Tenant Moving Out - Deductions from Deposit

FBaby

Surely a dent is general wear and tear?

Is it? Funny we've had our oven for 10 years now and no dents have appeared. Neither did it on the previous one I had for many years too!

Presumably they didn't do it on purpose

What does this got to do with it? If I open my car door a bit too eagerly and dent your car, will you tell me not to worry about it because I didn't do it on purpose?

G_M

concrete_kid wrote: »

Surely a dent is general wear and tear? Presumably they didn't do it on purpose. If you feel comfortable about squeezing every last pound from tenents that have paid a lot of money for very little effort on your part, then go for. Some people have morals.

A landlord can, of course, always decide to overlook minor (or indeed major) issues.

But legally speaking, this is tosh. (legal term....!)

A dent is not wear & tear, it is damage. Whether it was done accidentally or deliberately does not alter that fact.

It may alter the LL's decision as to whether to charge the tenant, but that is a question of choice, not law.

AnotherJoe

G_M wrote: »

A dent is not wear & tear, it is damage. Whether it was done accidentally or deliberately does not alter that fact.
.

What is "tear" if it's not damage ?

melstar11

Normal wear and tear is minor damage caused through normal day to day use. How do you think such a dent would be caused? It would require some force such as kicking the door, a child riding a bike into it or someone throwing something, hard at it. None of those things would be normal use.

G_M

AnotherJoe wrote: »

What is "tear" if it's not damage ?

a drop of the saline, watery fluid continually secreted by the lacrimal glands between the surface of the eye and the eyelid, serving to moisten and lubricate these parts and keep them clear of foreign particles.

Guest101

gazfocus wrote: »

Two years ago, we started to rent out our first house as we'd been fortunate to buy somewhere bigger. When we did, we spent a lot of money doing the house up, had just had a new conservatory built, etc, so a lot of things in the house were new (or less than 6 months old).

Our first ever tenants are moving out in a couple of weeks and we've got someone lined up to move in but need to decide what to do about the tenants deposit.

We're fair people so want to kee deductions to a minimum but obviously don't want to be out of pocket, so my questions are:

1. 6 months before renting the house out, we had a brand new kitchen fitted. This included a £600 electric oven. The tenants have somehow managed to dent the oven door. I have researched the cost of a replacement door and it would be around £150-£160, however, a cheap (ish) electric oven can be bought brand new for £140 so can I deduct the money for a new oven as the cheaper option (I can then repair the other oven and keep as a spare?) - No you can deduct the value of an undented oven door which is 2.5 years old. - About £40?

2. There was an oak veneer fireplace in the living room that the tenant has painted white. Due to it being veneer, this can never be returned to its original state. Should I deduct anything for this? - Quantify your loss.

3. There is some mould in the conservatory (which was only built 3 months before the tenants moved in) so not so much a question of deposit, but if anyone can suggest a way of removing the mould, that would be appreciated.

Deposit protected?
PI served?