Check out - charging for replacing the sofas?

pimento

The inventory when they moved in was correct as it was when they moved out. I can't argue with it really. It's just the costs of painting/replacement of the sofa/ taking the weeds out of the (concreted over) garden.

bitsandpieces

To be fair on the landlord, it's quite possible to eat on sofas without leaving them in bad condition. I've fairly often eaten in front of the telly for years - I use a tray.

Putting a white sofa in a student let does seem silly, though! Any charge should be less wear-and-tear, at least, rather than the full cost.

wannahouse

pimento wrote: »

The inventory was signed on each page by my son who was the 'lead tenant'. He and I were there with the LL and the inventory person.

I'd say the inventory is kosher but (in my opinion) overly detailed for a student let.

there is no such thing as "overly detailed!"
what you mean is- unfortunately its watertight, so they can't get away with the soiling and damages!

wear and tear does not include spillages and staining!
it includes wear, which is entirely different!
for example, under normal use ,with a sofa like that (and we had one in a place we rented, but left it clean after a year) ,you would expect there to be some general darkening of the seat area, from grime off peoples trousers building up, and you could argue that was through normal use, but stains and spills are not!

we kept ours clean by ensuring that there was a throw down every time we sat down on it!

absolutely, i agree its a stupid choice for a sofa for ANY LET, but they rented that, with it present, and were required to keep it decent!
if we could, then they could too with care!

most likely, the lifespan of the new sofa would be approx 5 yrs i would guess, in arbitration, so they would be required to pay the depreciated amount for the sofa, which would fairly be 4/5 ths of the new cost.

there is no excuse but laziness to leave the flat dirty, and the freezer shelf wouldn't have broken if they had taken general care to defrost the appliance occasionally.
we have had students rent our very nice london flat and leave it a disgrace before, and its a major hassle and disappointment to find when you come to do the checkout...
we deducted a similar amount from their deposit, to rectify things, and it wasted a week of our time getting quotes and finding replacement items and believe me, there was no profit to be had!
if they left the place a disgrace, then they should learn a lesson ,pull their socks up and smarten up their game as there's just no excuse for that!
and as a mother, i would be berating my son for being a pig with no pride, handing a place back in that state!
it doesn't do them any favours being "outraged" when they have caused the entire problem in the first place!

vuvuzela

wannahouse wrote: »

if they left the place a disgrace, then they should learn a lesson ,pull their socks up and smarten up their game as there's just no excuse for that!
and as a mother, i would be berating my son for being a pig with no pride, handing a place back in that state!
it doesn't do them any favours being "outraged" when they have caused the entire problem in the first place!

Don't be so melodramatic, and please use fewer exclamation marks - they really weren't needed.
And as for 'outraged', pimento really didn't come across as such.

laidbacklou

This story really doesn't surprise me. I have had plenty of experience of landlords like this when i was a student.
A very similar situation was when we looked around a student flat, the landlord said "oh it will be much nicer than this when you move in, we repaint the entire flat every year", naively we thought great! and enjoyed moving into a clean and freshly painted flat. However we realised when we moved out that this was a scam as he took nearly all our deposit off us to repaint every wall! And we left the flat absolutely spotless. Some landlords are just out to rip people off.

wannahouse

vuvuzela wrote: »

Don't be so melodramatic, and please use fewer exclamation marks - they really weren't needed.
And as for 'outraged', pimento really didn't come across as such.

I'll use as many exclamation marks as i please, thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
who died and made you the boss???

wannahouse

laidbacklou wrote: »

This story really doesn't surprise me. I have had plenty of experience of landlords like this when i was a student.
A very similar situation was when we looked around a student flat, the landlord said "oh it will be much nicer than this when you move in, we repaint the entire flat every year", naively we thought great! and enjoyed moving into a clean and freshly painted flat. However we realised when we moved out that this was a scam as he took nearly all our deposit off us to repaint every wall! And we left the flat absolutely spotless. Some landlords are just out to rip people off.

At least these days, with the adjudication scheme, if you have sufficient proof, of the condition on moving in, along with the condition moving out, you can challenge a landlord like this!!! (exclamation marks for the benefit of vuvuzela).
They would never get away with charging for a complete repaint unless you had completely trashed the joint.

Errata

Two sofas dirtied beyond redemption
Smashed freezer door
Lost cookker ignition switch
Damaged meter cupboard doors
Dirt on paintwork that can't be cleaned off
Property overall left dirty and requiring a professional clean
Property not emptied
Weed ridden garden

£775 split four ways looks like a cheap deal

tim123456789

Errata wrote: »

Two sofas dirtied beyond redemption
Smashed freezer door
Lost cookker ignition switch
Damaged meter cupboard doors
Dirt on paintwork that can't be cleaned off

It's matt emulsion. It absolutely impossible to clean. Even the tiniest of mark won't come off. And it's oh so easy to mark it in the first place. You don't have to be clumsy, just live there in a normal way.

OTHO you don't need to repaint the whole wall. Just touching up the marked area with the same paint matches perfectly

tim

ValHaller

Errata wrote: »

Two sofas dirtied beyond redemption
Smashed freezer door
Lost cookker ignition switch
Damaged meter cupboard doors
Dirt on paintwork that can't be cleaned off
Property overall left dirty and requiring a professional clean
Property not emptied
Weed ridden garden

£775 split four ways looks like a cheap deal

Everyone gets that, OP gets it.

All apart from the sofas, which LL knew from the outset were only fit for one year in a student rental. Which is all this thread is about.