UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,
We recently vacated the property after 14 months of renting and yesterday we received an email from the letting agency that they will be seeking to recover the entire deposit of £1482. They have also said that the landlord will be seeking to recompense over and above the Security Deposit from us both directly for all 'out of pocket' expenses.

They are claiming that the property was left in an 'unacceptable' condition, that it was not professionally cleaned and that the laminate floors were left unclean - this is not true, as we had a professional cleaning crew in for an end of tenancy and carpet cleaning the day before we handed over the keys.

The property was rented to us with very heavy curtains hanging off the rails, which resulted in one of the poles falling off completely and 3 others to partially break out of the wall before I replaced them with lighter curtains - we did attempt to attach the rail to the wall but it kept falling out, resulting in a few holes in the wall directly by the bedroom window. We are willing to take responsibility for it, despite it being down to the landlord/agency to arrange a fix. However, they are trying to charge us £1250 for the fix of 5-6 small holes and paintwork throughout the apartment.
Is this something they can charge us for? We lived in the apartment for over a year, so it's a given that there will be some wear and tear to the walls and doors (which they're claiming were scratched and are also trying to charge us directly). Also, is it possible to obtain a 'counter-quote' to present to the DPS, as I find it extremely hard to believe that there aren't any cheaper professionals that would still carry out the work to the highest of standards.

They are saying the toilet flush needs replacing - there was no issue with it at the time of the tenancy.

£72 is being charged for carpet cleaning, which was done during the professional end of tenancy cleaning.

There was a bed left on the property, which we weren't able to remove before returning the keys - we emailed the letting agency to let them know this could be a possibility, but they kept ignoring most of the emails we sent and then acting like they knew nothing about it. Again though, we are willing to cover the cost of removing the bed.

Initially, we were supposed to return the keys on the 14th at some point before the end of the day (the tenancy commenced on the 15th of September 2016), but I have recently changed jobs and now have to travel over an hour each way to work, so we asked to extend this until Thursday 17th (we dropped the keys off on Thursday evening). My understanding is that we should only be charged for the 3 days (15,16 & 17), but they are trying to charge us for 4 whole days??

It is also worth mentioning that during the time of the tenancy, as part of our agreement, we've had two inspections from the letting agency and on both occasions they confirmed they were happy with the state of the apartment (we have emails to confirm).

I would really appreciate some advice on how we can dispute this.

thanks

All of the above issues will go to the tenancy deposit protection scheme and they will appointment a professional to make a judgement on what is 'fair'. They did protect the deposit didn't they?! 
1. If you had it professionally cleaned and had a carpet crew in then I presume you kept the receipts? They will be needed to prove that you did as you said.
2. With regards to the curtain rail creating holes in the wall, why did you just not just put filler in the holes then repaint? It would have avoided this whole situation. Find the emails you sent above the curtains being to heavy for the rail and the responses and present these as evidence.
3. Painting the whole apartment is unnecessary unless  you have stained the walls. Fair wear and tear needs to be taken into account. An appointee by the deposit protection scheme will determine this.
4. If you have created deep scratches/ dents then you will be expected to pay for this.
5. With regard to returning the keys what agreement did you exactly have with the estate agents? Do you have confirmation that they accepted this. Silence/no response does not amount to acceptance.

It's already been said - but this is relatively simple.

If you dispute the deposit deductions, then raise a dispute with the deposit protection scheme when the deduction is requested. That will start off a process you can follow through to conclusion - it will end up with an objective third party making a binding ruling. Even the mention of going via the dispute resolution process can make some Agents / Landlords think twice about how reasonable their original request was.

That said - you cannot hold over like you describe unless you have prior approval. When you do hold over for a few days you would normally be charged an entire month of rent - that's not unheard of. However, you can also be charged double-rent under old, but still entirely valid, legislation - Distress for Rent. Be careful in doing this.

Finally, no, you really can't just leave any old tat behind. If you're willing to cover the cost of removing the bed now then you should be OK, it's a non-issue, surely?