DPS dispute resolution services – tips for tenants submitting evidence?

Craig1981 · 15 October 2018 at 5:59AM

saver_ali wrote: »

Thanks for the further, very helpful comments. The DPS guidance is very useful, especially the sample adjudications.

Unfortunately we can't get access to the property to get our own quotes as the landlord wont allow it. New tenants are already there.

The landlords' inventories are their own homemade ones. They did a pre checkout inspection with nothing major highlighted, so we're going to contrast that with their final inspection, completed a week after we left, in our absence, which introduced many new serious problems.

We will label and cross reference everything. Thanks for the tip.

Do you think the Adjudicator will read through everything? We've tried to summarise everything in a statement, which is about 15 pages, plus other documents to refer to (photos etc).

IMHO, this will work in your favour. time dated photographs are key to this, and the onus is on them to prove the date and that damage was done by you.
like said above, use a summary page and an index or appendix page, listing where everything is.
in a week anything can happen with viewings, repairmen, gas service engineers etc visiting
make sure you supply both inventories that were given to you, and make a key note on the dates of these.
Have they also done a Condition Schedule? this will be key to claiming damages as well

good luck

saver_ali · 15 October 2018 at 8:46AM

Craig1981 wrote: »

IMHO, this will work in your favour. time dated photographs are key to this, and the onus is on them to prove the date and that damage was done by you.
like said above, use a summary page and an index or appendix page, listing where everything is.
in a week anything can happen with viewings, repairmen, gas service engineers etc visiting
make sure you supply both inventories that were given to you, and make a key note on the dates of these.
Have they also done a Condition Schedule? this will be key to claiming damages as well

good luck

Thanks. That's all very useful. What is a Condition Schedule?

Craig1981 · 16 October 2018 at 5:24AM

basically, they need to state specifically "Cooker, white, Bosch, small rust on rims, good working order, few scratches". they cannot state "White cooker"

Out,_Vile_Jelly · 16 October 2018 at 10:22AM

saver_ali wrote: »

One of my son's friends created her own time-stamped check-in inventory document, using special tenancy management software, with over 130 photos, and descriptions of “damage” present when they moved in. We can use this to prove that many of the claims were pre-existing (e.g. cracked tiles).

Just wanted to flag up that this was very pro-active and sensible, and all students should be advised to make the effort to do so.

saver_ali · 17 October 2018 at 11:08AM

Thanks for all the tips, everyone! Our evidence has now been submitted.

What sort of information do we get back at the end of the process? Do the DPS give any reason for their decisions?

paul_howe · 5 September 2019 at 2:47PM

Hi Saver_Ali; what was the final outcome of this dispute?
We have a very similar case which we are about to go to war with my daughter's ex-landlords about.
Thanks

saver_ali · 5 September 2019 at 3:12PM

paul_howe wrote: »

Hi Saver_Ali; what was the final outcome of this dispute?
We have a very similar case which we are about to go to war with my daughter's ex-landlords about.
Thanks

Hi.

In the end the Adjudicator awarded just over half to the landlords and my son and friends got the rest back.

The landlords and ourselves submitted evidence by the deadline.

The Adjudicator then asked the landlords for additional information because they didn't initially submit a clear and coherent claim (as we had experienced when we tried to deal with it just between ourselves). They then gave us a very short time to respond, but never acknowledged our response.

The landlords claimed there was over £3000 of damage, but in the end they got about £500, and that was only for cleaning and redecorating. We thought that excessive for just cleaning and a bit of repainting in an HMO. However, all the ridiculous claims they put forward for new carpets, appliances, beds, etc were rejected.

We submitted proof that they had put in a potentially fraudulent claim for pest control - they booked a visit from the council and submitted the receipt, but we knew there were no mice and we found out that they cancelled it the next day and got a refund! We would have thought this would illustrate the type of people the landlords were and the whole claim would be thrown out, but although they accepted our evidence, and referred to it in the judgement, they treated it as just one issue. They considered every claim individually on its own merits.

It was a very frustrating experience, but I wouldn't have liked to be the Adjudicator trying to sift through all the evidence.

What is sad is that these landlords will do the same to their future tenants too, who might not have the determination to stand up to them. Your daughter wasn't in Swansea was she?

saver_ali · 5 September 2019 at 3:18PM

Referring to one of the other points further up the thread, we did receive a full report at the end of the process, which I felt was quite well written.

A point to note....although we submitted the bank details for return of the deposit when we put in the initial claim, those details didn't feed through when we went to dispute resolution. The money sat there for some time after the judgement was reached, and we had to contact them again to get it paid.

hb2 · 5 September 2019 at 5:49PM

Thank you for the update, it is always frustrating to read through, or participate, in a thread and then get no idea of the end result!

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DPS dispute resolution services – tips for tenants submitting evidence?

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