UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

Me and my flatmates recently vacated a flat in Glasgow. A week or so after we received an email from the letting agency about the return of our deposit. They are deducting an amount for cleaning which we have accepted. However they are also claiming only 4/5 flat keys were returned - we however are adamant that we returned all 5 keys and the letting agency said nothing when we returned them but have since emailed us around 5 days later to say a key is missing and we're going to be charged £50 for the key and the locks needing to be changed.
As previously said we are adamant we returned all 5 keys and the letting agency didn't say there was a problem until days after the return.

I have now received 3 emails asking for the key return and replied to each one saying we believe we have returned all the keys, they are simply not listening to us or engaging in any form of discussion - where do we go from here?

Thanks for any advice

You can obviously prove that you returned all the keys? With a receipt for all the keys, or a photo or something? Just refer them to that. Problem solved.

Being adamant - sadly - isn't considered valid proof.

How did you hand the keys back? Did one person hand in all five or was it piecemeal as and when people moved out? The more specific you can be, the better. Assuming the Scottish system isn't wildly different from the English in the respect, you may as well just raise it as a dispute with the deposit protection scheme and let their free adjudication service make a ruling. It'll be your word against the agent/landlord but at least they'll have to produce a bill for the new lock.