Deposit dispute with landlord

Suzieb

Hi everyone,

Hoping someone will be able to help. I moved out of my privately rented flat in London at the end of August after living there for 1year with my partner.
During the tenancy the oven and washing machine had to be replaced as they were broken (within 1-2months of being in the flat).
The landlord is now trying to take £150 from our deposit for cleaning the oven and replacing a salad drawer and shelf in the fridge. They claim that as the oven was replaced it should have been professionally cleaned when we left. However the original oven (and in fact the whole flat) was not professionally cleaned when we moved in and our agreement states for it to be left in the same condition it was given to us. We did clean the oven before we left and while it was clean there were a few marks on the door that we could not remove. We were never informed that the expectation was for the oven to be professionally cleaned.
The landlord also claims that the salad drawer and shelf are cracked and that she will need to replace them. There are no photos of this in the checkout report (but it is mentioned) and my partner and I do not recall these being cracked before, during or after our tenancy.
We are trying to sort this out via the letting agent and it is taking such a long time (she keeps ignoring our calls and emails!) the breakdown of costs according the agent are below:

Cleaning of oven: £70- I have looked into this myself and know it can be done cheaper (around £40) but the LA say we do not have the right to request for the work to be done by anyone other than the companies associated with the agent?!
New salad drawer-£48.99
New shelf in fridge-£30.99

Please can someone help with what our rights are with this? We do not feel we should be paying any of the above it this has been going on for months!

Thank you!

Guest101

Suzieb wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Hoping someone will be able to help. I moved out of my privately rented flat in London at the end of August after living there for 1year with my partner.
During the tenancy the oven and washing machine had to be replaced as they were broken (within 1-2months of being in the flat).
The landlord is now trying to take £150 from our deposit for cleaning the oven and replacing a salad drawer and shelf in the fridge. They claim that as the oven was replaced it should have been professionally cleaned when we left. - Incorrect. It should be left clean. But there is no requirement for this to be done by a 'professional'. However the original oven (and in fact the whole flat) was not professionally cleaned when we moved in and our agreement states for it to be left in the same condition it was given to us. - The oven was given to you clean, so it should be returned clean. We did clean the oven before we left and while it was clean there were a few marks on the door that we could not remove. - Fair enough. We were never informed that the expectation was for the oven to be professionally cleaned. - irrelevant.
The landlord also claims that the salad drawer and shelf are cracked and that she will need to replace them. There are no photos of this in the checkout report (but it is mentioned) and my partner and I do not recall these being cracked before, during or after our tenancy. - Well then disagree that you caused this damage. If it was back in August im not sure why it's taken you so long.
We are trying to sort this out via the letting agent and it is taking such a long time (she keeps ignoring our calls and emails!) the breakdown of costs according the agent are below: - STOP, sort it out with the scheme used to protect your deposit.

Cleaning of oven: £70- I have looked into this myself and know it can be done cheaper (around £40) but the LA say we do not have the right to request for the work to be done by anyone other than the companies associated with the agent?! - It's reasonable cost. The LL does not even have to carry out the work, you compensate him for it.
New salad drawer-£48.99 - Was it new when you moved in?
New shelf in fridge-£30.99 - Was it new when you moved in?

Please can someone help with what our rights are with this? We do not feel we should be paying any of the above it this has been going on for months!

Thank you!

Which scheme holds or protects the deposit?

Suzieb

Thank for getting back to me.

We have challenged the salad drawers/shelf in the fridge from the day we received the checkout report but we have not been able to get any further forward with it.
We have also asked to sort this out directly with the deposit scheme but the agent is insistent that we must go through them...?

As far as we are aware the fridge was not new when we moved in.

Thanks.

Guest101

Suzieb wrote: »

Thank for getting back to me.

We have challenged the salad drawers/shelf in the fridge from the day we received the checkout report but we have not been able to get any further forward with it. - Was it brand new when you moved in? If not then a new for old replacement would be betterment, which is not allowed (google 'landlord betterment')
We have also asked to sort this out directly with the deposit scheme but the agent is insistent that we must go through them...? - Has it not crossed your mind as to why the agent would want this? The scheme is impartial and will make a decision based on evidence. The Agent works for the Landlord. Just go through the scheme.

As far as we are aware the fridge was not new when we moved in. - Estimate the age please.

Thanks.

Always use the scheme if there is any dispute whatsoever.

G_M

* Deposits: payment, protection and return

jbainbridge

Guest101 wrote: »

Always use the scheme if there is any dispute whatsoever.

Exactly ... don't dispute it via the LL or agent - do it through the deposit scheme.

Suzieb

Thanks everyone, I'll contact the deposit scheme now. Thank you for your help!

First_Trouble

I had been through this with my last flat, I spent hours leaving that flat absolutely spotless (as I would wish to find it) I even sent the estate agent photos of condition on exiting the property so we had proof of what it looked like when we moved out. They still tried to deduct money from our deposit for oven cleaning. It was definitely clean when we left. As we had no photo inventory I just told them to prove that the oven was in a better state than when we left it. They didn't have a leg to stand on and refunded our full deposit. It's not on the onus of the tenant its the landlord that must prove that you did the damage/let it in a dishevelled state in order to justify the deduction. I would state that to the estate agents and tell them you do not authorise this deduction and you will not be communicating directly with them but will raise a dispute for the deposit scheme to investigate. Wait for the allotted time to pass and then log the dispute with the deposit scheme. They will ask the landlord for evidence to prove the deductions are necessary.

[Deleted User]

Cleaning Oven Door - a quick check online would have led you to a number of solutions to cleaning an oven door. Bicarbonate of Soda is a good one and I've yet to find a stain I couldn't remove with minimal effort with this (even the brown baked on spots come off). Just so you know for another time. But as it was supplied clean (when replaced), it should have been reasonably like that when you left (fact that the original oven wasn't is just a 'I wanna get out of doing this' excuse lol). If you have good photos of the state of the oven and cleaned the rest of it but for the door, you may be able to get away with stating it just needs a partial clean.

Oven pride type stuff is another good way of cleaning an oven with minimal elbow grease. Costs £2.99 - waaaay less than paying someone else to do it.

Again for next time.., if you take photos of everything in the property when you leave (undamaged salad drawers etc) could be an easy dispute.

But if the LL doesn't have photos either, then they can't prove it was you that damaged the salad drawers, even if they take photos today (unless fridge was new when you moved in). Could have been a previous tenant, if they persist in saying there is damage.