Deposit deductions for damage when life of carpet/wallpaper not known

lizards

We're in the middle of moving out of our rental into our new place that we're buying, hurray! However we still have to deal with check-out of the old place which the landlords are selling.

If the check-in inventory of a rented property just says "good condition" for wallpaper or carpets, if there has been damage, how would it be calculated? I'm fairly sure the carpets and wallpaper weren't new, in fact after a bit of asking round the identical neighbours' houses I suspect the wallpaper is over 30 years old and came with the house. This possibly is why it was easier to damage (and more tempting for our three year old, sigh) in the first place as it was peeling ever so slightly in places. There's no mention of ages on the check-in report, but it was owned by an old lady on her own for many years hence the good condition even if it's really old.

I'm hoping the professional carpet cleaners we're spending a small fortune on will fix the carpets in the few spots where I couldn't get marks out, but the small marks remain, what is likely to happen? Does the landlord have to prove when the carpets were fitted and the likely lifetime? Same for the wallpaper. What happens if they can't?

Happy to pay what is fair as we're spending a LOT of money on professionally cleaning the place as it is (it's a large property and with four young children we have no time to do it ourselves) and have otherwise been excellent tenants and looked after the place, these small damages aside. But I also know from our dealings with our accidental landlords that they aren't very interested in being reasonable, don't fully understand tenants' rights and are more interested in moneymoneymoney, so it's probably going to end up with the DPS. The deposit is protected and there is a letting agent involved too. We've been here 30 months.

AnnieO1234

How long have you lived there first of all? Because that becomes the absolute minimum age anything could be.
Xx

lizards

It will be 2.5 years when we leave. I gather there was some redecorating and maybe some new carpets but it wasn't clear to us which ones they were. It certainly wasn't the wallpaper (the big issue!) or the carpets downstairs (listed as "good condition with some wear on high traffic areas" so presumably not new) which are the only ones with a few small marks on.

AlexMac

dozens of past posts advising on this; all pointing in your favour. Do a search or wait til the regular experts come back after the weekend

lizards

Yep, I've lurked on this board for a long time and it does *seem* like it would go in our favour. But I've not spotted any posts about what happens if the age is unknown (might have missed something perhaps) and I'm not sure if the landlord has to prove anything or if a guess is made instead.