Landlord wants unreasonable deposit deduction

alansharp

Hello,
I would appreciate some advise on my current situation.
We were tenants at a property for 3 and a half years and paid a deposit of £2500.
We asked for an inventory when we moved in and the LL she does want one and she will take of any repairs her self.
On leaving we damaged the carpet by burning it with incense the we lit up using small pieces of odourless charcoal. Also, one of the inner window pane in the kitchen developed a crack but we are uncertain how that happened. There no check out and the LL asked us to hand in the keys once we vacate, which we did.
The LL now wants to deduct £1800 from the deposit.
She wants to replace the carpet due to burn damage for a total of 40sqm as the burns were at two ends of the room and dining room. She says it will cost her £15.99/m.
The carpet is 7 and half years old (based on what the LL claimed in an email to me) and was worn with areas of black sock fluff which could not be cleaned out according to a professional cleaner when we moved in. She claims that the burns maybe due to tobacco or charcoal though neither me nor my wife are smokers.
She wanted £160 for the window pane which I agreed to pay.
She also claim the cloak room had water damage and wanted £180 which I am certain is not true and the condition of the cloakroom was exactly the same as it was when we moved in.
She also wanted £350 for burn in the kitchen vinyl next to the hob which we believe was there when we moved in and £21 for cleaning the windows.
I offered to pay £350 for the carpet, £160 for the window and £21 for the cleaning but in good faith I offered to pay £600 in total.
She was not happy and I offered to go with a dispute resolution via DPS but she claims the The DPS advice is that they will require a county court order to settle this.
Any advise on how I should proceed? If this goes to court should I hire a solicitor or no win no fee agency?
This is causing me a lot of stress and I wanted to sort this out as quickly as possible.

Thank you

wesleyad

So there is no signed inventory from yourself? If not its very hard for the LL to claim anything.

Your offer actually looks too generous. Eg. The normal quoted lifespan for a rental carpet is 10 years, so LL can only claim 25% for that which would be under £200.

I would suggest the LL is telling a pack of lies regarding what the DPS have said. If you both agree to DPS arbitration then that decision is final. There is no court involved unless one of you decides not to use the DPS. The only reason LL do this is to try and bully the tenant. If the LL decides against the DPS and goes to court, the judge will go mad and probably award the entire amount to you.

Have you checked the DPS for your deposit, was it protected in the required time and were you given the prescribed information?

alansharp

Thank you for your quick reply.
There is no inventory what so ever and we did not sign anything.
The deposit is with DPS and I have access to log in.
On my counter claim I selected that agree for DPS to sort out any dispute.
How ever we started our tenancy on 5th October 2015 and on DPS it says that the start date is on the 30th October. Our tenancy ended on the 5th March 2019 but on DPS it says 29/04/2016. The amount is correct. I dont recall recieving any information but I might be wrong but I had to go to DPS at the end of our tenancy to get the log in information.

Socajam

As landlord, I find that she is taking the !!!! from you.
Carpet that is 7 years old, unless it is top quality carpet I doubt will be suitable for the next tenant.
She wants you to furnish the property for the next tenant - do not do this. You have paid more than enough rent her to recoup these costs.
I would fight tooth nail for my deposit and all of it.
My tenant was living in my flat for years, when she left all I asked was for her to pay to clean the garden, because that was her responsibility and it was not done for a long time.
Other than that, she received her full deposit. In fact she lived there for so long that I was able to payoff my mortgage by renting to her through an agent.
I could not see myself asking her or taking money from her deposit for things that very well used.
In fact I have replaced the washing machine and freezer whilst she was living there and carried out repairs when needed.
I felt that as she was paying my mortgage I wanted her to be as comfortable as possible.
Fight for your money - landlords like this give all of us a bad name.

HampshireH

If the DPS information states your tenancy ended in 2016 where is your deposit now?

Did your LL move it out or to another scheme?

alansharp

It is still with them. They are returning part of back to me and holding onto the disputed amount.

saajan_12

alansharp wrote: »

Hello,
I would appreciate some advise on my current situation.
We were tenants at a property for 3 and a half years and paid a deposit of £2500.- protected I hope?
We asked for an inventory when we moved in and the LL she does want one and she will take of any repairs her self. - up to her if she doesn't want to provide an inventory. Its for the LL's benefit, not yours anyway.
On leaving we damaged the carpet by burning it with incense the we lit up using small pieces of odourless charcoal. - oops! did you not lay down protection? Also, one of the inner window pane in the kitchen developed a crack but we are uncertain how that happened. There no check out and the LL asked us to hand in the keys once we vacate, which we did. - there doesn't need to be a formal check out, the LL can take pictures after you vacate.
The LL now wants to deduct £1800 from the deposit.
She wants to replace the carpet due to burn damage for a total of 40sqm as the burns were at two ends of the room and dining room. She says it will cost her £15.99/m. - just because the burns are at the ends, doesn't mean you can replace patches. Previously the LL had old but unbroken carpet, so she is entitled to the proportion of useful life she has lost due to your damage. That is some % x total new carpet materials and labour cost.
The carpet is 7 and half years old (based on what the LL claimed in an email to me) and was worn with areas of black sock fluff which could not be cleaned out according to a professional cleaner when we moved in. - what was the carpet quality at the start? Good quality should last 15 yrs, so at most the LL has lost half the useful life, ie can charge you 50%. As an example, lower quality carpet that should last 10 yrs would have lost the last 2.5 yrs ie 25% useful life, so she can charge for 25% of the materials + labour. She claims that the burns maybe due to tobacco or charcoal though neither me nor my wife are smokers.- the exact cause is irrelevant, stop getting bogged down in this.
She wanted £160 for the window pane which I agreed to pay.
She also claim the cloak room had water damage and wanted £180 which I am certain is not true and the condition of the cloakroom was exactly the same as it was when we moved in. - Ultimately up to her to prove but do you have pictures to shut down her claim?
She also wanted £350 for burn in the kitchen vinyl next to the hob which we believe was there when we moved in - ultimately its upto the LL to prove it wasn't there when you moved in, but even without an inventory they may have other proof. Would be easier to shut down if you have pictures from when you moved in? Next time always take pictures of damage when you move in so you're not blamed later. and £21 for cleaning the windows.
I offered to pay £350 for the carpet, £160 for the window and £21 for the cleaning but in good faith I offered to pay £600 in total.
She was not happy and I offered to go with a dispute resolution via DPS but she claims the The DPS advice is that they will require a county court order to settle this. - probably nonsense or a misunderstanding. If you both go with ADR, they can mediate and come to a binding decision. If one of you refuses, then you may need to get a court judgement to get teh deposit scheme to release the funds either way, but I doubt a court would look kindly on someone refusing the specially designed depsit scheme.
Any advise on how I should proceed? If this goes to court should I hire a solicitor or no win no fee agency?- No. In small claims court you can't claim solicitor costs and no-win-no-fee usuallly comes with high fees if you do win (to cover all those that don't) so you could end up playing a large chunk of (or even more than) your deposit. Plus its simple, you don't need a solicitor.
This is causing me a lot of stress and I wanted to sort this out as quickly as possible.

Thank you

I'd start with trying to negotiate, but since you've done that and can't agree, just gather your evidence and submit a request with the deposit scheme for your full deposit less damages you agree to.