Home rental deposit question

tintintumblecrumble

Hi all,
I am new to the forum and thought I would start with saying hi. I have been reading the threads for many years to help with various issues I have had in the past, and it has helped a lot.
My question is, I have just moved out of a rented accommodation and been emailed by the landlord and told he is taking £235 of my £350 deposit, now I admit £100 of this was my fault for leaving the door open on a windy day, so it slammed and cracked a pane of glass.

My concern is that half way through the tenancy the boiler broke, it was fixed within a week or so, so no problem. But he has now charged myself and other housemates over £100 each for the replacement. Is this a legal requirement for me to pay this? As he put in the email "£103.77 (contribution towards the new boiler installation (£2000), based on standard life span of 12 years)"
Does anyone know if this is legal, as I read on a tenant website that the landlord is responsible for the boiler, plus I assumed that with landlord insurance, you would get boiler care.

I hope this question can be answered, I look forward to hearing your thought.

stator

You may want to try in this forum also:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16

But no, he certainly can NOT charge you for the boiler repair, what a ridiculous man.

Do you have details of which tenancy deposit protection scheme he used to protect your deposit?
If so you will probably have to lodge an appeal with them for your deposit.

tintintumblecrumble

Cheers for the quick reply, even if I did put it in the wrong forum, haha.
Our landlord did not notify us of the company he is using, if he is using one, and it does not say in the contract. I will message him to find out.
It really sucks as there is seven of us he has charged, its bad enough we were paying £2765 to live in a badly furnished house, but to then take our deposit for his problems, kind of a kick in the face.

nofoollikeold

If your tenancy commenced on or after 6th April 2007 (I think) then your landlord must protect your deposit by insuring it, placing it with an approved bank, or using a letting agents approved scheme. He (or she) must also provide to the tenants a certificate showing where it is held within within 30 days of the start of the tenancy. Failure to protect the deposit or to supply the information can lead to the court's awarding the tenants 1 to 3 times the value of the deposit by way of compensation.

You can find out if the deposit is protected on the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) web site. You should also be able to apply for arbitration of any deductions proposed by the landlord.

As far as I am aware there is no "standard life span" for a boiler. How long they last depends on how well they are installed, how well they are maintained (not just the annual gas safety certificate check) as well as their being properly used.

I'm a landlord and wouldn't dream of charging tenants for replacing a boiler unless I could prove they had deliberately damaged it.