Aaahhh! Landord wants to deduct £420 from deposit!

lindsaygalaxy

Thank you for all your help.

There has been no checkout inventory. The only contact has been them leaving a message saying things they were unhappy with. They ignore the request for deposit return through te scheme until the other day when I got an email saying they disputed the amount and want to keep £420 of it.

tbs624

crystal1330 wrote: »

This is unfortunately very common, which is exactly why I refused to pay my last 6 weeks rent, which was equal to my deposit and told them they could keep the deposit! They wasn't happy but they didn't have a choice!

Not advisable, except in very specific circumstances. The LL did "have a choice" -s/he could pursue to court for failing to meet your rent payments. You'd get to pay the court costs as well as the unpaid rent and end up with a CCJ if you failed to settle.

LLs cannot use the T's deposit as a sort of "new for old" policy but likewise Ts cannot expect to opt out paying their final rent to try to circumvent reclaiming of the tenancy deposit. Your tenancy agreement will usually have a specific clause on that one.

..agent picked up on a few cleaning issues, so I delayed giving keys back for two hours and sorted them out, got it in writing and it was sorted.

Delaying key return should only be done with written agreement of LL/LA, if doing so is likely to take you into another tenancy period - T may incur further rent liabilities otherwise.

tbs624

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

Thank you for all your help.

There has been no checkout inventory. The only contact has been them leaving a message saying things they were unhappy with. They ignore the request for deposit return through te scheme until the other day when I got an email saying they disputed the amount and want to keep £420 of it.

Keep the scheme updated - tell them that no breakdown of the LLs claim has been provided and importantly that there has been no formal check out procedure, if that is the case.

nanna1959

I rented a flat a few years ago and the agents tried this with us, withheld about 50% of the deposit, when we had returned the property in the condition we found it. Deposit was held with The Dispute Service who upheld our dispute as the agents could not justify their claim (no photos etc) and we received all but £50 of our deposit back, no need for claims court.

goonarmy

So they havent said what the 420 is for either? Quite a lot for emptying a bin, cleaning a oven and a general tidy. Green waste is collected by the council round here, so not chargeable, an oven takes a hour to clean and the genereal clean of the property(whjch probbably isnt needed) is what four hours?

Gwendolyn

This happened to me. It's a long story but the house we rented belonged to a couple working abroad who intended to come back to it and the previoius tenants had been a nightmare. (It was listed - they changed doors, repainted and put up a satelite dish and fled overseas leaving thousands of pounds of debt and bailiffs at our door). As a result the owners were very picky and the agents were always on our case. There were a number of unannounced inspections by the agents - turning up when we were at work for example - then we would receive a letter - I still have one which complains the doormat was a couple of inches out of alignment and there were breakfast dishes in the sink and a pile of unironed clothes on the bed - could we put them away please!
When it came to leaving we had the house professionally cleaned using a firm the agent recommended as we had a cat and this was our agreement. I also cleaned the house thoroughly and the agent admitted it was in far better condition when we moved out than when we moved in. However, we were charged for a coffee ring on a kitchen table £120. This was in 2001!!
The ring was there when we moved in and we simply didn't mention it as it was an old oak table in the inventory as "good condition for age, some marks". I think that the agent's missed it when we moved in and they couldnt' charge the the previous tenants as they fled and the owner had complained so we got stung. Despite a solictor's letter (free from a family member) we ended up loosing the £120.
I was caught on one other occasion too for putting rawl plugs in a wall - which were there when we moved in but hidden by a picture which I moved to another location and scuffing the hall paint work which was scuffed and noted on the inventory when we moved in. In this case, I think the agent wanted to keep the landlord who had a large number of properties happy - other tenants I spoke to had been charged during their leases for "damage" when basically the landlord was getting all the wear and tear repaired for free.

londonTiger

Gwendolyn that is completely unreasonable, some "living wear" should be expected.

What do landlords expect? people to bubble wrap all furnishings and live like that throughout the tenancy? Wear & tear happens, if they're not happy then move your expensive oak coffee table and put in a cheap ikea one.

londonTiger

Rawl plug. OMG that's taking the p***. Anyone who stays in a property for any reasonably length of time will need to put up clocks, shelves etc. They are very easy to cover up as long as landlord has some leftover paint kept in the shed/loft for example. pull out the rawl plug with pliers, put in polyfilla, even the surface with a straight edge, let it dry and add a dab of paint over it. Job done.

This should be expected as usual "maintenace" by landlord when switching tenancy around. Landlords had to earn their keep before they were expected to do these types of reapirs and cost nothing but a bit of time. They are taking the !!!! these days thanks to agents who bring the lawyers in and charge for every small thing they can think about.

CKhalvashi

Guest101 wrote: »

I'm sorry but no:

A: the deposit protection schemes arbitrate this, no need for court.

B: wear and tear is the decline in quality from normal use. So carpets getting worn, paint rubbing off. Damage from bad tenants is very different.

C: some tenants don't know their rights and forego their deposits when they shouldn't, some landlords see the deposit as a sinking fund. These are both bad situations.

nine of this relates to paying for a professional clean. Everyone is able to return a property to the state they receive it

I'm with this.

I'm currently getting out of the BTL market, but I'd reasonably expect carpets to last 10 years etc etc etc under reasonable use.

The only thing I've ever claimed out of a decent tenants deposit was for a rip in the sofa caused by a child; this was the £40 I'd paid to have that piece of leather re-upholstered rather than for a new suite, plus about £10 for my own time and diesel, as I used my own car and fuel to transport the items.

There was another occasion where we took the whole deposit, but in relation to things being so bad we had to completely gut and re-fit to get it into what I'd call a reasonable standard.

Also, as a professional LL, I'm doing everything possible to either sell to the tenants themselves (which will probably be the case for 2 of them), or to a professional landlord that will guarantee these standards (for the other 3).

CK

Gwendolyn

London Tiger

I couldn't agree more. This was over 10 years ago and I would hope things have changed since then. I always thought it had something to do with the fact we were very young when renting those two properties - newly out of university and the next 9 months later. As for the oak table issue - the agents were mad. They received a great solictors letter (free from a relative) stating they couldn't turn up unannounced (which they evidenced from their letter) and that asking people to put away their dishes and iron their laundry daily was ridiculous.