Hi,
A bit of a WWYD here and hopefully some words of wisdom.
Let me just preface my post by saying I've had a few terrible years personally, that have greatly damaged my emotional health. I'm normally someone who would stand my ground, but I don't know if I've got any fight left in me and am outright avoidant of conflict at the moment, hence my reticence in making a decision here.
Right, onto the issue:
I left my rented accommodation a while ago after years of being a 'good' tenant (not that that makes much difference). My landlord had a professional company do the inventory and checkout, in which there were a number of 'investigate with tenant' items. Things like, paint worn from the radiator, slight marking to the walls etc, mostly cosmetic things that a lick of paint would resolve. We lived in the property for more than 5 years and it was not redecorated in that time, so probably due a refresh any way to my mind.
Some fabric blinds that were ten years old were starting to deteriorate at the folds, which was also listed. Again, to me that's wear and tear - I haven't done anything (or neglected to do anything) that would result it that, it's just the degradation of old blinds and cheap fabric.
The landlord is trying to get me to pay for these things and not only that, they are charging me for having the guttering cleaned out, for painting their fence with weather protecting paint, for a new shed (the one in place was beginning to deteriorate as it was 10 years old) and insisting that I should have painted it (never discussed). They are trying to make me pay for having their garden landscaped and for an expensive top soil, criticising me for not employing a gardener! There are a number of large plants that were regularly pruned but obviously, I couldn't do anything that would change the character of the garden.
In short, they want to keep my whole deposit. I feel they're wrong on number of these points, but I also feel so worn down with my own personal issues that I don't feel I have the fight in me to argue. I'm running out of time to go through the TDS. I'm also worried that they'll end up siding with the landlord and charging me more than my deposit.
I'm not normally so feeble, I'm just utterly worn out and can't face the aggro, but then part of me feels this is very wrong and I could do with some of the money back, really.
What should I do? Any advice or insight would be grateful received.