11 days after I move Landlord emails to say withholding deposit

[Allsetuk]

hi everyone, sadly I am seeing quite a few of these type emails on here. very grateful for anyones advice.

 

moved into a house march 2008, for a 6 month AST, my £700 deposit was put in the TDS scheme by landlord. signed a 1 year extension september 2008 extension again in september 2009 but requested a clause as my autistic son was very uncomfortable in the house, landlords accepted and said 2 months notice would be fine if situation got worse. Found new place to live January 2010, gave 2 months notice and everything was friendly - ish. I gave them a brand new fridge for kitchen as a goodwill gesture.

 

Moved out 31st march , did full lengthy check out inspection with the landlords present, went through inventory all together and discussed any wear and tear issues - they signed and dated my copy of the agreement to say all was order. said they would release my deposit through the TDS scheme after 10 days when they would check with utilty company to see if all utilities were paid off. So after a few days I went online to TDS and emailed them to ask what to do, they said put in a request for full amount.

 

Tonight I check my email and find I have an email from the landlords direct to me not via the TDS Scheme saying they wish to withhold 300 from my deposit. They say on closer inspection, the house had clearly not been cleaned as they expected and in particular, the kitchen was not cleaned at all. They say they would have expected a bit of sorting to do before the next tenants moved in but felt as the hoover had to be emptied 3 times which suggest that it was never done in the first place." 2 different hoovers were used by two different people this is not true.3 professional adults helped me clean this house over a 4 day period, a gardener was paid also to see to the gardens They complain the windows do not seem to have had any water on them apart from the rain on the outside. they go on to say the freezer in the garage was not working properly, it was your responsibility to empty it of food. "This was emptied out, I double checked with the landlords if it was ok to switch it off only when they checked me out, If any food was left in there it was a simple error and probably lodged in the ice due to the freezer being faulty, They made it clear they were throwing away this freezer,as I have told them many times it was not working. they say in The kitchen. None of the cupboards had been cleaned at all and some still my rubbish still in there, one shelf, loads of false nails. The cupboards were cleaned and they have attached the picture of this one shelf , one shelf that was emptied it was on checkout, we all joked about how I couldn't reach this shelf as I had nothing left to stand on, I am only 5ft 2 . They passed me the few bottles that were on the shelf that I couldn't reach.This was the only shelf not cleaned and bleached etc They say they feel I made no attempt to clean the cooker, I have cooked in it for nearly 2 years, it was cleaned by 3 different people but it was as good as it could be. It actually broke about a month ago and was waiting for them to fix it. I showed them the issue with the double door and explained I did not want to break it. They said this was fine.They say when they moved the cooker out to clean, it had two broken feet that need repairing." they made it clear when i moved in and when they fitted the cooker it was not to be moved by me , or if it was to be moved it was only to be done by them, the broken feet had been caused by them , it has ALWAYS wobbled and that was like that when I moved in , as they asked me not to move large items across the kitchen lino and I respected that , unfortunately in the two years incidental things have gone under the cooker that I couldn't get out. they have attached a picture of what was under the cooker. they say I took on a brand new house effectively (its a 1970s bungalow)and whilst they expectant of some wear and tear, it should be left as I found it. It was left very clean , 3 people saw it and said it was great, every room was spotless and repainted if even the slightest mark was showing..if indeed there even was any wear and tear which there wasn't in some rooms the landlords had full explanations in all rooms as to what was the situation was , walls and carpets were spotless, all original curtains returned hung and clean which they accepted on the day. I have photographs to prove how clean it was. They say they have spent two weekends at the house making it fit for someone else. They say they feel it should have been no more than two days at the very most. they say they accommodated my needs and agreed to my ending the tenancy agreement six months early. They also now say The terms are that you cover any loss on rent during this period which is three weeks however, we have not insisted on this. i only moved out 11 days ago it is not in my tenancy agreement. They repeatedly emailed to say they would be taking time to freshen up the house once I had moved out an not to worry before I checked out. They now say I have not fulfilled the terms of the agreement have grounds to reduce the deposit refund by £300.

 

I am not sure how to respond to their claims. I wonder why they have come to me and not done it through the TDS scheme like they are meant to , I presume they wish to scare me in to accepting.I cannot understand why they haven't provided a breakdown in costs or taken 10 days to even mention any of these issues to give me a chance to resolve.

 

Many thanks for reading

[Steve__M]

If you have something signed and dated that says the house is fine, then I guess you need to raise a dispute through TDS using this as your basis.

[Allsetuk]

thanks for the reply, i will email them asking them for a breakdown of charges that amount to £300 as in the email they sent me as they seem to want to charge me for their time & expectation more than anything

[Allsetuk]

they have emailed a week later and still refuse to show any breakdown of how they come to these 300 charges and yet still havent gone to the deposit protection scheme to release any of my money that they are not disputing ...its like we are stuck ...dont know what to do