Rental deposit and no inventory

MaryNB

sophsters said:

dimbo61 said:

The Sheriff's officers and bailiffs normally turn up after the court has ruled in the Landlords favour because you have not paid the rent ?
So why did they attend the property ?

That's how they have us notice to leave, via the sheriff's officers

Scotland?
They should have given you notice to end the tenancy long before sheriffs got involved. Did you receive anything at all?

greatcrested

sophsters said:

letsbetfair said:

greatcrested said:

It's for the LL to justify the deduction, not you to justify the deposit return. Without a checkin inventory it is hard (not impossible) for him to prove the condition when you moved in and hence prove you caused any damage.

Yes, the LL can try court, but courts dislike it when one side ignores the scheme system which was set up precisely to avoide these cases going to court.

Having said that if your pets damaged the carpets and you scuffed the walls, that's down to you.

Agreed about the carpets, but if these were from the 70s then (unless they're antiques or something!) they're arguably of little or no value when you take account of depreciation.

The living room carpet was ruined by my elderly dog so we replaced it with laminate that was put down professionally. The hall and stair carpet was old and hideous so we replaced tit too, the LL is stating that these need replacing now which i don't understand as they are not in bad condition. She seems to feel that as it was her mother's house that it should have stayed a it was,  but on moving in we asked if we could redecorate and she agreed a long as it was nothing crazy, which it isn't. 

Did you get the landlord's (written) permission to replace the carpets?

If not, the LL is entitled to insist that at the end of the tenancy there are carpets in place, since there were carpets when you moved in.

You may believe the laminate is better, but the LL may not agree. Especially since " it was her mother's house that it should have stayed a it was..."

As for redecorating "as long as it was nothing crazy" that is meaningless. Who defines 'crazy'? You should have specified what you were going to do and got specific consent.

sophsters

MaryNB said:

sophsters said:

dimbo61 said:

The Sheriff's officers and bailiffs normally turn up after the court has ruled in the Landlords favour because you have not paid the rent ?
So why did they attend the property ?

That's how they have us notice to leave, via the sheriff's officers

Scotland?
They should have given you notice to end the tenancy long before sheriffs got involved. Did you receive anything at all?

No nothing at all. Not even a text. It was quite shocking. 

sophsters

greatcrested said:

sophsters said:

letsbetfair said:

greatcrested said:

It's for the LL to justify the deduction, not you to justify the deposit return. Without a checkin inventory it is hard (not impossible) for him to prove the condition when you moved in and hence prove you caused any damage.

Yes, the LL can try court, but courts dislike it when one side ignores the scheme system which was set up precisely to avoide these cases going to court.

Having said that if your pets damaged the carpets and you scuffed the walls, that's down to you.

Agreed about the carpets, but if these were from the 70s then (unless they're antiques or something!) they're arguably of little or no value when you take account of depreciation.

The living room carpet was ruined by my elderly dog so we replaced it with laminate that was put down professionally. The hall and stair carpet was old and hideous so we replaced tit too, the LL is stating that these need replacing now which i don't understand as they are not in bad condition. She seems to feel that as it was her mother's house that it should have stayed a it was,  but on moving in we asked if we could redecorate and she agreed a long as it was nothing crazy, which it isn't. 

Did you get the landlord's (written) permission to replace the carpets?

If not, the LL is entitled to insist that at the end of the tenancy there are carpets in place, since there were carpets when you moved in.

You may believe the laminate is better, but the LL may not agree. Especially since " it was her mother's house that it should have stayed a it was..."

As for redecorating "as long as it was nothing crazy" that is meaningless. Who defines 'crazy'? You should have specified what you were going to do and got specific consent.

No I'm afraid we didn't. I assumed that if we broke it we replace it and didn't consider that i should put carpet down. I assumed wrong. But when they checked it on Monday they actually thanked me for leaving it in such good condition, then today they've done a complete u turn. 

MaryNB

sophsters said:

MaryNB said:

sophsters said:

dimbo61 said:

The Sheriff's officers and bailiffs normally turn up after the court has ruled in the Landlords favour because you have not paid the rent ?
So why did they attend the property ?

That's how they have us notice to leave, via the sheriff's officers

Scotland?
They should have given you notice to end the tenancy long before sheriffs got involved. Did you receive anything at all?

No nothing at all. Not even a text. It was quite shocking. 

If so it was an illegal eviction which is a criminal offence. I realise since you left that fact doesn't really help. I have no idea what information they gave to the court to get the sheriffs around but either they lied about serving notice or the "sheriffs" were just some thugs in black clothes. Did they give you any documentation on the day?

sophsters

MaryNB said:

sophsters said:

MaryNB said:

sophsters said:

dimbo61 said:

The Sheriff's officers and bailiffs normally turn up after the court has ruled in the Landlords favour because you have not paid the rent ?
So why did they attend the property ?

That's how they have us notice to leave, via the sheriff's officers

Scotland?
They should have given you notice to end the tenancy long before sheriffs got involved. Did you receive anything at all?

No nothing at all. Not even a text. It was quite shocking. 

If so it was an illegal eviction which is a criminal offence. I realise since you left that fact doesn't really help. I have no idea what information they gave to the court to get the sheriffs around but either they lied about serving notice or the "sheriffs" were just some thugs in black clothes. Did they give you any documentation on the day?

It was a 'Notice to leave' landlords notice to a tenant to leave under section 50(1)(a) of the private housing (tenancies)(scotland) act 2016. The sherrifs officer told my partner "you are being evicted, but because of covid you have 6 months so dont worry". turns out because they want to house family we actually only had 3 months.

macman

On what date did this occur in December? Evictions in Scotland were banned between 11/12/20 and 21/1/21.
6 months notice also has to be given under the emergency legislation, up until 31/3/21, except for very limited exceptions, which do not apply in your case.
Please explain more clearly what happened in December: your post at first suggests that you were evicted on that day, but now it appears that you were simply given notice, and moved out in January? What were you actually given by the sheriff's officers in December?
In England, If you were not supplied with an EPC and GSC, then the tenancy is not regularised and any notice given would be void. I suspect that the same applies in Scotland.
This has every indication of being an illegal eviction. 

macman

So, from your last post, you weren't evicted. You were served notice on an unspecified date in December, and left voluntarily on 25/1/21. No eviction order was ever obtained. My understanding is that you are entitled to 6m notice, at what point and how did that turn into 3m? Who told you that?
The ban on evictions in former Tier 3 and 4 areas has been extended to 31/3/21, so it is assumed that this now applies nationally in Scotland?
I do not understand why you left in less than 7 weeks when you thought (mistakenly) that you had 12 weeks?
The deposit issue is minor here compared to the above, but without inventory or photo evidence, your deposit will be returned, possibly minus a nominal amount for the carpet you replaced with laminate. The LL cannot claim betterment, only the residual value of the old carpet, which is probably zero. Laminate worktop damage-not provable that you damaged it. Scuffs are usually fair wear and tear.
NB: if you were not given a valid GSC at the start of the tenancy, that is also a criminal offence.

sophsters

macman said:

So, from your last post, you weren't evicted. You were served notice on an unspecified date in December, and left voluntarily on 25/1/21. No eviction order was ever obtained. My understanding is that you are entitled to 6m notice, at what point and how did that turn into 3m? Who told you that?
The ban on evictions in former Tier 3 and 4 areas has been extended to 31/3/21, so it is assumed that this now applies nationally in Scotland?
I do not understand why you left in less than 7 weeks when you thought (mistakenly) that you had 12 weeks?
The deposit issue is minor here compared to the above, but without inventory or photo evidence, your deposit will be returned, possibly minus a nominal amount for the carpet you replaced with laminate. The LL cannot claim betterment, only the residual value of the old carpet, which is probably zero. Laminate worktop damage-not provable that you damaged it. Scuffs are usually fair wear and tear.
NB: if you were not given a valid GSC at the start of the tenancy, that is also a criminal offence.

Hi, no we were not evicted. We had no word from the LL until we had the sherrifs officers at the door on the 3rd december giving us notice to leave. The notice itself states that we have 3 months due to covid and the eviction ground. A tribunal couldnt be started before march 6th.

[Deleted User]

@sophers you can ignore a lot of the advice you've been given so far because it is based on English housing law and not Scottish housing law.  

You had a Private Rental Tenancy agreement.  One of the grounds for eviction is Ground 5: Family member intends to live in the property and this appears to be the ground your landlord has used.  The notice period for this ground is currently 3 months if the notice was served after 7th April 2020 which appears to be the case.  Once the notice period is up the landlord would have to apply to the FTT for an eviction order.  The notice to leave you received should have looked something like this: notice to leave.  Once your landlord applied to the FTT the FTT should have sent you notification, did you ever receive such notification?


There was a ban on enforcing evictions in Scotland from 11th December 2020 and 25th January 2021 and this has been temporarily extended to the end of March for tenants in Tier 3 and 4 areas.  Did the sheriff officers enforce your eviction between those dates?

As for your deposit, if it is registered with Letting Protection Service Scotland then use its Alternative Dispute Resolution service to dispute your landlords claims which for some 1970's carpets sound bonkers.