, I'm unfamiliar with how an ADR scheme operates and am not sure if this is the best course of action to take? I'm also unaware of the costs involved when comparing the ADR route against taking the matter to court? The undisputed amount of £307.00 cannot be released to me until i make a decision on this.

A brief summary of my dealings with the letting agent during my tenancy period;

· They carried out a standard 6-month inspection on 11th October 2012, where no issues were highlighted and was commented on as "having kept the property in excellent condition" - unfortunately i was not privy to a copy of the report but the records must be held by them to view, should the dispute proceed.

· Contrary to their end of tenancy report, I carpet-cleaned the property twice (once in the final days of tenancy) and left the oven in a cleaner state than when i entered the property. I have a copy of the Home Report detailing noticeable marks to the living room carpet which the landlord could not remove during his period of occupancy. I am wondering if they are trying to charge on this basis?
· Aside from the inspection reports i have copies of numerous emails that were ignored by them when highlighting faults or damages to the property outwith my control. For example the bedroom roof was leaking last summer and they failed to act upon this (i have kept photos showing the damage to the roof). They also had a sub-contractor badly scrape the bathroom wall when fixing the toilet in November 2012, again this was ignored (and again i have kept photos of the damage).

I have savings but unfortunately cannot draw upon these at the moment, and as such, will struggle to pay for any legal costs should this indeed go to court. I am looking for any advice you may be able to offer on ADR, comparing costs between ADR/court action and generally if i have substantial evidence to dispute the claim made by them.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.