UK Landlord Forum / Life

Its a right mess, first time we have rented out a property. I investigated tenancy agreements nowhere did it mention tenancy deposit scheme, so we did not protect, so day after they left threatened us with getting 3 to 5 times back. This is at least  their 4th rental property so they must have known. They started asking  for it back on day after they left.  They have damaged lots of things, hole in dining room wall, puppy chewed skirting boards in porch, door handles on kitchen cupboards, cupboard dividers chewed. Rain strip off double glazed back door, light unit in kitchen ceiling broke, drainer in sink broken, vinyl floor in bathroom only 10months replaced by £1 poundland  tiles not fitted properly, bathroom seat changed , TV bracket left on wall ( which we allowed but said they needed to make good on leaving ( said we are leaving for next tenant, now asking for it)£30 for garden furniture. Biggest thing is our pond looks like a building site, got txts saying they were doing it
asked me to meet them there to give keys back had taken most of the bulbs out, so difficult, said my husband would check in morning. Gave them extra £150 before inspection as they chose to move early . Their deposit is £585, gave them £300 , PLUS THE £150 already had and they owe us £30  = £480  so we have witheld £105 a mere snip when you look at damage, but they are threatening all sorts. What can we do.?

If you did not register the deposit, pay them what they want, move on, learn your lesson.


Sorry, it's the only way, however wrong it is.......

Thanks for your reply I appreciate it, but they don,t want just their deposit , they think they are entitled to 5  x , for not putting in scheme. and for us not letting them do jobs ( which we gave them 10 days to do). Pond repair quote £380 , also now saying they need carpet from small bedroom back and TV bracket, we had to make wall good.   Bracket here, old bedroom carpet left in garage for a year.

As Boboff said,

Give them back their deposit, tv bracket and carpet.

Keep detailed records including receipts and photographs of damage and repairs carried out.

Let them take it to court if they please, they won't get far as you have given them the deposit back.

Next time;
- keep a detailed inventory
- don't let the tenant replace/repair anything at their expense
- always carry out work yourself or by your chosen tradesman
- protect the deposit
- register on the varipus landlord sites where they send you weekly newsletters by email so you don't miss any further changes to the legal requirements

I have found that protecting the deposit is a widely discussed aspect of renting and it has been in place since 2007....

Additonally... I'd be tempted to get rid of the pond.

I find anything that requires any additonal maintenance/attention than using a hoover once a month is far too much for most tenants to cope with.

Low maintenance property = less maintenance issues

Agreed.

You have to give them back 100% of their deposit, plus any rent paid and not "used" If you did not secure the deposit, it's like it doesn't exist, and you must give it ALL back. You then have to suffer the costs of the repairs.

You must do this as a minimum, if they do take you to court you could pay more, but it's unlikely, and unlikely they will.

Again, sorry, it's not nice!

Quotethey think they are entitled to 5  x , for not putting in scheme. and for us not letting them do jobs

Lots of tenants think this or claim to think it.

First of all it's three times not five.
If you don't correctly follow the procedure for protecting a deposit, you are breaking the law.
Which isn't a good position to be in - however there's not a big prosecution risk (although I am not able to offer legal advice!)

The risk comes if the tenant sues you for three times the deposit.
They'd have to get to court, both of you turn up and the court award you the maximum that they can for that to happen.

If you return the deposit and everything else (as pretty much everyone has advised), the court probably wouldn't do that,
because there hasn't actually been any real damage (although they might charge you costs).
A court would normally try and achieve a compromise before a court case.

But courts are odd places, and tend to favour poor exploited tenants over grasping evil landlords.

Take the hit, let them go (and hope you never hear from them again), and do it right next time.
And, like the man said, fill in the pond - it's a huge safety risk and you have to do a vast amount to mitigate any risk.
It might be "health and safety gone mad" but you are better off without the water filled death trap...

Can I clarify... penalty for not protecting deposit properly (including serving Prescribed Information within timeframe) is 1x to 3x the deposit.

It's not 5x (as jpkeates has also said).

You have obviously not protected the deposit correctly, therefore the simple fact is that you are at fault and you might feel as though you are under the fist of the Tenant.

Just to be very clear... the original deposit you took must be returned, the Tenants can sue you for 1x to 3x the deposit... and they will likely win, because - as we've said - you didn't protect the deposit, however, there is discretion from the Court and it would most likely be at the lower end of the scale - because you are not a professional fraudster - you have just been naïve. There is a cost for the Tenants to bring a case here, too, I doubt no-win-no-fee would be very interested.

If you have a line of communication open with the Tenant - you may want to clarify a few of their misconceptions - the 1x to 3x certainly. If they're claiming it's 3x to 5x then they're either trying to scare you, or they don't know the law themselves. You may then wish to ignore their threats and see if they take it further - or you may wish to reach an accommodation with them, making sure you get a formal written agreement that the matter is considered completely closed - only you will know which is the best approach to take (based on what the risk is of them following-through on suing - if they are financially capable, for example).

BTW... I found it difficult to keep track of all the events and numbers in your original post, so I just wanted to lay out the situation at a high level.