Early Surrender of Fixed Term Contract

McTaggus

Guest101 wrote: »

Every page should be signed to be valid. (or atleast initialled)

…which would have required an industrial size stash of pens to be on standby….

One page is signed, the last page, which summarises the standard of property cleanliness (no photographic evidence of the property condition). The other two attached pages, no signature, but no issues with these as they just talk about the fact the property had been recently professionally cleaned to a reasonable standard and a statement that the oil tank is three quarters full (and we have seen and agreed to these pages).

The other 80+ pages, absolutely not signed or initialled (given we have never seen them) so hopefully therefore can be considered invalid as per your comment. It did make me chuckle a little in despair when I noted how they concluded the oil tank was three quarters full - which is noted as having been measured by the landlord for record using a standard dimension garden cane as a dipstick and a measuring tape….. :eek:

MrJB

I wouldn't worry overly about the inventory - you know that the landlord is looking at refurbishing (or was it redeveloping?) the property entirely thus any items of disrepair that you may or may not have caused should be covered by no diminution in the landlords reversion - the basis of any dilapidations claim.

McTaggus

MrJB - yes, indeed that is the case - thank you for your comment, that's most reassuring and indeed not something I was aware of or had even considered.

Dealing with this LL has turned me into a neurotic shadow of my former self…. :P

McTaggus

Letter duly posted to the address within our contract, as per the recommendations from you all - thank you. Unexpected result so far, and one I simply hadn't even considered in my list of possible outcomes, absolutely zero response after two weeks…….. Will leave a little longer, but presume if the LL decides not to respond at all, there's not much we can do?!

McTaggus

Thank you all for your help and apologies for the delay - the move has been chaos! Early surrender agreed and our contract ends next Thursday. We ended up on 2 months rent payment agreed as severance terms.

Really appreciate all of your help!!!! Let's now see what happens on check-out……!

zebulon

McTaggus wrote: »

Early surrender agreed and our contract ends next Thursday. We ended up on 2 months rent payment agreed as severance terms.

Is this not the same as paying rent until the end of your contract in June ??

McTaggus

Our contract ends in July so there were three months rent remaining. The last rent payment would have been due in June for the June - July monthly payment to end of contract term, so we are paying April - May and May - June, but not the June - July payment. Its not ideal, but at least its something!

McTaggus

And so it was, as predicted, that the request to return the deposit has been disputed in full by the darling landlord. Apparently there is a small yellow stain on the living room carpet that it has been decided is "obviously" urine from either one of our dogs or our children (youngest of which is 8)…… As such, the LL has stated they will have to re-carpet the entire downstairs floor of the house, which will be at a cost in excess of our 3K deposit and therefore we shouldn't be expecting anything at all back and should consider ourselves lucky that they aren't suing us for more.

Sigh….

LL shenanigans aside, I just wanted to most sincerely thank everyone on this forum for their help and guidance in response to issues with landlords and deposit deductions. The advice on this thread combined with all of the other posts I have read through mean I feel so much more informed and able to deal with this situation having read through the guidance on what can be reclaimed, betterment and cost apportionment, and using the deposit arbitration schemes. You are all, quite seriously, superstars and I'm so appreciative for the help you have given everyone else who finds themselves in this situation!

tom9980

McTaggus wrote: »

And so it was, as predicted, that the request to return the deposit has been disputed in full by the darling landlord. Apparently there is a small yellow stain on the living room carpet that it has been decided is "obviously" urine from either one of our dogs or our children (youngest of which is 8)…… As such, the LL has stated they will have to re-carpet the entire downstairs floor of the house, which will be at a cost in excess of our 3K deposit and therefore we shouldn't be expecting anything at all back and should consider ourselves lucky that they aren't suing us for more.

Sigh….

LL shenanigans aside, I just wanted to most sincerely thank everyone on this forum for their help and guidance in response to issues with landlords and deposit deductions. The advice on this thread combined with all of the other posts I have read through mean I feel so much more informed and able to deal with this situation having read through the guidance on what can be reclaimed, betterment and cost apportionment, and using the deposit arbitration schemes. You are all, quite seriously, superstars and I'm so appreciative for the help you have given everyone else who finds themselves in this situation!

Don't be scared to come back for any help you require with regards the ludicrous deductions which are clearly betterment.

McTaggus

I was having a look on the ARLA website and a few others, and they do note that in the event of small to medium size stains on light coloured carpets that it would be normal practice to deduct a small cost for stain removal - circa £35 - and that tenants would only be expected to pay any contribution toward the replacement of a carpet in the event of damage or staining that would cause a loss (i.e. a reduction in the rent that could be charged due to the damage). Keen just to understand if that would be a "normal" rule of thumb applied? The faint stain in question is 12cm in diameter (from a pot plant, not urine) and certainly wouldn't be sufficient to be considered damage or loss causing - you have to squint to even see it in the picture against the cream carpet!!!

We have been there almost 4 years, with 2 dogs and 4 kids - don't think we did too badly if the only three issues identified as being "tenant liability" are one small round yellow stain on the living area floor, an indent to the wooden frame on one door, and forgetting to sweep out the garage when we left. Very hopeful that there's no way the LL could argue those three items would incur a deposit deduction of over 3K……….

That would be a very painful hit to have to take, especially as we have already paid the LL 6K to surrender the contract early…… I personally had no issues with the early surrender payment (from a due obligation standpoint), but this now feels just unnecessarily vindictive because they now realise threatening to put the rent up led to us leaving and them being substantially out of pocket in rental income……….