landlord withholding deposit

[Charlotte Neal]

Hello,

 

I'd just like to clarify something. I have moved out of my property due to not being happy with one of my flatmmates and also I did break the tenancy agreement by giving the key to someone else.

 

The fact is I didn't want to live there any longer as it was dragging me down. I have now moved out of property and am going through a dispute with the deposit. My landlord has asked me to pay for cleaning which is fine but has charged me an additional 120 for a new mattress plus delivery.

 

I am a newbie to renting so I am going to ask some questions now. I have rejected his claim for now as the mattress is old and obviously had some signs of wear and tear even before I moved in. He claims it smells and it is non recoverable. I did check the mattress before I left the place and did notice the underneath was quite horrid. It looked filthy dirty and kind of greasy looking. There was also a big stain at the top of the mattress.

 

I am new to this and I believe this might be the first time he actually considered cleaning it as I don't think those marks would have accrued over 9 months of staying there. I was just to naive understanding the renting process basically I wanted a place to stay but I made a mistake.

 

I didn't take any photographic evidence when I first moved in and I wish I had. I heard something about a move in checklist. He never provided me with any checklist for the property. I am using the DPS service with my deposit.

 

Does anyone have any advice? Should I just pay it or does anyone know what my rights are?

Edited November 18, 2013 by maroondevo52
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[Steve__M]

From what you say it would be reasonable for you to dispute the claim based on the LL not having evidence of the condition prior to you moving in. Hopefully you would know if you had caused such damage!

 

Even if you did cause some of the degradation the LL would need to reduce the claim to account for the age of the mattress.