Landlord claiming for garden damage caused by neighbours

molenpad

My former landlord has placed a claim on my deposit due to damage to the garden fence and gate which have been essentially eaten away by ivy and uprooted by large shrubs. The ivy and shrubs originate in next doors garden, which is also rented and whose tenants don't maintain the garden at all. After a year or so trying we realised that we could not do anything to properly maintain the problem through general gardening, so we spoke to the landlord of the property next door and he promised to send a gardener to look, which never happened. 

We also raised issues with our letting agency about the damaged fence and gate. Thet sent a contractor round to take a look and do a quote, but we never heard back until I next spoke to my landlord directly who only said the quote he got was really expensive. 

There was also a long running issue or rats in the garden which destroyed parts of the fence through digging, and on leaving the property this was still an open case with the letting agency (though it's now marked as resolved!)

I have photos of the garden when we moved in, it was very overgrown. The part of the garden we were able to maintain we did maintain with weeding and pruning, but we ignored the fence issue as we felt there was nothing further we could do.

It is an incredibly difficult cottage type garden to maintain but we feel we did our best.

Roll forward to today and the fence and gate do need replacing. I feel like we are being punished for a situation that is not our fault 

The landlord has provided photos of the garden as it is today but all of them only show the trees and shrubs which are in next doors garden. 

I'm wondering how best to play this with DPS. I want to be as honest as possible and I would always give up any of the deposit where it is fairly due but I feel this claim is very unfair on us. 

anselld

Just put the full story to DPS and they will decide.  On the face of what you have said the Landlord doesn't have any valid claim.

jonnydeppiwish!

How old is the fence?

molenpad

Very old. Decades. 

RAS

molenpad said:

Very old. Decades. 

Ok, the fence would cost £1k to replace? Fence is 20 years old? Current value of fence circa £50, if the DPS are kind. Potential claim £0-10.

molenpad

Fence is minimum 20 years old.

Important as well I think to note is that the fence on the other side, where the neighbours garden is not overgrown is not damaged by vegetation, only by the rats digging, and a section that was replaced circa 10 years ago is in fine condition.

For me the mitigating factors are overgrown trees in a neighbouring garden, lack of action about the gate, which was indicative of the wider problem, lack of action about the rats, and the age of the fence itself. 

TripleH

As said, present all information to the DPS including all details about fence age and include pictures.

Do you have pictures of It when you moved in? If so, include them.

molenpad

TripleH said:

As said, present all information to the DPS including all details about fence age and include pictures.

Do you have pictures of It when you moved in? If so, include them.

Yes I've got pictures of the garden from the day I moved in, I've also got multiple pictures of the garden from various times of the year over the years we were there, each clearly shows the increasing encroachment and eventual envelopment of the fence line by vegetation from next door. 

TripleH

Yes, attached them from when you moved in to show age of fence. Also any emails where you discuss the fence with landlord.