What are my chances of getting my deposit back in full?

ging84

Tomorrow i am due to hand back the keys to my rented property

My too biggest problems are the state of the garden, and the carpets

The garden is in a little bit of a state, most of this however is due to the season, and the weather. It's almost completely flooded and has been that way fairly consistently during wet months throughout the tenancy, making gardening during this time particularly difficult. There are a lot of leaves down because there are some fairly large trees at the end of the garden. Today i discovered that over the weekend the neighbours fence blew down making even more of a mess.
The tenancy agreement says i am responsible to keep the gardens neat and tidy, however are factors such as the extreme weather we have suffered during this month something which should be taken into consideration.

The carpets also show reasonable amounts of light staining. I have rented a carpet cleaner and had a good go with it, but unfortunately the bedrooms have cream carpets and the carpet cleaner doesn't quite work the miracles it claims in the broucher. There are still some noticeable darker patches, particularly in the spare bedroom where i had my computer chair and around the edges of the main bedroom.
The carpets were not perfect or new when we moved in, but they are certainly a little bit worse now after a 2 year and 2 month tenancy.

Guest101

Ok first the garden, u return it how u got it ideally but it is reasonable for certain things to not be done in winter, so u should be ok. Does the inventory state the condition of the garden when u moved in, if not 'it was in the same state now, as upon receiving the property'.

The carpets - wear and tear - 2 years is plenty of wear and tear on carpets. In rented accomodation it's approx 30-40% of it's life. Were they new? What does the inventory state?

ging84

the carpets were not new, they all say condition "good" except the spare bedroom which say good / light staining - i had the light staining bit added because there were already a number of stains.
The photos on the carpets are a little unclear, they printed out and about 2"x3" and are not that high quality, but you can certainly see some patches of differing colour on most of them, they actually looks a lot worse than i remember in the pictures, but then i wonder if the camera highlights the difference a little more than you can see with your eye.

The garden in the inventory says it has been cut weeded and tidied. It has a few pictures, and the notes i added about flacking paint on the patio. It does look a fair bit nicer in the picture than it really was, but it's not perfectly tidy, there are loose leaves scattered across the lawn and boarders, you can see grass / weeds coming out of the patio. I think i might have a go at clearing some leaves this morning and then can say it matches the condition more closely

Guest101

Do some remedial work on garden, but it's unlikely u will be able to get it to match exactly, with the weather the way it is.

Carpets sound quite used when u moved in, even more do now.

At most I'd say you'd be liable for 20% of the cost, if that. It sounds like wear and tear.

ging84

The Garden that i was worried about they have not come back with an issue over.
The carpets they have asked for cleaning in the room i was worried about and in the hall way. The have also asked for some compensation towards the carpet

They've also ask for 4hours of general cleaning because there are still some marks on the walls a few cobwebs on the lampshade, some dirt on some of the skirtings and the bathroom needs more cleaning.

The check out report picked up about the carpet in the spare bedroom, but nothing about the hall or the other general cleaning.

What is fair for me to pay for, i was thinking of something along the lines of paying for the carpet cleaning of the spare bedroom, provided they agree that is the end of it, anything else is wear and tear.
But i'm not sure about the general cleaning, it's not unclean, we have wiped all the woodwork down, the bathroom we have cleaned, it does look a little worse, but a lot of that is wear and tear because the bathroom had no vent and suffers a lot with damp
should i just pay up to get it out the way or fight it? or maybe offer half?

silvercar

Is the deposit registered in a scheme? It should be so you can use the dispute scheme if you want to dispute.

Personally I would agree an amount, somewhere like halfway on the understanding that is the end of the matter and not offer any further cleaning by yourself.

00ec25

either you scrupulously cleaned it or you didn't

ging84 wrote: »

They've also ask for 4hours of general cleaning because there are still some marks on the walls a few cobwebs on the lampshade, some dirt on some of the skirtings and the bathroom needs more cleaning.

the above implies the standard you achieved was not good enough so remedial cleaning is required for which you have to pay

ging84

00ec25 wrote: »

either you scrupulously cleaned it or you didn't


the above implies the standard you achieved was not good enough so remedial cleaning is required for which you have to pay

Not good enough according to the landlord, but where do you draw the line on what is reasonable.
The original checkout report done by the letting agent said i was ok other than the carpet mentioned, the letting agents explanation was that today with the sun-shining you could see more marks.

I suspect if it went down to a deposit dispute they would struggle to claim for anything which didn't come up on the checkout report anyway, but i want to make sure i do what is reasonable and sensible