To withhold last month's rent?

[CptJack]

Name changed as this might out me.

I was living in a 6 month rented house through a letting agency. A couple of months ago I had to move out for personal reasons, but I've continued to pay the rent, have the heating on etc.

When I moved in the oil tank was completely empty and I have ensured that there is enough oil to last until the end of the tenancy at the end of march.

The landlord isn't happy with this, he wants me to pay for a full delivery of oil. (Ie landing him with a full tank of oil when he reclaims his house) The letting agent has emailed me merrily suggesting they will simply deduct the cost from my deposit. (Phrased as if they were doing me a favour )

I have now cleaned the place to a higher standard than was let out in the first place and returned the key.

The final months rent is due tomorrow. Would I be unreasonable to tell the letting agent/landlord to take the rent out of my deposit as I can't trust them to cook up ways to spend my deposit elsewhere?

Don't withold rent, use the DPS dispute service. It's brilliant and I feel actually is more supportive of the tenants than the landlord.

Yanbu. We had to leave £400 of oil when we moved out. Nothing you can do about it. Whatever you do dont stop paying the rent until you have too!!!

I always withheld the last month's rent and let LLs keep the deposit.

Got my fingers burnt once (charged for a crack in a tile which was already there, charged £40 for cobwebs on a light, charged another £40 for a mark in the bath - place was far from clean when I moved in) and learnt my lesson.

Another time I just never got it back. Never heard from the Letting Agent again.

I always paid for a professional clean and left the receipts behind but would never trust a LL/Letting Agent with my money.

Was such a relief to buy and get away from that bullshit. Such a scary way to live.

Really depends if you are likely to need a reference....

But if the landlord doesn't choose a tribunal the tenant is left to pursue through the small claims court. I don't feel you're doing anything wrong in withholding rent, particularly if you write to tell them why. You're just making it more likely for the landlord to choose the tribunal option through the deposit scheme and then they will choose what is fair.

I had an oil thank in a previous property, it was full when I moved in and I had to ensure it was full again when moving out.

If the tank was empty and it doesnt state it should be full, then your LL cant claim any money back.

oolaroola tenants are protected against this. When a tenant pays the deposit it has to go into a deposit scheme. They hold the deposit and do not give it to the landlord. When the tenancy ends the landlord tells the scheme to give the deposit back to the tenant. If the landlord wants to keep some of the deposit he can only do so if the tenant agrees. If the tenant does not agree and there is a dispute the deposit scheme will arbitrate. Only then will the landlord get any money if they agree that they are due any.

With our deposit scheme the landlord got to choose whether to go to arbitration or not if the tenant disagreed. Otherwise the tenant had to pursue through the small claims court. Ours was with the DPS. Luckily the landlord did choose arbitration, it took a while and we got most back and the landlord got a much smaller portion than they tried to claim for. Unless we got it wrong, that was how it worked - this was early 2014.

charging for cobwebs is the kind of nonsense that the deposit schemes were brought in to stop.

(BTW Rachmann is dead too, in case you haven't heard)

the schemes ARE biased to the tenant, as they should be.