Recovering a deposit.

davidmcn

arunadasi said:

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.

Anything in the house which isn't explicitly excluded is going to be deemed to be included. It would be like claiming the bathroom is excluded because it isn't mentioned either. A remote garage is probably different.

AdrianC

arunadasi said:

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?

I'd expect both you and the LA to simply go via the deposit protection scheme.

Grumpy_chap

arunadasi said:

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. 

Whatever you think, if you let a whole flat, you let a whole flat (AST).  It would be extremely unusual for AST to list spaces that are not included.
That means the tenant has rights - in particular, the peaceful enjoyment of the property which does not include the landlord traipsing through every now and then to get stuff from the loft.
It rather sounds as though you were trying to claim the property is with resident landlord, which is absurd if you are living far away.  You are lucky the stuff was not disposed of as junk, especially if not listed on inventory at check in.