Recovering a deposit.

macman

Why was the property not inspected and inventoried either by yourself or the LA on departure of the old tenants and occupation by the new ones? 
You can't re-let a property on the assumption that the outgoing tenants will leave everything in a spotless condition: were I the new tenant then I would gave expected to receive considerably more compo than £100. You either need to manage the changeovers yourself or pay someone to do it professionally. If it's a full management service that your LA is charging you for, then they are not doing the job and you need to dispense with their services.

Grumpy_chap

If you rented out the property, you rented out the entire property.  Including the loft space.
You should not also store stuff in the loft space.  You had no access to that stuff and you are fortunate that the tenants did not dispose of the stuff.
Depending upon how you wrote the rental agreement, you may have been able to exclude the garage from the rental.  I assume this is garage en-block and not attached to the property?
Really, managing a property from afar is difficult, just take the advice form the full management service form the Letting Agent and accept that.

saajan_12

Re WHAT was let out, without seeing the lease noone here can know definitively whether the attic and garage were included. You CAN let out part of a property, as you would with a HMO, it depends on the contract. If the contract stated 'the property at x address' then the presumption would be that it includes everything on the title, but it doesn't have to - parts can be explicitly contractually excluded. That may have implications on the council tax etc, but those are separate to the tenancy contract. 

Having said that, it is immaterial really. If your ASTs (again check) specified any furniture / items in the Property were included, that would include the bookcase and photo. If items are damaged or need work to get them back to the original condition less fair wear & tear, then losses can be claimed from the deposit. That would be 
* depreciated cost of replacing glass
* lower of cost of re-assembling bookcase and buying screws, v depreciated value of bookcase (you can't just assume it'll be missing screws, you have to check and only charge the cost of the handyman to reassemble it). 

steampowered

Your attitude is pretty appalling:
- You think that you should be able to simply take the whole deposit on your say-so, rather than going through a proper process.
- You let a property without having it cleaned.
- You were using the property your tenants were paying for to store your stuff.
- You don't want to let your tenants have access to the attic which is part of the property they are renting. 

It does not sound like you are cut out to be a landlord. You do realise that you are running a business, and that the property is the tenant's property for the duration of the lease? It is not a place for you to store your old tat !!!!

Might I suggest that you sell the property, and consider a sensible stocks & shares investment instead? 

arunadasi

AdrianC said:

arunadasi said:

I rented out a two-bedroom flat. Inventory was taken, indeed, but there was no mention in the contract that the attic was available for use. There's even some doubt if I could use the attic -- one of the other flat-owners beneath me once said I should not store things up there as the attic was not part of my leasehold.

We can't read your lease from here.
If the attic is not part of the lease, or if you wanted to exclude it from the tenancy, why did you not fit a padlock to the hatch?

Because it is not possible to do so. The attic is pretty high up. You need a special stick with a hook to pull down a hook and open the latch door. Somehow, they acquired a stick to pull it down. If I were renting a space it would not accur to me to do so.

arunadasi

steampowered said:

Your attitude is pretty appalling:
- You think that you should be able to simply take the whole deposit on your say-so, rather than going through a proper process.






- You let a property without having it cleaned.
- You were using the property your tenants were paying for to store your stuff.
- You don't want to let your tenants have access to the attic which is part of the property they are renting. 

It does not sound like you are cut out to be a landlord. You do realise that you are running a business, and that the property is the tenant's property for the duration of the lease? It is not a place for you to store your old tat !!!!

Might I suggest that you sell the property, and consider a sensible stocks & shares investment instead? 

Re taking back the whole deposit: I said explicitly, above, that I made an invoice for the rubbish disposal and the worktop repair. I wanted about HALF the deposit, not the whole. Please read properly before replying!

- You let a property without having it cleaned.

I did have it cleaned. I hired a professional cleaner to do that work. I also told the new tenant to report anything else she would like done, plumbing etc. (taps were loose) The flat was spick and span when she moved in; just that it was done at the very last minute -- due to the fact that I had to find a last-minute service to remove the heaps of rubbish, and to have the counter repaired. It could not be cleaned before that.

You were using the property your tenants were paying for to store your stuff.

That's ridiculous. The attic was not part of the rent. You can say it as much as you want: it was not. Say I had had an extra storeroom IN the flat, which was not mentioned in the contract, while all the other rooms were, and it was not locked, would you also think it was OK for them to go in and out, chuck my stuff in the corner, break some of my stuff, and store their own things?
Apart from the legal aspect, I would NEVER (as a tenant) use rooms which were not explicitly part of a tenancy. 

Might I suggest that you sell the property, and consider a sensible stocks & shares investment instead? 

The flat is not an investment. I lived there for years when my children were small, and it still quite heavily mortgaged. I don't want to sell it in case one of my (now adult) children want to live there one day. They have asked me not to. It's a nice flat in a nice location in a nice seaside town which I love. I love having a foothold there.
I am not some rich landlord trying to dupe my tenants!

arunadasi

Why was the property not inspected and inventoried either by yourself or the LA on departure of the old tenants and occupation by the new ones?

It was. I was in Ireland at the time of the re-letting; I just came back to England for one week after the old tenants left to check things out and make sure things ran smoothly. They didn't. I told the management company that I wanted the flat re-wired during that time, asked them to arrange that. I also asked them to find a cleaning company to do the last clean, etc. 

They mixed up the dates quite badly so that everything was delayed and it all got a but tight. The mess left in the kitchen was appalling. There was a fridge-freezer, a few years old, that was left so filthy I decided to throw it out and buy a new one instead; I deducted the cost of removing the appliance from the removal bill, as it was, after all, my decision. The new tenant had her own fridge so I didn't after all buy a new one.
I offered to have the carpets professionally cleaned, as well, but she said they were fine as they were. I was going to have new lamps put in, as the old tenants had left horribly dated lamps, but the tenant said not to bother. If I'd had more time I'd have had the whole flat painted; but she was in a hurry to move in.
The main problem was that the agent got the date for the re-wiring wrong, so that it started on a Tuesday instead of on a Saturday. Thus everything was delayed.

Do you know how difficult it is to arrange for professional cleaning and rubbish removal at short (24 hour) notice? THAT was what I had to face! I made about 100 phone calls to get it all done in time. Luckily the carpenter who did the counter repair was a handyman I had known for decades and, now retired, was happy to do the job at a moment's notice.

It was an extremely stressful time and I did my best.

 If it's a full management service that your LA is charging you for, then they are not doing the job and you need to dispense with their services.

It's true that they did a bad job; the delay was all their fault. But I'm not going to change now. It's run well till now and I think they just hired some young inexperienced girls who had no idea. I'll keep them for the time being.

arunadasi

Re WHAT was let out, without seeing the lease noone here can know definitively whether the attic and garage were included. 

Neither are mentioned in the contract. The garage is not part of the building; it is on an access road at the back.

Thanks everyone for your comments and perspectives. Much appreciated. Again: I am not a professional (dragon of a) landlady, which is why I leave it to an agent. I do have some experience in letting, however, as my late husband owned a couple of properties to let and managed them himself. But that was in Germany, where the rules are a bit different! Certainly, an attic not explicitly mentioned in a contract would not be considered part of a property there -- Germans are VERY exact! -- which is why I was so confused and wanted the situation explained. Again, thank you.

AdrianC

arunadasi said:
Again: I am not a professional ... landlady

YES, YOU ARE!

You run a residential lettings business. You are a professional.

arunadasi

*You think that you should be able to simply take the whole deposit on your say-so, rather than going through a proper process.*
By the way, what would you call "due process*? The tenant has been approached by the LA at least four times since last March (early March), with an itemised invoice, and asked for their feedback. They have never replied. What would you expect me to do, to meet your exacting criteria? Keep writing them and waiting?