Not got full deposit back

jackbarber

Hi,
Hope this is the right place to post this. I need advice on what to do about the rental company not giving our full deposit back.
I've just graduated and received my final deposit back from our house and found out we've been £177 short changed from £800. After contacting them regarding this, they showed us why they spent the money and they just sent an attachment which just had a receipt from an external cleaning company. It gave a list of things done to the house such as 'hovering, lightly cleaning and polishing'
I've disputed this to the company as me and the 3 other housemates came back at the end of the tenancy agreement to make sure the house was spotless before we left. We cleaned absolutely everything spotlessly and there was no need to pay for someone to clean the house.
I sent them this email, explaining the exactly what I just described -

"Hi,
I was a previous Tennant of 11 oxford street and moved out at the end of my contract, at the end of June.
I've just received the invoice for the cleaning of the house and found out that you've charged us £177 of out of our overall deposit of £800.
I'd like to dispute that as I find it very hard to justify hiring out an external company to 'lightly clean and polish' as me and the other housemates purposely stayed back to clean the house for a week, and left it in a spotless condition.
Please could you tell us why you decided to hire out an external company for a house that was left in the same condition as when we moved in.
Many thanks, Jack"

They're refusing to reply to any emails. My question is, do I have any right to email this company and threaten them with small claims court, or is this a lost cause>?

Carrot007

jackbarber wrote: »

such as 'hovering'

I can't imaging hovering a house is cheap ;-)

Sorry nothing much to add! Was all less regulated in my day and I just failed to pay the final months rent and left them the deposit ;-)

Though don't just think it was one sided. They did not used to provide secure accomodation and I got robbed multiple times due to easily fixed failings.

agrinnall

jackbarber wrote: »

They're refusing to reply to any emails. My question is, do I have any right to email this company and threaten them with small claims court, or is this a lost cause>?

You have a right to write to them (search for "Letter Before Action"), but you must put pen to paper, forget about emails. Whether you have any chance of success I wouldn't like to say - you might be better to post on the Housing board is this is more relevant there.

Voyager2002

The law is quite strongly on your side in this situation, but you do need to know what you are doing. Check the Housing section of this forum, or telephone Shelter for advice.

Lokolo

How was the deposit held? You should have disputed this within the scheme.

Chippy

Im a student Landlord and the law now protects against this happening.

Have a read of this...https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection/overview

The landlord/rental company, by law, must have secured your deposit and :-
Once your landlord has received your deposit, they have 30 days to tell you:

the address of the rented property
how much deposit you’ve paid
how the deposit is protected
the name and contact details of the tenancy deposit protection (TDP) scheme and its dispute resolution service
their (or the letting agency’s) name and contact details
the name and contact details of any third party that’s paid the deposit
why they would keep some or all of the deposit
how to apply to get the deposit back
what to do if you can’t get hold of the landlord at the end of the tenancy
what to do if there’s a dispute over the deposit

If they didn't do this then they could be in serious trouble. Assuming they did then you will have the information you need to dispute the charges.

hope this helps.