Who is in the wrong??

[violet0805]

So we've recently moved out of rented accommodation. The house was falling apart and the landlord would not do any of the improvements needed, just wanted to put our rent up by £50 a month..
eg, had a massive leak in the bathroom a year ago and water started to pour through the kitchen ceiling. Letting agents came round and drilled about 20 holes in the ceiling to release the water, but then refused to fix the holes. We had no working radiator in our girls bedroom and when we had the really bad snow I asked for it to be fixed and was told no.
Conservatory was taped up everywhere due to leaks.
Bad mound around all the windows and window sills... just to name a few.

We moved out last month and the check was done and our full deposit returned to us.

Husband has had a phone call this morning from the letting agents to say we've got to go back and remove an old trampoline we'd taken down and left down the side of the house (gated area so we completely forgot about it)

Am I right in thinking they are taking the piss?? All the problems we had in that house (we even paid for some improvements like a new bathroom floor because we were sick of waiting)

Husband said he will remove it, I've told him they shouldn't even be contacting us now as we are nothing to do with them and tell them to piss off. Plus it's not our fault they didn't mention it when they did the check. Everything else with the house was left in clean, good condition.

So AMIBU or are the letting agents??
(Landlord lives overseas)

In that case, OP, why not write and say, "Look, we had so many problems with you that the least the landlord can do is to deal with this now."

I don't understand what the issue is, just go and remove it seeing as you left it? Sounds like a 20min job which you're entirely responsible for. Regardless of whether the Checks were done and deposit returned it's No different to littering which I'm sure you wouldn't agree with?

Yeah you should but... fuck them

All you're doing by leaving it there is making it the problem of the new tenants, who now have to live in the shithole you got out of. It's yours, dispose of it

I just think all the shit we put up with, the least they can do is remove the trampoline..

I was with you until you posted this. This is not a forgotten item. It sounds like you deliberately left your crap an item in the yard and didn't bother to clean it up and now expect someone else to remove it for you.

@MidniteScribbler
Not that I have to explain myself to you, but it was a genuine mistake. We had a skip before we moved and got rid of stuff so would have just chucked it in there.

Personally I would remove it. I wouldn’t want to risk them hiring someone to remove it and then sending me the bill for it.

I wouldn’t

Sounds like the estate agents were totally incompetent through out they whole tenancy AND checking out process. They checked you out and returned your deposit, which is technically an agreement that they are happy with everything their end and have released you of all responsibility for the house. I would just ignore them. I would also report them to trading standards for refusing to make repairs to a house that was not fit to live in. I'm surprised you put up with them for so long!

It's metal. Arrange for a scarp metal collector to have it. No charge and they will most probably just get it without you being present. Sorted

I’m a landlord-yours and your agent should ashamed.
Change your number and ignore it. They are idiots!

The issues you say that you had whilst you were living there are irrelevant. Go and remove your trampoline, as obviously it is your responsibility to do so.

Yes you should but if I were you I wouldn't want to either.

If they have given you back the deposit and did the leaving check, did they note a trampoline on it? If not and I was being bloody minded I would ask them to prove it was left by you and not been fly tipped there after since it isn't on the report!

If they've checked the house then why not say 'what trampoline?' and feign ignorance about how it got there!

Obviously you should remove it under normal circumstances but since they were so negligent I wouldn't blame you if you didn't.

@Lookatyourwatchnow

How are the issues irrelevant?? We stuck to our side of the contract. We were model tenants. Rent always paid in full and on time, we didn't bother them with issues that technically we should have as it was their responsibility, we just dealt with them ourselves. Despite the house being in such a bad condition, we never questioned the amount of rent we were paying. The house was left clean even though it hadn't been cleaned when we moved in and me and my mum spent 7 hours on moving day scrubbing the kitchen! The oven wasn't even cleaned!
Oh and we were asking for 6 months for them to replace the broken smoke alarm and they didn't! We brought one ourselves but they did not know that and as far as they were aware we didn't have one! That's illegal.
But I'm in the wrong for leaving a few bits of metal behind (unintentionally!)

@Mehaveit

We did try that.. when they mentioned it my husband said to me 'oh shit we left the old trampoline there!'
When the landlord moved out he was emigrating so left literally everything! The day before we moved in all his furniture and everything was still in the house!
But he was a single man in his 50's and for some reason the letting agents weren't buying that he left it there..

Op, I can understand why you’re angry & why you’d think screw them but is it really worth the aggro?
If you get rid of it you won’t need to deal with them again & you won’t have to worry about them sending you a ridiculous bill for the removal

Is there any chance you might need a reference from your ex landlord in
the future?

@AllDayBreakfast

I don't think so, and even if we did, like I said we were very good tenants so other than this there's nothing bad he can say about us, unless he gives an untrue reference which I'm sure would be illegal?

@nancy75

Like I said it's more of a principal thing.. I'm screwing that they let us live in a house like that and refused to do any of the work but as soon as we move out they get it all done for the new tenants. I couldn't wait to get out of there and I'm angry after everything we asked them to do and they refused, they want us to do this.
Under normal circumstances we would have gone straight round and got it but now I'm thinking 'why should we?' They want it moved because the new tenants asked them to. It sounds petty but after everything we asked them to do, and they didn't, I'm thinking sod them..

Fly tipping??

Tell them to whack it on the street in front of the house. The scrap men will take it for free! They drive around looking for scrap metal on the streets, what people have left out for them.

@violet0805 still not relevant to you not removing your trampoline though is it. It's a separate issue.

Ignore them OP. They have no way of proving it's yours. In fact if the check out report has no photos or mention if it that's proof for you.