UK Landlord Forum / Life

hi everyone,
i inherited a property from my father, and the tenant who was renting it , she has been in the property about 10yrs .
she decided to move out at the beginning of december , and asked if she could have time to clean and tidy the property before returning the key , to which i agreed .
she returned the key on the 20th dec, on the 21st i went to the property and she had left a considerable amount of her possessions .
which had to removed.she also left a garden shed which was about ready to fall down , this was also full of things...
so from a 270 deposit i stopped her 200 , for nearly 20hrs of work + petrol cost for going to the rubbish tip .
her daughter is now saying that this is too much money to be stopped , and threatening to see a solicitor .
also we took advice from a letting agent that when i received the deposit from my fathers estate , we did not need to secure it ,in one of the deposit accounts . .
any advice would be a great help
thanks in advance

Have you taken photos of the mess? Have you written an inventory of the items left? Did she tell you items left were not wanted? Did you ask her to remove them to save the bill? I would say the shed is something you should accept as a joy of being a landlord but the contents are not. Tell her you will knock off an amount to cover the shed as a good will gesture and just be glad to get her off your back. She could potentially say you have thrown out wanted possessions!!

hi ,
can answer yes to all of your questions jeffo ,
phtos of all items left were taken and sent to her with a breakdown of costs , when she requested one ,
when she returned the key on the 20th she turned up with a van , and only removed a divan bed base and some rubbish bags from the front garden , when asked if she had done in the house she replied "yes".
last week i had a phone call off her , telling me what a nasty person i am for ripping her off , and she hopes that someone does the same to me one day !! ..... dont think i will be hearing from her again .