Landlady blaming us for mould...

fierystormcloud

DanceOrDino wrote: »

We attempted to deal with it during the tenancy, but our middle man - the Estate Agents weren't interested. I've not bought up anything I don't need to, I'm just saying we've got plenty in our artillery if she decides to be nasty about it. We've provided her with evidence of the mould from day one, as well as copies of complaints etc etc. So we'll sort it with the deposit scheme if her answer isn't what we want.

No, the estate agent wouldn't want to know. All estate agents/property agents are interested in is the £££ they can make from you in admin fees and setting up the tenancy fees. They don't give a stuff if you get your deposit back. And as Pixie said above ^ they work for the landlord, not you.

If you can't prove the mould and suchlike was already there, you may struggle to get your deposit back.

And whilst there are some good landlords who will do their best to help you, and will be honest and decent, there are some who are either dodgy, or who are reluctant landlords, and will try and retain the deposit of every tenant they have, even if the tenants leave the property in a good condition.

I would fight it to the death and not let this landlord get away with taking your deposit. Dispute it.

TBagpuss

claim your deposit from the scheme it is with. If she tries to dispute the return of the deposit then provide the photos of the mold when you moved in and when you moved out, and copies of the various letters /. emails raising the issue of damp and mold as cobncers duringthe tenancy.
If she raises the hoover issue include a letter from your neighbor confirming the arangments with the hoover (if she is saying that she wants that moved, then move it, and leave it on the upstiars landing outside your neighbour's flat, if he isn't in to give it to)

DanceOrDino

We've already moved the 'rubbish'. We've given the hoover directly to the neighbour - it was waiting outside his door with his name on when she decided to bring it back down the stairs to her flat... She also asked to remove 'the wood we left', which is actually spare shelves belonging to her built in shelving unit that she left behind... She's a funny one.

I can definitely prove the mould and damp was pre existing. We've taken photos of everything before and after our tenancy.

When I said 'middle-man', I merely meant the person we communicate through. We have no direct contact with the landlady ourselves. I know they only want our money, but our contract is drawn up with them not the landlady. They did an end of tenancy inspection to let us know what needed to be done prior to handing the keys back and again, mould wasn't even mentioned due to the fact it was there to begin with.

I feel fairly confident she will either understand our point of view (hoping she just likes to show she's in charge as she has done previously), OR the deposit protection people will be in our favour should it come to that.

I guess by posting here I just wanted some reassurance that we didn't need to worry!

DanceOrDino

Pixie5740, we realise that the other complaints we had won't be work in reference to having our deposit returned. But we have other complaints we can make against her as a landlady should she choose to be difficult. It's more about using them against her directly through the letting agent, than against her with the deposit protection people.

We've not brought up anything other than the issue she's raised, I'm only saying I'm quite happy to remind her of the other things that were never fixed during our tenancy which she had a right to sort for us if it helps her change her mind so we don't need to take it any further. I hope that makes sense?

Pixie5740

Nope, it still doesn't make sense. You can't do anything now about those things you think you have up your sleeve so it's pointless to try bringing them up in relation to getting your deposit back. They won't change anything.

always_sunny

If you have already left the premise there's no more cleaning you can do.
Assuming you have a condition report at the beginning of the tenancy detailing such problem it should be fine if you have left the property in the same condition. If you signed in the beginning of the tenancy saying it wall dandy then it's up to you really.

Anything else that is not reasonable tear and wear is going to be a problem whether or not you think it's insignificant.

Mould in the UK is very common and there're very little excuses not clean it up at the end of the tenancy. Unless you lived in a cathedral, reaching the ceiling is a fairly easy task to do, just using commercial spray would prevent reoccurring mould to resurface.