Question about damage by tenant

Mela322

Lazarus_Blackstar wrote: »

Have you mentioned to LL you are considering moving out in another year or so? Could this be why she is now being arsey with you & making demands?
She sounds extremely petty.
You however sound model tenants just like we were.
We rented a house for 13 years before we managed to get on the property ladder. LL was fine when we first moved in, but hardly did anything over the years we were there. In fact I can count on one hand how much they actually did when things needed doing.
We were told the same as you though, to treat the house as our own & do anything we wanted, within reason. We totally changed that house & when we left it was much more modern than when we first moved there. All out of our own pocket. We realise now that that was dead money & she will have benefitted from us doing improvements.
She was a pleasant LL most of the time and we were model tenants who looked after the property with care. Just like yourselves.
However, when we gave her notice, as we had completed on the house we were buying, she changed her tune & became very nasty towards us demanding we do this, this & this. She denied many many things we'd asked even though we'd had permission from her.
She was downright rude & my assumption was, that she was cheesed off she was loosing us & her regular tidy little income.
Well it actually backfired on her in the end as the property has seen 2 tenants live there for a matter of weeks before doing a bunk & the rest of the time it's been vacant for the last few years despite her advertising it!!!
Karma is a wonderful thing.

No, we have never mentioned moving. We only want to try and stay for a year at a max to get things done. We don't want to be rushed with moving. So going to take our time and downsize a room at a time so we are ready to go at the right time. We may move sooner but will see how things go.

elsien

Mela322 wrote: »

We have really taken pride in looking after the house and have only improved it. We have only neglected the back garden the past few years due to medical reasons. LL was completely heartless about that one. We are tackling that now and have an upcoming inspection and if not to their liking, we will be charged an admin fee and costs of work carried out to get it the way they want. It really just needs weeding and the grass needs some weed and feed. The grass has always been cut but we do have children and they do leave their toys out. I have always maintained the front garden though.

Really? What is it they are expecting you to have done?

Mela322

scottishblondie wrote: »

From the DPS website:

"Deposits taken before 6 April 2007, for tenancies which have subsequently moved onto a periodic tenancy on or after this date, now need to be protected in a Tenancy Deposit Protection scheme if the tenancy is still running. If a deposit remains unprotected, the landlord could potentially face a fine."

So even though your tenancy began (just!!) before the legislation was introduced, because you tenancy has moved onto a periodic basis since then your deposit should have been protected. However, it is entirely possible that the LL has not realised this. If it is not protected then you have the upper hand as without it being in a scheme the LL has left themselves open to a host of issues and penalties. If your deposit is protected, then the scheme will not allow the LL to keep the full deposit based on what you've told us.

You can check with the 3 agencies yourself to see if they are holding your deposit.

I checked all 3 and not found but the info says it may still be protected elsewhere. Thank you for that info though, super helpful.

Mela322

elsien wrote: »

Really? What is it they are expecting you to have done?

She is saying we need to maintain the house and gardens and if we don't, she will get somebody in to do it and charge us for the work and an admin fee.

Mela322

We have the fire brigade coming for a talk about safety. Been told that we have too much plugged in and too many cables going across the floor. We only had 2 across the floor in our bedroom because of their location but we took them across at the shortest distance. They don't get walked on but is this against recommendation? We have already removed them to make things easier but in the 10 years we have been here, we have never flipped a breaker! We are very careful about what we do because we have 3 children. I'm a fire safety freak!