MY previous landlord wants to detuct £40 from my deposit because there was dust on the skirting boards.

[TurtleyAmazing]

I have just recieved an email from my property manager regarding my deposit for the flat we moved out of a few months ago. now i was expecting SOME deductions of my deposit as i did scuff and mark the walls a little, not a lot just everyday wear and tear sort of thing.

I can't say i was expecting her to deduct a total of £210 though!

this is the email i recieved...

vacuum all carpets £40
skirtings were dusty £40
oven and extractor fan to be cleaned £60
clean the grout in the shower £40
scuffs on walls £10
small dent to the kitchen door £20

now, i have many issues with this. i used to hoover or sweep my carpet every single day without fail. it was a horrible carpet which just collected dust and grit and i couldnt stand the feeling of walking on it barefoot without giving it a good vacuum first. the very last thing i did before walking out of the door the final time was vacuum the whole flat. so i can say with 100% certainty that this is total BS.

£40 for some dust on a skirting board is fucking disgusting! how anyone can justify that i don't know!! it doesn't need painting just simply dusting.

I have never ever used the oven extractor. i opened it when i first moved in saw the dirty grimmy muck behind it and never opened it again. as for the oven itself when we moved in the glass door was so caked in shit you couldn't see into the oven through it. i scrubbed and scrubbed that thing for hours until the glass became clear so if anything the oven is in a better state now than it was when we moved in.

grout in the shower £40 the flat had a bad mould issue, the shower cubicle was damp and mouldy when we moved in the grout was possibly a bit worse when we left so i sort of understand that deduction although that was not our fault.

scuffs and dent to the door £30 yes, i scuffed the wall and supposedly dented the door thats fine i will glady pay the money for that.

she has also sent me the inventory for the flat with pictures of all the damage we had supposedly done. we didn't recieve one at the beggining of our tenancy though so she is swearing blind that all these problems were caused by us yet they truly was there when we moved in, we just have no way of proving it.

if you have made it this far thankyou
what would you do in this situation?

Marvellous!

Oooh, thats interesting. Keep us updated.

mending dented doors is a doddle. which reminds me I must get round to it sometime.

mind you one set of tennents from the flat at the bottom replaced one of their doors.

We took the kitchen door off when we moved in. Always have done.

Is Chelsy your landlord OP? If so she is going to be skint soon if they charge her

wow can't believe the cheek of some people!

Chelsy rents properties in one of the most expensive areas in Britain (I think the clue might be in her UN) yet her properties are trashed by people who cant empty a hoover bag on the odd occasion they use it.

I know a woman who has a very successful business renting in one of the poorest areas of the UK (not England), and she has never had this problem. But she checks references, uses deposit schemes, has inventories etc. She doesnt just rent to the first poor sap to sign the paperwork.

And thank you Turtley for this For somebody with such an impeccable eye for detail you sure miss a lot Its rare that a thread makes me literally laugh out loud, but that did! Take them to court. Dont accept your deposit back. If you do then they will do this again, if you make them pay via the court system then they will think twice before doing it to their next set of tenants.

Turtley - have you read up on how to claim the 3x deposit back? Because it's quite expensive.

If you chose to just claim your deposit back you can do it through Small Claims Court this is approx a £100 fee you can claim back from the landlord.

However the 3x deposit will usually go through a different court process which costs much more - over £1000 I believe. Once again, I think you can get that back, but it depends on if you can afford it while you wait.

Also the fine is up to three times the deposit, so that amount will depend on the judge on the day. I believe it's quite rare for them to award the full amount.

I personally would send a letter before action saying you will be claiming for the full amount, but if they settle before court you'd be happy to accept £X you wish. That will save you the fee, the faff of going to court, putting the papers together, etc.

Good luck - I despise shitty landlords.

allisgood why do you take the kitchen door off?! Being able to shut the kitchen door means you keep cooking smells from permeating through the whole house or flat and stops steam, etc from doing the same.

Was it you who took the kitchen door from our house? Took me ages to find a matching replacement

Chelsyhandy

Students and single male professionals tend to cause far less damage than families with children.

That statement is complete and utter rubbish and I speak as a former Deep Clean professional, who was contracted by LL to clean properties when they were vacated. The student ones were an absolute nightmare, I do not have the time to go into full details but a couple of examples: dried raw eggs on ceilings, walls, furniture after egg fights months before, same with tomato ketchup, rotten mouldy food underneath cushions, fridges full of mould........... need I go on????????

Yes there were family lets that did require cleaning but nowhere near as much as the students!!!!!!!!!

I am wondering whether you are the LL that is trying to con Turtley out of her deposit as your posts are to say the least aggressive.

Wowfudge a house should have smells from the kitchen! It's a personal thing really, I prefer that my young children be able to come in and out as they please and in most of the previous places we rented it also allowed for a lot more natural light to flow through the house.

I am still laughing at students being cleaner than families?!

I rent and I wouldn't want your £800 curtains, I want to choose my own fucking curtains thank you very much.

And I'll bring my own fucking hoover, and wouldn't call my landlord if it broke down because I'm an adult.

Chelsy you sound like a nightmare landlord to me, who for some reason thinks renters are somehow beneath you.

Op, good for you, don't let your shitty landlord screw you over!

Btw I don't think all landlords are shitty. My landlord is bloody amazing.

Chelsy,
I wanted to reply after the school run so I could do this once.
I'm a renter, I come with my own Hoover (it doesn't have a nozzle attachment but I still manage to do the carpet where it meets the wall!) I can also change a Hoover bag.
Let me tell you the reality of renting, it is my home. The home where I get my son ready for school, the home where he asks for a pet but I have to say no in case the next LL says no. The home he asks to decorate his bedroom but I say no. The place he comes home from school from where he's made all his friends but I don't know if he will be able to see his school life out there as we basically live with 2 months notice over our heads. The garden he plays in but can't plant a sun flower seed as he might not be there to see it grow.

It is crap and not through choice (not that it's relevant but we don't claim hb either) this year alone we've spent £1400 on this house, on general stuff that HAD to be done which to be honest was probably the land lords responsibility. I clean it, repaint the white gloss every year as it yellows and treat it very well. Do not tar us all with the same brush. In the same way I know not all LL's are pretentious like you seem to be.

Chelsy is probably out checking that her tenants have hoovered their expensive curtains.

I had a right idiot of a landlord once. In the bedroom there were some disgusting blue curtains, I took them down and replaced them with white ones instead that I had purchased myself.

When I was leaving I put the blue ones back up. He tried to take money for my deposit by saying I had stolen his white curtains

Is Chelsy your landlord OP? If so she is going to be skint soon if they charge her

Well my LL is a bit of a snob knob so it's a fair assumption.

Oh and UPDATE!!!

I emailed LL first thing this morning explaining that I know that my deposit has not been held in a protection scheme and that I am not liable to pay the ridiculous deductions I was presented with yesterday and that I am more than happy to take to court. < paraphrasing, it was worded better than that.

It took FOUR minutes to get a reply. After god knows how many emails and voicemails yesterday asking for an inventory which were ignored. I got one back in FOUR minutes!!

The email basically said that they are happy to return my deposit in full ASAP. Which I ignored. My phone started ringing mere minutes later which I also ignored and I now have a voicemail saying the same as the email.

I haven't replied back yet but the balls in my court. > flexes fingers in an evil genius kind of way

tickle

Or changing Hoover bags. Which Is strange as I've never known an unused Hoover to fill its bag before.

Well done Turtley. that's fantastic. I moved into a rental recently and spent god knows how long cleaning - 2 bottles of Oven pride on the oven plus the steamer, I cleaned tea stains off the skirting, grubby hand marks off the walls, etc. I won't be doing such a thorough clean moving out. I took photos of it all and listed it too to the letting agent. I'll hoover through, mop floors, clean bathroom and kitchen when I move out but I won't be deep cleaning it as it wasn't done for me. I'll be expecting my full deposit back.

Did Chelsy say people do not hoover everyday. I Vacuum throughout every morning and Hoover the family room and lounge every evening and often mid day too if I am home with my children.

I

That's fantastic news Turtley! make her sweat now

cj

Yes she has never met a person who vacuums everyday therefor common sense dictates daily vacuumers don't exist.

I have personally never met a heroin addict but I know damn well they exist.

It's strange because she has basically suggested that she is the cleanest person going and all tenants are filthy slobs but if that was the case surely she would vacuum daily too?

Well done Turtley.

I had a LL that tried to charge us for a new kitchen worktop after we moved out. The kitchen was at least 30 years old and they said it would cost the whole of our £800 deposit. I asked for a receipt and got a dodgly handwritten one, so I went round and took pictures of the "new" worktop through the kitchen window. Turns out, the new one was exactly the same as the old one, they just fancied keeping £800. Muppets. Got the money back and it felt GOOD. Well done again!

pfft

I'm glad you caught them out!!

It's disgusting how so many LL try to take advantage of people.

Hoorah. Well done!