Unfair deductions & poss unprotected deposit

[StuartDee]

Afternoon all,

 

Myself and my wife left our property on the 3rd of sept and have since received this email from the agent.

 

Dear Kelly & Stuart

 

RE: 28 BS16

 

Your landlord has contacted us with regard to the return of the deposit being held on the above property. They have instructed us to deduct the cost of the following:

 

Cleaning

 

A full clean has been instructed to be carried out at the property, to include all appliances and carpets where appropriate – cost of claim to be confirmed.

 

Bulbs

 

Missing bulbs –The cost of ?6.00 is being claimed.

 

Broken Plug Socket

 

The double socket in bedroom 1 has been seen as broken. The cost of replacement is being claimed at ?43 plus vat (?51.60)

 

Stairs

 

Scold marks to be found to step 8 and 11 – ?40.00 is being claimed as compensation for this.

 

Roller Blind

 

Small tear to be found to the left bottom edge - ?15 is being claimed as compensation.

 

Garden and Rubbish Removal

 

The garden required attending to and also rubbish from the property had to be removed - ?190.00 is being claim for the cost of this.

 

Bedroom 2

 

It was noted at check out the bedroom had been repainted but this was found to be patchy and required repainting. ?50 is being claimed for this.

 

 

 

I am shortly to receive the invoice in respect of the cleaning and as soon as this is received I will provide you with the details of this.

 

Once I have full costs, and if there are any monies remaining that are not in dispute these will be forwarded to you immediately.

 

In the meantime if you wish to dispute any of the above please can you do so in writing. If you are in agreement with the above I would also require this in writing.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Kind regards

 

Nicola

Which we believe to be highly unfair. We then received an emailing detailing cleaning costs to be £292 (for the WHOLE property to be cleaned... despite only two rooms being said as not clean enough in the check out report) in total.

 

Dear Stuart & Kelly,

Thank you for your email in relation to the deposit dispute.

I can now confirm the cleaning cost is as follows :-

Oven clean including all inserts, grill pan, hob and cooker hood - £80

Black mould removal from drum of washing machine - £12.50

Window clean inside and out - £55.00

Full deep clean of property to include all fixed fittings, high level cleaning removing cobwebs, light switches and light fittings, all white appliances, all kitchen units inside and out, all rooms and bathrooms - £145.00

Total cost of clean : £292.50

I can now confirm that the total monies which are being claimed are in the amount of £645.10.

I will therefore arrange for the monies which are not in dispute in the amount of £427.90 to be sent to Kelly to your forwarding address.

Inventory

I can confirm that If the inventory is not signed and returned to us within 7 working days then this is deemed as accepted. Therefore this inventory is valid.

Check – in Document

I have checked the dates on the document and on page 1 it states the date of 3/7/2013 and I can see that on page 2 it has a typographical error in which the date states 2014. However this is a valid document as it is clearly stated on page 1 the correct date of check in.

All other Comments

I have read through your email and noted all your comments. Whilst speaking with Kelly on the weekend I advised her if you could put forward an offer in writing so that I could put this to the Landlord in respect of this claim.

I also advised Kelly that it clearly states on the tenancy agreement that the upkeep of the garden is the tenant(s) responsibility. You were then sent a check out letter to you both advising of the check out date and what was required to be completed before the date of vacation. You were also asked to repaint the bedroom.

I can confirm that the work to which has been carried to the property is based on factual evidence from the check out inspection report.

I can confirm that I have advised your Landlord that you do have a receipt for the carpet clean and he is therefore not pursuing a claim for this.

Please advise if you are wanting to put an offer towards the claim so that I can put this to the Landlord or whether you will be disputing the full amount.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Nicola

 

Our position is that:-

 

 

 

• The inventory that they have supplied is unsigned and undated by either party
  
• Costs totalling £292 (£190 for garden, £50 painting and £52 for the socket) had already been carried out. With no opportunity for us to rectify anything or agree to the fairness of costs.
  
• The property had not been cleaned professionally prior to arrival (check in states unclean level) and now the landlord is insisting on it being professionally cleaned.
  

We have offered £150 in total and for our own cleaner to clean the kitchen and bathroom as on the check out report it states these were the unclean areas. We are now awaiting the landlords response.

 

Please can someone advise to the above of how to approach this and if we've done the right thing?

 

The second issue is that the the deposit was secured with mydeposits.co.uk and our initial one year tenancy ended on the 3rd July 2014 we then moved onto a periodic tenancy agreement.

 

I have spoken to mydeposits who have confirmed the option to automatically extend the protection was not selected.

 

Do we also now have grounds for pursuing the landlord for our deposit x3? If so how do we go about this? Can someone please point me in the direction of any guidance.

 

 

kind regards

 

 

Stuart

Edited September 18, 2014 by StuartDee

[Steve__M]

What does the check-in inventory say about the cleanliness of the oven, windows etc?

 

Are mydeposits explicitly saying that the deposit is not protected?

[StuartDee]

I thought it might be important to add some pictures to this thread to show the state of the property on our departure.....

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]53386[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]53387[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]53388[/ATTACH]

 

Also originally the agent had said that they didn't have an inventory on their file system. They then magically found one and I was immediately suspicious. I have just gone back and checked and the inventory clearly states it was compiled on the 2/3/12 a full 18 months before we moved in!

 

Could be argued that the property manager has now acted fraudulently?

Edited September 18, 2014 by StuartDee

[StuartDee]

What does the check-in inventory say about the cleanliness of the oven, windows etc?

 

Are mydeposits explicitly saying that the deposit is not protected?

 

The check in document states.....

 

Hob; GC.

Hood: GC

WM; GC.

FF; freezer beeping when switched on. Spot mould inside both fridge and freezer.

Tenant did mention to have fridge and freezer cleaned of the spot mould but did seem happy by the end of the check in. would like the damp to be looked at in the top bedroom stair way and cupboard area.

 

I actually have offered to have both kitchen and bathroom cleaned but by our own professional cleaners as ther check out report says...

 

 

The property has been cleaned in most rooms but kitchen and bathroom to not appear to have been cleaned to a domestic standard

[Steve__M]

Are you saying the manager is wrong when he said this:

 

I have checked the dates on the document and on page 1 it states the date of 3/7/2013 and I can see that on page 2 it has a typographical error in which the date states 2014. However this is a valid document as it is clearly stated on page 1 the correct date of check in.

 

In general, once you leave a property you cannot insist on using your own cleaners to clean the property.

 

It sounds like you feel that some of the charges are justifiable, so one option would be to use their poor admin skills as leverage in negotiating a lower offer - i.e. there is the threat that they would get nothing if they could not produce a valid inventory, and a threat that they would get fined if the deposit is not protected. These threats might only come about though if you took court action.

[raydetinu]

you could have used your own cleaners prior to check out but you certainly cant go back to do it.

Deposit should have been protected, so you can sue.

suggest you send letter before action and ask for all your deposit back due to non-protection.

The sue LL for deposit and non-protection; LL can counter claim for damage, which must fair and let a judge decide.

[StuartDee]

Are you saying the manager is wrong when he said this:

 

 

 

In general, once you leave a property you cannot insist on using your own cleaners to clean the property.

 

It sounds like you feel that some of the charges are justifiable, so one option would be to use their poor admin skills as leverage in negotiating a lower offer - i.e. there is the threat that they would get nothing if they could not produce a valid inventory, and a threat that they would get fined if the deposit is not protected. These threats might only come about though if you took court action.

 

 

There are two documents. A check in report that has the above dates. And the inventory which says it was compiled 18months before we moved into the property.

[mariner51]

The later check in report, if provided at start of T, gave you the opportunity to amend/make comment within 7-10 days.

We nor DPS, can really comment on photo's without move in out inspection reports.

You cleaned to the best of your ability before vacating, but would you, as incoming T, find fault or are you just upset by LLs proposed deductions?