Help With End of Tenancy

Tommy8

* UPDATE *

Hello Everyone, 

Just looking for further advice as my landlord / letting agent have seriously just made a disgusting move. 

To summarize recent activity:

• After a few emails back and fourth we could not agree on a settlement figure so its gone to TDS. 
• Before I raised the dispute on the TDS website, in the last bits of correspondence my landlord was claiming for the following:
• A small amount of damage done to the landing carpet by my cats (which i accepted within reason that he wasn't going to charge me to replace all the carpet). 
• He claims fleas were left in the house. 
• The bush outside needed cutting. 

I have strong evidence to argue these claims. 

I have just received the email from TDS saying the claim / evidence has been submitted by him and now its my turn. 

However,

According to the dispute from TDS, he is now not claiming for garden maintenance, damage to the carpet or fleas in the house. Hes claiming for "Compensation towards costs and the inconvenience and loss of rent due to property not being left in an acceptable condition". 

Basically i reckon hes realized that i held all the cards regarding the initial things hes tried taking my money for so hes decided to throw a spanner in the works and put a claim for something he reckons i haven't got much evidence for. 

What do i do regarding my defending claim? Shall i point out hes made a U-Turn which is weird and on top of that still submit the evidence i was going to?

Further more does anyone know if TDS will accept a PDF document stating my counter claims and evidence? I want to be professional. 

Regards

Tom

pinkshoes

Just respond to the points on the claim.

"I agree the cats slightly damaged a small section of the carpet. As the carpet was X years old, and the landlord cannot claim betterment, then I'm happy to pay XX% of the cost of a replacement for this small section.
The damage was very slight and would not have needed replacement so would not have prevented any tenants moving in."

The cats did not have fleas and there were no fleas in the house. 

The garden was in an overgrown condition when we moved in, as noted on the inventory. We left it in a much better condition."

Tommy8

Yeah i agree, im going to continue to counter-claim regarding the original points from the landlord along with my evidence. 

Is it worth highlighting in my counter-claim that the Landlords last minute "U-Turn" is odd and puts into question his intent / validity of claim?

propertyrental

No. Ignore those matters for which he is not making a formal claim via TDS. If he is not claiming for cat damage or fleas, there is no need for you to respond to those matters:

1) The LL has not provided evidence supporting his claim for £X "due to property not being left in an acceptable condition". The property was left in acceptable condition, as evidenced by (the check-out report? my attached photos?). The LL has not specified in what respect the condition was unacceptable.

2) If (and this is contested) the the condition of the property was unacceptable, I dispute the LL's right to claim
a) costs, since these have not been identified, broken down, or justified with evidence
b) for 'inconvenience' which is neither quantifiable nor a claimable cost
c) loss of rent, since he has provided no proof of such a loss. There is no evidence offered by the LL that, but for the contested condition of the property, he would have received additional rental income.

Out of interest, what is the basis of your counter-claim? I was not aware that the deposit arbitration process could be used by Ts to make claims against the LL (other than, of course, for the return of their deposit).

Murphybear

TripleH said:

When we moved out of our last rental, the check out report claimed our cats chewed the kitchen units. Even our maine coon would struggle to get her jaws round the section chewed by the previous occupiers  (landlord's son) dog.

The checkout report made multiple references to a check-in report. The problem was that we never received the check-in report when we moved in and that killed the claim for deductions.

Anyone can 'submit' an invoice for cleaning, just go on the HMRC website to see what information you need to include for it to be valid.

That made me smile, the thought of cats chewing kitchen units.  

One of our cats was a great big hairy beast who had a few teeth missing when we got him from Cats Protection.  Maybe he had chewed units.  

TripleH

Stick to facts, and what you can evidence in the dispute. The landlord will have to provide evidence of his claim which will be harder than he thinks (should have stuck to his original arguement).

Don't agree to pay anything but if you accept damage caused state 'cats clawed at a 3 x 2 m segment of carpet that estimate is 14 years old. Make reference to signing in checklist for comparison (or if its missing a lack of one).

@murphybear, I was incensed, the most damage any of them had caused was a few scratches to a front door playing chase the laser dot. Only the Maine Coon could have reached to chew some sections and she's far too clumsy.

 If it had been me they accused of chewing the units I could have accepted that.

Tommy8

Hi All, 

Cats do get a bad rep from landlords dont they. 

I have seen the landlords / letting agents "hand":

- They have reverted back to claiming that the cats peed in the corner and compounded the damage done by the leak in the bathroom. They have attached pictures of the water damaged floorboard and contractor quotes. 
- They claim we knew about the leak for a while and decided to not to report it. Further more they claim we purposely walked around the spongey floorboard. 
- They claim there was an infestation of fleas. They have attached a picture of the landlords ankle with a rash. 
- They claim we were negligent in not reporting the issue with the front door and the gas boiler. In the email evidence attached the landlord responds to the letting agent stating he has checked the boiler and its fine. 
- They have attached photos of the house post professional clean highlighting dirt. Their attached evidence shows the letting agent letting him know that sometimes the professional cleaners miss things. 
- They are claiming for the carpet damage done by the cats. They have attached a photo but the landlord has pulled the carpet out from under the carpet grip to make it look worse. 
- They are claiming for hedge cutting. 
- And last but not least claiming for "inconvenience". 

The emails they have attached aren't actual emails. They have just copy and pasted the email text into a word file. 

Honestly, who am i dealing with? 

Does anyone know if i can just write a complete PDF report, simply and systematically going through each claim and counter-claiming it?

Can i also reference the landlords / letting agents uploaded evidence in my reply?

They have also attached a check out report. Should i have been sent this? I never did and there is a blank space at the bottom where my signature should be?

Regards

Tom

propertyrental

??? I thought you said earlier

Tommy8 said:

* UPDATE *

Hello Everyone, 

.....

According to the dispute from TDS, he is now not claiming for garden maintenance, damage to the carpet or fleas in the house. Hes claiming for "Compensation towards costs and the inconvenience and loss of rent due to property not being left in an acceptable condition". 

....

so what is the claim?

Tommy8

propertyrental said:

??? I thought you said earlier

Tommy8 said:

* UPDATE *

Hello Everyone, 

.....

According to the dispute from TDS, he is now not claiming for garden maintenance, damage to the carpet or fleas in the house. Hes claiming for "Compensation towards costs and the inconvenience and loss of rent due to property not being left in an acceptable condition". 

....

so what is the claim?

The email i received from the TDS showed a simple breakdown of what the landlord is claiming for, based upon how the landlord filled out the website form. I have copy and pasted what it showed, at the bottom of this reply. 

This is what i went on when i initially posted my update.

Since then i have logged in and found the area of the website which shows his detailed claim along with his attached evidence. 

He has misleadingly filled out the website form to show it as one claim under the "other" category when he should have broken it down into cleaning, damage and gardening. 

He is claiming for:
- Damage to floorboard due to a number of reasons; leak in bathroom, cat urine, me ignoring the problem and allowing it to worsen. (the only true reason is the leak in the bathroom).
- Fumigation of the bedroom. 
- Hedge cutting. 
- Damage to the landing carpet due to cats scratching. 
- Inconvenience. 

Cleaning:	£0.00
Damage:	£0.00
Redecoration:	£0.00
Gardening:	£0.00
Rent arrears:	£0.00
Other - Compensation towards costs and the inconvenience and loss of rent due to property not being left in an acceptable condition:	£250.00