Hey guys,
Sorry, first time poster here. Need some advice.
(LONG STORY)
Just moved house from a one bed flat I was living in alone, to a two bed with my partner. The flat is in a very old building which is slowly detoriating.
I moved out yesterday.
Up until now, everything was fine with the old place. The Landlords didn't bother me once; they seemed very pleasant in fact. Rent was always paid on time, every month without fail. Deposit & first month rent paid three weeks prior to moving in.
So before I moved out officially, there were a few things I needed to sort out for e.g: the walls had some minor holes in from hanging pictures up, and they had a few stains on from general every day things, so I obviously went ahead, poly filled the holes & painted the walls the same colour they were when I moved in. I deep cleaned all the appliances, and attempted to repair any other minor damage that had been caused.
Ever since I moved in, I had a number of issues which I never brought up and wish I had done now. Three weeks into my tenancy, mould began appearing behind the toilet and around the sink. It was a tiny and I mean literally, a cupboard bathroom. I read my tenancy agreement and because I was a first time renter, I thought it was totally up to me to get rid of any mould & ensure I ventilated the property properly. So I cleaned the mould with some bleach, then got some mould cleaner and it seemed to disappear For the meantime. It returned weeks later after I had opened the window (in the height of winter) and switched the ventilation fan on. So I continued to ventilate the property and tried to shower at my boyfriends as much as possible. The mould was still there after months of trying to get rid, and I was too worried to bring it up to my landlord in case they blamed me for not ventilating it properly.
So two weeks before I move out, I moved the wardrobe that had been in the bedroom there since I moved in. Behind the wardrobe was a horrendous amount of mould growing up the back of the wardrobe with the clean bed sheets I had put on top of it also completely covered.
The walls were extremely thin, and the paint peeled off very easily. The property was rented to me with a broken toilet seat, broken toilet roll holder, a faulty washer-dryer, crap water pressure, massive mould problems, dirty oven and a convector heater that didn't work, so I had no heating during winter. Not to mention the flat was in a very student heavy area which meant continuous weekends of horrendous noise. I could hear neighbours upstairs having sex all the time & downstairs whenever they cooked the smell that filled the flat was unbearable. The reason I didn't bring this up to the landlords was because I am quite a hassle free person and prefer to just get on with things & they were all things I could sort myself in heinsight. I also didn't know what my rights were. (My fault, I know) I paid £550PCM.
I cleaned the mould, oven & fixed the toilet seat & roll holder.
Annnyway, like I said, handed the keys back yesterday and had an inspection with the Landlady. She walked through the property, checked over everything & said she was happy. She made me sign a document which stated she was happy & I would receive my full deposit back. She said she would return it to me on Monday.
So I thought all was well. Today, I get a text from the Landlord's husband (it's her and her husband who manage the property) saying they have a few issues to raise. They listed everything they had found wrong with the property, in quite an aggressive text message demanding me to contact them asap. Clearly, I was very distressed, I started crying & panicking. After I calmed down, I rang them to discuss. I spoke to the Landlady who started yelling at me, telling me there was burn marks on the window sills and seal and they had found evidence of smoking in the property. They told me they had photos.
I was shocked (I don't smoke, only when I drink and any time I have ever smoked or had anyone smoke there was outside) so I said this. They said they had found burn marks and a stubbed out "rollie" as they called it, stuck to the window sill. The only thing I could think of was that I had a friend stay a few weeks before who must have smoked there whilst I was at work. I said this to them but she continued to yell. I then said to them that they can take whatever they like from my deposit to cover the cost of replacing the seal. She also claimed she had been there for SIX hours deep cleaning. Its such a tiny flat it may as well pass as a studio if the bedroom wasn't separated by a very thin wall. (In no way would it take 6 hours to deep clean. I deep cleaned the entire property yesterday and it took me two hours including all appliances.). She said she had to clean the oven and put stainless steel cleaner on the sink. (That took six hours?) she then said she would definitely take something from my deposit. I asked how much, she said "I don't know. Probably at least £100 it depends how much it costs to fix the window seals and our time for cleaning the property." She said she would pass the photos on to the letting agents who will pass them to me if I want them. I was in tears down the phone, apologising profusely but she continued to hammer me with things that were wrong with the place.
Only issue I have now is that the same letting agents are the ones I went through to get the new Flat I'm in now. This flat is gorgeous, two bedrooms, it's the size of a house, new build, in the middle of the city centre (but tucked away from student district and noisy areas) with great transport links. Its £750PCM which is fine as I'm with my partner here, &a worth every penny. Also a different landlord. I'm just worried that the old landlord will pass these images on, which may raise concerns to the letting agents about this place. They may start doing loads of inspections (which is fine, I would actually be happy for them to come and see the new Place as it is completely spotless). This has left a bitter taste in my mouth not to mention overwhelming anxiety about what to expect next.
I'm at a loss of what to think. This isn't a plea for legal advice but I don't know what I can do! AIBU here is is the landlord? Do they have the right to deduct money from my deposit without showing me an invoice for the work carried out to remove these burn marks? Can this have any affect on my new tenancy seeing as it's the same agents? So sorry for the long post. Just need someone to vent to!!