Get bond back

AndyAtu

Hi, I got the results of the exit inspection yesterday and I'm not sure how to respond to lettings agent. Any advice would be appreciated.

I've copied below their comments and my own next to these :

Kitchen: grill pan handle and metal grill missing £15.-- I don't even know what pieces they are referring to. The cooker I've left exactly as we received it when it was replaced a few months ago.

Bathroom - not adequately cleaned, shower curtain missing, lino damaged. £100 -- we've scrubbed that bathroom for a whole day, not sure what more I could'be done to clean it. I do agree I forgot to replace the shower curtain as I never had one in 4 yrs. The lino is indeed damaged but not beyond wear and tear considering it was old when we moved there and we've lived there for all this time.

B1: walls heavily marked, carpet heavily marked, curtains missing. £197. -- there are some markings on a wall. Carpet has no visible damage other than normal wear and tear, it was already old when we moved there. There weRe never curtains in that room, we have useD our own.

B2: walls marked, carpet burnt and marked. £180. -- I agree there is a small burn on the carpet, the size of a match and I've always accepted there was going to be a cost associated to that. But £180 sounds excessive.

Stairs and landing: repaint from red to white -£60 -- again, this is true, I have painted the woodwork red a while ago and they have seen this at the past 3 or 4 inspections and never mentioned anything.

Finally, they gave me the option to contact them myself about doing the work or swallow the cost. I guess it would cost me less to just go over, paint the woodwork back to white, see whatever they found still needing to be cleaned in the bathroom and replace the shower curtain.

But I don't even know what metal grill they'Re on about, the bedroom curtains were always mine and other than the burn mark, everything else is wear and tear.

Please help.

marliepanda

Long post to come which assumes you have an inventory which says everything was hunky dory at the beginning of the tenancy, and that your deposit was placed in a scheme. If not, then the rest is irrelevant and you need to claim your full deposit back.

Wall marks are not wear and tear, neither is the wood being red, neither is burns or marks to a carpet. The carpet being flattened or worn away is wear and tear, not dirt and marks.

The Lino wear is impossible for us to say, I lived in a property for three years with no damage to the Lino.
You also need to replace the shower curtain if there was one when you moved in.
Of course dispute the existence of the curtains and the handle, basing it on the costs given it doesn't look like the landlord is claiming for the cost of new carpet or link, unless the rooms are tiny.

jaylee3

Hi AndyAtu.

Hmmmm, isn't it funny how nothing is ever mentioned on inspections, but a SHED load of stuff is suddenly mentioned and found on the exit inspection?

And no matter HOW hard you try to clean the house, it's never quite clean enough is it, and it always needs a 'deep clean.' :rotfl:

The LL is trying it on the cheeky beggar; many of them do. Fight it, dispute it, pay only what you genuinely have to.

The cheek of it!

AndyAtu

Hi marliepanda,

The deposit is protected under mydepositscheme.co.uk

As I wrote above, I take full responsibility for the burn mark, shower curtain and red painted woodwork. I always expected to have to pay for the burn mark and the shower curtain I forgot about but that's evidently my fault.

But the rest of the carpet is indeed flattened where we had the furniture and worn out where there was no furniture, that's what I call wear and tear. It was already old when we moved in and it's even older now after 4 years. It can't be expected to have people live in a house with carpet for a few years and then leave it in a better state than it was to begin with. The other two rooms that have laminate are in a much better shape and they had no comments about that, because evidently laminate doesn't show s bad as carpet does after a few years or continuous use.

I agree with you about the Lino to a certain extent. I've in houses prior to this with Lino still looking fine even after 10yrs or so. But this was paper thin and old when we moved in so it tore in a couple of places shortly after we moved in so we fixed it ourselves straightaway but have not replaced it.

Rooms are about 3m x 3m.

Hi jaylee3, I know, why not mention I'm not allowed to paint the damned thing red in the first place. Or why did they take over a year to fix the chipped paint that I had mentioned upon moving in that I got so tired of waiting and just painted the damn thing myself!

How do I dispute it is the question though?

tom9980

Was there an inventory done before you moved in and do you have a copy?

AndyAtu

Yes, I have a copy of inventory. No pictures included.

Gas cooker, which I presume is what they mean with metal grill, isn't included as only recently replaced.

HappyMJ

AndyAtu wrote: »

Hi, I got the results of the exit inspection yesterday and I'm not sure how to respond to lettings agent. Any advice would be appreciated.

I've copied below their comments and my own next to these :

Kitchen: grill pan handle and metal grill missing £15.-- I don't even know what pieces they are referring to. The cooker I've left exactly as we received it when it was replaced a few months ago.

Bathroom - not adequately cleaned, shower curtain missing, lino damaged. £100 -- we've scrubbed that bathroom for a whole day, not sure what more I could'be done to clean it. I do agree I forgot to replace the shower curtain as I never had one in 4 yrs. The lino is indeed damaged but not beyond wear and tear considering it was old when we moved there and we've lived there for all this time.

B1: walls heavily marked, carpet heavily marked, curtains missing. £197. -- there are some markings on a wall. Carpet has no visible damage other than normal wear and tear, it was already old when we moved there. There weRe never curtains in that room, we have useD our own.

B2: walls marked, carpet burnt and marked. £180. -- I agree there is a small burn on the carpet, the size of a match and I've always accepted there was going to be a cost associated to that. But £180 sounds excessive.

Stairs and landing: repaint from red to white -£60 -- again, this is true, I have painted the woodwork red a while ago and they have seen this at the past 3 or 4 inspections and never mentioned anything.

Finally, they gave me the option to contact them myself about doing the work or swallow the cost. I guess it would cost me less to just go over, paint the woodwork back to white, see whatever they found still needing to be cleaned in the bathroom and replace the shower curtain.

But I don't even know what metal grill they'Re on about, the bedroom curtains were always mine and other than the burn mark, everything else is wear and tear.

Please help.

Which bits do you agree and disagree with?

The shower curtain would easily have reached the end of it's life during your occupation of the property having possibly been used for years before you moved in and over 4 years of use so replacing it is betterment and the LL isn't entitled to that.

If you paint you are supposed to paint it back to the original colour upon leaving or agree with the LL that a deduction won't happen if it's left in the colour you painted it.

Painting the walls is also betterment. It's expected that after 4 years of a tenancy the walls will need to be repainted anyway unless you caused some quite serious marks to the wall I would dispute that deduction.

Regarding the carpets. How much life was left in them? How cheap were the carpets? The landlord again can't claim for betterment and can only claim for the life left in them. If the carpets are old and were cheap anyway I'd dispute the deduction. Carpets especially the cheap ones that a LL could put down in a property to make the place look really nice when the property is being advertised for let but only last for 5 years would after 4 years almost need replacing anyway.

As you stated in your post almost everything is wear and tear and the LL can't claim deductions for wear and tear.

teddysmum

This will be the grill (ie metal insert)referred to, which most grill pans have.


Our grill pan, when the cooker was new had a detachable handle, as in this photo, but eventually the synthetic part split , meaning the handle could no longer be attached.


http://www.appliancespareswarehouse.co.uk/universal-cooker-grill-pan-cs133.html?gclid=CIjzqv-r4scCFQoYwwodiOgPcA

pinklady21

If your deposit is in a scheme - which you say yours is - and you and the landlord cannot agree on a retention amount, then use the adjudication service offered by the deposit scheme.
That said - you need to have proof and so does the landlord.
Do you have photos of the state of the items when you moved in / photos of the same items now?
Is there a proper inventory?
Did you sign it at the beginning to accept that it was correct?

These are all things the deposit scheme adjudicator will look at.
They have a website, the details are on there.

AndyAtu

The lettings agency asked that I get back to them within 2 working days if I don't agree with their exit inspection. Is this legal? If I respond to them on the 3rd working day do I lose my right to dispute their conclusions?