Landlord requesting full deposit

beeg0d

biscan25 said:

Not sure how big your living room is, but I paid c£200 for a moderate quality carpet around 25sqm. +£30 for fitting gave £230 or thereabouts. A deduction around the £200 mark or less might be fair. 
Good luck with the deposit scheme adjudicator!

Where do you live where you can get a 25sm carpet fitted for £30? I would charge £104.75 (my charge is £4.19/sm). The UK's largest domestic flooring company charges £5/sm as a national rate.

Murphybear

There are guidelines for wear and test on carpets.  These are from ARLA (Association of Residential Letting Agents) which are generally seen as the industry standard.

Wear and tear of carpets:

Budget Carpet	2 – 3 years
Medium quality carpet	4 - 8 years
High quality carpet	Up to 15 years

So as you have been there for 3 years and can argue that the carpet was very low quality then you could have a case for getting all your deposit back.  

lookstraightahead

I think the landlord will need to show proof of how much the carpet cost in the first place - can you tell if it's a rubbish budget carpet?

biscan25

beeg0d said:

biscan25 said:

Not sure how big your living room is, but I paid c£200 for a moderate quality carpet around 25sqm. +£30 for fitting gave £230 or thereabouts. A deduction around the £200 mark or less might be fair. 
Good luck with the deposit scheme adjudicator!

Where do you live where you can get a 25sm carpet fitted for £30? I would charge £104.75 (my charge is £4.19/sm). The UK's largest domestic flooring company charges £5/sm as a national rate.

Southeast London. One of those carpet outlet places where you buy the offcuts in a roll. If you buy it there they fit it themselves for £30 a room + "a bit more for stairs". I sourced, laid the underlay myself.

theonelink

Update:

I got £630 of the £750 back... happy days

Martin_the_Unjust

Thanks for the update

Mahsroh

theonelink said:

Update:

I got £630 of the £750 back... happy days

I was reading through the thread without realising it was an old one and was preparing to reply saying it should be a £100 to £150 deduction before I got to this…. Looks like the deposit scheme agreed with me! 

lookstraightahead

theonelink said:

Update:

I got £630 of the £750 back... happy days

Brilliant.

I rented a property where the agent was so obviously trying to make the EA fees back for the landlord out of deposits. It was a long time ago and I wish I hadn't been so wet behind the ears. There was no deposit scheme then.

congratulations x

theonelink

lookstraightahead said:

theonelink said:

Update:

I got £630 of the £750 back... happy days

Brilliant.

I rented a property where the agent was so obviously trying to make the EA fees back for the landlord out of deposits. It was a long time ago and I wish I hadn't been so wet behind the ears. There was no deposit scheme then.

congratulations x

Yes it has taken a long time but I'm glad I did it on principle... here is the adjudicator's response for reference:

REASONS FOR DECISION

After careful review of all the evidence received from the parties the reasons for this decision are given below.

The landlord claims the deposit of £750. They state that this is broken down into £750 for a replacement carpet. They indicate that the carpet was new at move in and had to be replaced at the end of the tenancy due to an iron burn. An invoice is provided to support the claim.

The tenant disputes the claim for the replacement carpet on the basis that the carpet did not need replaced and that the landlord has not taken account of betterment.

A landlord cannot expect to be placed in a better position - at the tenant's expense - at the end of the tenancy than they would
otherwise have been in the absence of the loss or damage concerned.

In the event that a damaged item is so badly spoiled that it needs to be replaced, the landlord still cannot charge the tenant for
the full cost of replacement, this would be betterment. Any award must be worked out on a sliding scale based on the life
expectancy of the item compared with the actual age of the item and taking into account wear and tear.

The tenancy agreement identifies the tenants’ obligations during, and at the conclusion of, the tenancy. Whilst *****
takes account of the general obligations of the tenants as contained in the tenancy agreement, these are dependent on the
landlords presenting objective evidence to support any claim.

In this case an inventory has been provided for the start of the tenancy in *****. This states that the carpet is in
‘good condition, new’. An invoice has not provided to confirm the value or further details of the carpet at this point.
The check-out report states that the carpet is in ‘overall good condition’ with ‘iron mark in front of LHS alcove’. Supporting
photographs are provided.

I accept that an iron mark would fall out with the scope of normal wear and tear and that an award would be appropriate. I am
persuaded that the sum requested appears excessive; as account should be taken of betterment. There is also limited
evidence that under lay and other fittings were damaged and these appear to form part of the cost claimed.

Based on the evidence presented I am satisfied that a contribution of £120.00 would be reasonable for the scale of the damage
noted as the tenant’s responsibility and an award is made accordingly.

Award to landlord £120.00

Murphybear

I am very pleased for you.  

The deposit scheme was one of the government’s better ideas