Deposit Refund from Landlord

king100

I have been having some issues over some monies due to me from my deposit, and would like some advice concerning this matter.

My deposit was £625, when it came to us having the deposit returned we were given £257.88 back.

This was broken up into Rent period , cleaning bill (no receipt), curtain rail replacement (no receipt), late payment of rent.

Cleaning bill of £40, how did she come to this figure, i dont have a receipt of this and no figures to suggest it. i.e. 4 hours @ £10. So basacially she pulled it out of thin air.

She stated that she had to buy a NEW curtain rail.
£25 for thisv again no receipt.

The reason for this was that we took down our curtains and forgot to leave the hooks that a specially for the rail.

Can she charge us for a brand new curtain rail?


She also stated that she incurred costs for telephone calls to us and bank establishing whether rent was paid.

Again no receipts of this.

Plus she mentioned 167 days lost interest, but according to contract she is entitled to interest if rent unpaid for over 14 days.

According to my calculations that comes to £6.73 lost interest. She charged us £35 for lost interest and phone calls.

This wasent in her 1st letter, but the letter after we asked for some more money back, she stated other things that she could have deducted monies for.

Door chain missing, pink lamp shade,kitchen door handlke broken, recapping the piping from a washing machine.

NO inventory was done before we moved in.

Where do i stand in this as we have given her able time to produce the receipts.

We have also written that if we do not receive a reply in 14 dyas then the matter will be taken to court. This has passed.

Regards

Generali

If she has no inventory she's going to find it very hard to defend any claim. I'd get down to the CAB and claim all the deposit back - your position should be very strong.

alijay_3

She must be able to justify her deductions and with no receipts & no inventory - very dodgy!
Arbitration would probably rule in your favour. It's worth chasing up.

Regards
Alijay (independent letting agent)

Millionaire

Dont let her get a way with this. Shes taking the Mick. Speak to the CAB and get their advise.

real1314

You should definitley dispute this, but...

£40 for cleaning is not necessarily a huge amount - what state was the property left in?
Equally £25 for the curtain rail (she should have a receipt for this presumably?) with no fitting charge isn't huge either.
However without an inventory from the start, they can't really charge for either of these - for all anyone knew, there was no curtain rail and the place was a mess when you took it on.

£35 for "lost" interest - hmm, has she worked this out on numerous late payments? Most ASTs allow a small % (often 8% I think?) over base rate (bank of england rate), but to get £35 means you'd have had £270 outstanding for 12 months (or half that for 6 months). You need to break this down into interest and charges (she seems to have included a charge for phone calls - does the AST allow this?)

Also, the bulk of the retention seems to be for rent. How has that been arrived at?