Tenancy Deposit Schemes - BEWARE of Countrywide

Victim_of_Countrywide

I have recently gone through a ridiculous battle with Countrywide Residential Lettings over my deposit.

I took it to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme for ARLA registered agents ie. The Dispute Service. I was upset but not surprised when The Dispute Service awarded money to landlord for cleaning despite with no evidence of bill or estimate.

Cleaning listed by agency as dusting, light cleaning and changing light bulbs.... struggling to work out how they plan to do this now tenants have moved in!

I think my case is dead and buried and my £50, yes £50 for dusting (!!) is long gone.

However - I have just read on Countrywide's Annual Report 2006 that a Director of Countrywide is also a Director of ARLA and a Director of The Dispute Service.

“John Hards, Aged 51, is Managing Director of Countrywide Residential Lettings. He is a Chartered Surveyor, a Director of the Association of Residential Lettings Agents and The Dispute Service, which has recently won a government contract to administrator The Tenancy Deposit Scheme.” (page 15 of 2006 Annual Report)

How can The Dispute Service claim to be independent!!! :mad:

How can this happen? What can tenants do about it?

olly300

You need to complain:
1. both shelter and the CAB.
2. your local MP (use they workforyou.com it's free)

If enough people complain the complaints will be forwarded to the minster concerned.

noyk

Wow talk about conflict of interest. Well done for doing the research!

Victim_of_Countrywide

Thank you for your tip olly300. I have contacted my local MP via his website. I will definitely keep you posted of any progress.

Gorgeous_George

Interesting conflict of interests but hardly likely that Mr Hards had any influence in this matter.

A few months ago, the LL would have been slated on this forum for 'stealing' his tenant's deposit. Now it's the TDS scheme that is stealing the money.

Just maybe tenants should realise that they are responsible for 'dusting, light cleaning and changing light bulbs'. £50 to arrange for a cleaner and a light bulb fitter to complete the work and for the LA to confirm that it has been completed to a satisfactory standard seems quite reasonable to me.

I expect there will be more disgruntled tenants as they come to realise that dirt is not fair wear and tear. The TDS may not be the 'Get out of jail free' card tenants had hoped for.

If only a similar scheme existed for house sales.



GG

Meatballs

I am going to go through my check in with a white glove making sure there isn't any dust!

Oh and if any lightbulbs aint working then I'll have to withold £50 from my rent till it gets fixed...

Will be keeping a close eye on other people's deposit stories until I get my deposit back.

How you can go through the TDS without having any bills or estimate of proof is ridiculous though. Whats to stop LL/LAs making up figures like they already do?

lic

I'm with GG on this one.
£50 to clean a house may seem exessive at first. But it the house was not left clean and tidy, why should the LL have to pay?
The safest thing for all tenants to do is respect the property and leave it clean and tidy when your lease has ended. I'm sure the terms of the lease state that you should!
What % of you deposit was £50?

Meatballs

I agree if you leave it dirty then you should get charged, but dusting and light cleaning is pretty vague what exactly needed to be done?

You say yourself it sounds excessive, it shouldn't sound anything, there should be a number of quotes.

thesaint

Meatballs wrote: »

I agree if you leave it dirty then you should get charged, but dusting and light cleaning is pretty vague what exactly needed to be done?

You say yourself it sounds excessive, it shouldn't sound anything, there should be a number of quotes.

I'm guessing dusting and light cleaning???

Gorgeous_George

thesaint wrote: »

I'm guessing dusting and light cleaning???

If it was only a few hours work, it is impractical to get three quotes. You would very quickly annoy local cleaning staff if two out of three of their quotes were rejected.

£50 is hardly a life-changing sum of money. As a LL I would probably thank my tenant for leaving my property in relatively good order and waive the charge (providing rent had been on time and in the absence of any other hassle). However, LAs may see things differently.

The TDS is unlikely to get involved in minor disagreements involving small sums of money. The scheme would very soon go bust if they arbitrated on every little issue



GG

Meatballs

The Saint:

dusting and light cleaning is pretty vague

I could go into any property in the world and say it needs dusting and light cleaning and it would be very hard to argue against because it's such a vague statement.

If I missed one small section of skirting board in the whole house, that would require dusting and light cleaning. Does it deserve £50? Sod off.

But we don't know either way because the LA/LL didn't bother to evidence what needed doing.

Its fine if you have a good responsible landlord/LA, but the problem is, they're not all like that. Thats why the system has been needed and has been put into place. And it's obviously not working if landlords can get through a dispute without even having 1 quote/bill or evidencing what work needed doing properly. Whats the point of the dispute service if they dont do it properly? I guess the arbitrators at the other end don't actually have a clue themselves - even a lot of LA's dont.

As you say £50 is such a paltry amount to them, but to many tenants it can be worth quite a lot!