Tenancy Deposit Dispute

Dondons

Hi all,

I am in a bit of a pickle with getting the remaining balance of my tenancy deposit back from a tenancy that ended at the beginning of March 2017. It is quite a convoluted story, however I will attempt to give a shortened version here.

• My tenancy (of 10 years) ended on 2nd March as the landlords had decided to sell the house. I moved out on 2nd, however I had to replace the carpet in the back bedroom.. I agreed with the LL directly via email that I could keep the keys to come back for this.

• I arranged the carpet fitting appointment and advised both the LL and agent of the date and time. I attended the property to find new tenants residing in the house - I was not informed that they were there. I had to send the carpet fitters away and hand this over to the LL and agent to rearrange. (the agent tried to charge me a fee to attend the second appointment!) I formally asked for the return of my deposit at this point via email on 19th April.

• I chased many times between 25 April and 10th July, many times during this period I was advised that the process was already underway.

• I eventually received an email on 10th July within which the agent sent me a list of charges to be deducted from my deposit:
Check out and inventory £144 inc vat (he broke this down after I asked as: 2 hours @ £60 per hour including travel and VAT.)
Key cutting £15
Sub-total £159

• While the tenancy agreement does say that I am liable to pay the cost of an inventory check out, it does not specify an amount, nor was an amount discussed or agreed, or a breakdown of any such fees provided to me. I feel it is not reasonable to charge such an amount especially in light of the fact that I have been waiting on, and chasing, the return of my deposit for nearly 3 months. The agent agreed to remove the key cutting cost

• I suggested I would be willing to pay £60 + VAT but he would not accept that. Therefore we agreed via email that we would use the DPS ADR service to resolve the dispute. DPS paid out the undisputed amounts.

• It has taken between July and and Mid -september, including a chase from me and two from DPS, for the Agent to go online to respond to my agreeing to use the ADR process. At which point he logged on and DID NOT give consent to use ADR! Even though we had agreed this via email.

• The only options now are to either agree a resolution with the agent directly or court. As I struggle to get a response from the agent whenever I try to contact him, I sent a letter before action last week. I received a response within two working days. The agent was questioning my decision to take this to court and suggested mediation as a more appropriate route. While I would have been happy to do this…. I couldn’t see a way to make this happen as, like I said, he didn’t respond to any of my attempts at communication. It would seem that now I have threatened court action, they are eager to resolve this another way – although why they didn’t just agree to the ADR service I don’t know.

So this is the situation I now find myself in and I’m wondering where I should go next. I am inclined to write back suggesting we go back to DPS to use the ADR service as that is clearly the easiest route… or agree to mediation – although does this have a cost attached?

Thanks in advance!

Comms69

Oh for goodness sake, you've issued the letter giving him time to pay.


They still haven't, so issue court papers.

theartfullodger

When going to court ensure you get court's authority for DPS to payout to you. No op

Marvel1

Had their chance, claims court.

aneary

I don't think you will win. £144 is pretty standard and you agreed to a check out cost.

saajan_12

I would reply or make clear in your court claim that you first claimed via the free mediation through DPS ADR and they refused.

That way you can show you have tried to mitigate your costs but they refused the free way, so now you should get court costs paid as the LL/LA has left you with no other choice.

Comms69

aneary wrote: »

I don't think you will win. £144 is pretty standard and you agreed to a check out cost.

Probably a good thing you aren't a judge then.


The standard could be £10,000, but the law requires agents to publicise all their fees.....

aneary

Do we know that the agency haven't publicised their fees?

Comms69

aneary wrote: »

Do we know that the agency haven't publicised their fees?

From the OP:


While the tenancy agreement does say that I am liable to pay the cost of an inventory check out, it does not specify an amount, nor was an amount discussed or agreed, or a breakdown of any such fees provided to me.




- I'd suggest the term would also be deemed unfair, as the OP was not able to make an informed choice.

aneary

Comms69 wrote: »

From the OP:


While the tenancy agreement does say that I am liable to pay the cost of an inventory check out, it does not specify an amount, nor was an amount discussed or agreed, or a breakdown of any such fees provided to me.

Fees go up, the original tenancy was 10 years ago.
My old tenancy agreement agreement stated I was liable for the inventory check out but didn't state the fee, the fee is on the website and I was verbally told the fee at the start of the tenancy.


- I'd suggest the term would also be deemed unfair, as the OP was not able to make an informed choice.

For all we know the op was given the costs 10 years ago but told they would increase every year.

Dondons

Hi All, thanks for your responses.

In regards to the costs - I have never been provided with these, and I did check the agent's website at the end of the tenancy and these fees do not appear anywhere. The only costs listed were those that the landlord was liable for - which was a £40 check out fee at the end of the tenancy.

D.