Another update: they made us wait six weeks, while insisting this was "not a significant amount of time to wait". Of course, ten days is the legal maximum under the new deposit protection scheme. What an extraordinary act of bad faith. Anyway, eventually we got it back, every penny. And we won't deal with that agent ever again.

Update: Stood firm. We're getting the whole lot back.

Also, you haven't signed an inventory. That means that they can't prove the initial state of the property, which, I think, means they can't deduct anything.

Given that we went over by 2 days, we were given a dirty flat, we were prevented from moving in on time, we paid a year's rent, and we returned the flat in better condition than we received it, I guess I'm willing to gamble on a judge being sympathetic. The only thing I don't have a document for is that we were promised a full year's use.

Everything I have is email. However it's stored on gmail and I think that the date indicated by gmail is fairly conclusive and would not be possible to fake other than by a google employee. Given that a post office employee could fake a postmark, I think they should be equivalent. I do have emails from the landlord showing that work was still being done on the 7th, and also mentioning that we would be moving in on the 8th.

Update: It turns out my memory is slightly faulty. We signed the contract which gave the moving in date of the 5th, on July 24th 2006. On July 25th, we were told that we would not be able to move in until the 8th. It was at this point we were told we would get a year's use of the flat. So after the contract was signed, they... what? "Breached" it?

Cool, thanks. It's only photocopying a document so once I mention the DPA they'll probably just do it. But I will of course give them the tenner if necessary!

Right. Well, gmail reports the date that the email was actually sent, so I would have had to fake it on August 4th last year! They're refusing to give us a photocopy of the signed contract (we can't find ours as we've just moved) to compare with ours, they can't do that, right? Data Protection Act and all that?

I have some emails from the landlord which mention that flooring was being done on the 7th and that we were moving in on the 8th. These are held on googlemail so could not really be faked. Any good?

First a brief history. We were all set to move into this flat on 5th August 2006. Two weeks before this date, we were informed that the redecoration and carpeting that was being done was going to take longer, and that we would not be able to move in until the 8th. This was a problem but we managed to sort it out. We went to sign contracts and get keys on the 5th, on condition that we would not move in until the 8th. The guy at the agent assured us that we would get a full year's use of the flat. However, it appears that we signed a year contract from the 5th. We moved in on the 8th. The decorators had been living in the flat and it was disgusting - urine on and around the toilets, old food packets in the kitchen. Also they had splashed white paint all over the wooden floor in the lounge in the mistaken belief that it was to be carpeted. We were forced to clear all of this up. We took pictures. An inventory was never prepared or signed. Deposit was £1938. Fast forward: earlier this year we received a letter from the landlord saying that he would be selling the flat soon, and would it be OK if some people came round to look at it. This was fine, they came round and looked. He didn't give us notice or anything, just letting us know. We decided that we didn't want to go over into a rolling contract, knowing that any day could be the day we get our 2-month notice to quit. So we decided we would move out at the end of the contract (i.e., we would be out by the 7th August this year). We didn't give any notice of this, as we weren't sure we'd find somewhere, and we're not obliged to. This weekend just gone (4th & 5th), we moved out. We will be returning the keys to the agent tonight (6th). We left the flat spick and span, much better condition than we found it. Haven't taken any photos, but could conceivably do so before handing the keys in. The agent has now rung me and said we are liable for another month's rent because we went over the 5th. As far as I am concerned, we have paid a year's rent and had a year's use of the flat. Otherwise we were paying rent while the decorators were in there. She also tried to claim that we should have given notice but that was soon discredited. She is going to withold a month's rent from the deposit for this. And she is insisting that if there is any damage to the property (there isn't, but you know they'll find some) that she will make deductions for that as well. Now, I reckon, in court, no judge is going to make us pay rent for a month when we were actually prevented from moving in until the 8th and were out by the 7th the next year. They will also be unable to prove initial condition of the flat so damage deductions will be proven invalid. I guess what I'm asking is, how confident are you guys that I can get my deposit back? And also, whom would I take to court over this? The agent was managing the property; the landlord is in Dubai. ["We" in this post consists of me and my bride-to-be, just so you know.]

The important thing is that he wants to move out when the tenancy agreement ends. Not before and not after. Does he really have to give notice that he intends to do exactly what the agreement says?

Hi, just a quick one. A friend of mine has 6 weeks to go on his rental contract until it ends. He wants to move out when it expires. He told the agency this and they have told him he needs to give two months' notice - i.e. he has to give two months' notice that he won't be renewing the contract. Is this true? It doesn't make much sense to me - surely if the contract expires, and he is not in the flat any more, then they have no sway over him at all? (edit) - assuming he has paid everything he is supposed to, of course.

The replacement unit was provided by Yamaha to the retailer and then I picked it up from them - so that shouldn't be a problem.

I posted the query on avforums and an engineer from Yamaha asked me to call him. I did so, and the next day I had a replacement unit. So I guess the moral of the story is, go over as many heads as you can!

Is three weeks a reasonable time?