To think lots of landlords see a tenants deposit money as rightfully theirs?

[Strawbroke]

Third (and last, whoop!) time I've left a rental property after leaving the marital home 4 years ago.

Every single one has forced me to use the dispute service tovretirn my deposit, even though I have tried to negotiate with them. First two I agreed to them taking half as I was a bit of a wet fish but nothwanted it all. Forced me to go to dispute. They got half. After loads of stress and a delay of 3 months.

This last tenancy was a 20 month tenancy and I was determined to get the house perfect on leaving. 5 adults cleaned the place to pristine levels and i mean or, we covered everywhere. After final inspection from letting agent she said it was in good condition but needed extra cleaning so I agreed to £45 for cleaning. They then proceeded to come back over the next 4 weeks to say they wanted professional carpet cleaning at £255. I said no way, the carpets were as new. So the LL said okay, I'll settle the carpet cleaning bill but you owe me £180 for a new oven door. Which the letting agent broke and admitted via email! Again I said no. Then they added £150 for painting the bannister and handrail in the hallway. It was unpainted when I moved in. I offered £55 as goodwill. They refused it. £100 not enough! At this point I just said give me an itemised list of everything you want to claim off me, they ignored me for two weeks so I had to raise a dispute.

Landlord has put in a claim for 650 for carpet cleaning, oven door, handrail and replacement light bulbs! So with the £650 basically. My entire bond.

AIBU to think a lot of landlords see deposits as an entitlement to keep? The property was let within days so obviously was in great condition! I had to create my own check out report as they didn't bother doing one. It's so frustrating and I was a great tenant. The LL even said when I moved out. I am so glad I've finally managed to buy and not have to deal with this anymore!

Actually come to think of it, we never had a signed check in or check out from our landlord/agent..

How much did the deep EOT clean cost?

Yes it is considered that 5 to 7 years is reasonable for carpet lifespan but that makes me really question how tenants live because our carpet is now 12 years old and still in a good condition. My parents and I'm laws also have carpets more than 10 years as is my friends. I don't know anyone who owns their house who replaces their carpets every 5 years

Many landlords shop at the landlord carpet shop. It only stocks brown or beige cheap nylon carpets which give you static shocks when you walk on them. Then then get their friend to fit them instead of a professional carpet fitter and wonder why they curl up at the edges or look shit after a few years.

my landlord thinks that the decision of whether to give me the deposit back is entirely his.

He has had the deposit protection contract signed by someone who is not him..(weird)

He has also told me I have to hav the dirty broken furniture that he supplied 'professionally cleaned'...

It makes me feel permanently sick and nervous.

Despite reporting him to housing standards, and therefore being evicted, my tenency support worker now suggests I 'get another private let'.

In fact just thinking about it gives me a headache. FFS this is my home.

The comment about the hotel is exactly the attitude that leads to issues. If tenants want a property and receive a similar service to a hotel then they have to be prepared to pay the same daily fare.

Problem is some tenants wants hotel service for 1/5th of the cost.

Not all landlords are like that!

My tenant left earlier this year and had left the flat in pretty good condition. But it reeked of smoke (non smoking flat according to tenancy agreement), had a burn in the shape of an iron on the carpet and was missing a loo seat. It was clean, but maybe not quite "end of tenancy" clean, eg, there were some limescale marks on the glass shower door which I was able to get out with a lot of elbow grease, some stickers on the wall etc.

I returned his £1,400 deposit in full.

YANBU.

I’ve rented 6 different properties since leaving my parents and only seen one deposit returned.

Had I got them all back it would add up to a house deposit!

Agencies almost always side with the landlord.

The funniest was the LL who wanted to keep it to get a gardener in to mow the lawn as the grass had grown. He inspected 6 WEEKS after we had moved out but somehow expected the grass to be freshly mown - we only got it back as he had left it longer than the 4 weeks they get to raise disputes.

I got another deposit back by going to court (the university housing people helped me - they said he was known for exploiting students).

It’s always about the needing fresh paint, or new carpets, when both were musty as anything but not so bad it showed up on your initial photos.

Another claimed for cleaning and only revoked it when I showed receipt of a professional end of tenancy clean id paid for.

Twats, the lot of them.

Clearly it happens but it never happened to me during all my years of renting (4 diff landlords). Now I'm a landlord and I've only once kept hold of any deposit money in 15 years - it covered approx 1/5th of the cost of the damage done to the property.

Orchid my experience is that it's because of tenants treating carpets like door mats that leads LLs to go for cheap carpet. I was shocked at the stains that unfortunately would not go off even after professional cleaning that were left after 2 years of tenancy which were brand new and nit cheap. No one would have wanted the property like that so had to replace and what I got back from deposit only amounted to about 25% of the cost of replacing new.

Didn't go for cheap but was much more selective as to whom I picked as tenants next.

Indeed I too rented 3 times before becoming a home owner and then LL and g it my full deposit returned each time so there is a matter of standards.

chewbacca it was about £300, but they did everything.

Id be checking where that deposit goes when you move in as by law they have to put it into a safe hold with a 3rd party deposit company until the tenant leaves and it is given back to the tenant by the deposit holders the landlord has no say in this unless they want to dispute anything via a claims court with evidence provided of there claim. We had this problem renting a few years ago and i checked with a company called Tenant Angels and the deposit hadn't been given to a 3rd party making any claim against us as tenants null and void we ended up getting pur deposit back plus £5000 compensation which they were then fined for breaking the law. Check your rights people

YANBU - at all - I agree completely. Expect to lose it, or have to fight for even some back, everytime. We had this trouble when renting and now my daughter has just gone through the same thing when moving from her first rental property. No reason - the house was cleaned excessively from top to bottom, nothing broken and yet she still had to fight to get only some of the deposit back. Stupid reasons like needing to clean the inside of the oven door (which she had already done but they wanted it done “professionally”). It’s pure greed on the part of the landlord as far as I’m concerned and it makes my blood boil because they know there’s nothing you can do - the system doesn’t work and they’ve got you every which way as it’s so stressful having to argue for your money I’m sure many just give up. So sorry you’re going through this, but unfortunately I don’t know ANYONE who has EVER got their full deposit back.

That sounds awful OP.

My own experience with renting was ok. We had to pay £400 fees which I thought was extortionate and also 6 weeks rent as deposit (£1600). We got all the deposit back less £50 for one bulb that we didn't change 🙄. We also had to pay for professional cleaning ourselves which was £150 for a 1 bed flat.

No, to be fair ALL landlords don't. I'm a LL and only once disputed the deposit because the tenants left the house in a complete shit tip. They let their dog crap all over the carpets and it stained it completely, they scraped all the wallpaper on the stairs moving items out and they cracked the corner of the induction hob.

If you had taken photos of the items when you moved in, and they were in the same condition as when you moved out then your LL has no leg to stand on. Similarly if they dont have photos when you moved in either they won't be able to win the claim....

I wouldn't mind but I'm technically homeless at the moment because my new house isn't ready so me and my 3dcs are staying in one room. Need this like a hole in the head.

Wish I'd been much less of a pushover

YANBU, I have also had to take every landlord through the dispute process due to unreasonable and usually ficticious charges. I think letting agents and landlords rely on people not raising the disputes as they are so outlandish in their claims.

The onus is on them to provide evidence that any damage and indeed cleanliness is different from both check in and check out. Inventories need to be thorough, dated and signed by both parties to stand any hope of them succeeding in their claims. Charges need to be reasonable and any attempt at betterment is frowned on.
Also worth pointing out that if they demand any professional cleaning for anything they will need to provide evidence that it was done professionally directly before your tenancy started as well, otherwise they can ask for no more than a good domestic level of cleanliness, carpets included.

One particularly cheeky landlord tried to charge £150 to replace a pair of stained curtains, bad enough that were actually stained prior to my tenancy, but they were actually £30 ikea curtains and at least 5 years old, the adjudicators comments were very satisfying on that one!

All deposits have to be held or lodged with a tenancy deposit scheme, so it is not the Landlord's money and no decent Landlord thinks of it like that.

There has to be a level of fairness on both sides. My lettings agents used to say that they would only expect a tenant to do what we as Landlords would do before they move in.

We would give a thorough clean, including the oven, so the tenants were expected to leave it the same way. We gave the carpets a good vacuum so they looked clean and the tenants had to give them a good vacuum too. The agents said that they would not insist the tenants get the carpets professionally cleaned when they leave because we didn't before they moved in and that seemed fair.

The adjudicator is meant to be fair, but they will be on your side as the Landlord has to prove the deductions. If they didn't do a proper leaving report or have evidence to show the house and carpets needed cleaning and were left in a state then they will side with you.

Where we are there isn’t an obligation regarding deposits being kept in schemes like there is on the mainland.

We had our private LLs give us a months notice (fine) but gradually stopped answering phone calls etc...it seemed they were going through an acrimonious divorce and had each decided we were the other’s mess to sort. Bye deposit. Similar things have happened to friends - it results in tenants not seeing the point in removing all belongings/paying for cleaners as they don’t bank on the deposit coming back anyway.

There’s recently been a bit of a scandal as a local LA just went tits up with no warning, leaving LLs out of rent payments going through them and tenants with no clue what’s happened to their deposits. Some had laid down deposits on properties they had yet to move into, so they’d kept taking money right up until they officially went under - cunts.

I should also point out that I completely agree that tenants should pay for damages and leave the property in the same condition it was found in, naturally allowing normal wear and tear.
I am also sure there are good landlords out there, but in my experience they are a minority. The whole letting industry needs an overhaul to protect good tenants and reward decent landlords, the current system seems to penalise both and reward the dodgy and unscrupulous ones.

Actually come to think of it, we never had a signed check in or check out from our landlord/agent.. They don't have to be signed! I often work from inventories that the T never bothered to return, there is no legal requirement for signatures, especially if a 3rd party makes the report!

Also worth pointing out that if they demand any professional cleaning for anything they will need to provide evidence that it was done professionally directly before your tenancy started as well, otherwise they can ask for no more than a good domestic level of cleanliness, carpets included Not quite, mainly because, unless it is specifically mentioned, EVERYTHING is clean when you move in and very few people do a proper clean... or even know about the places that a clerk will spot instantly. These are the things I look for that tell me if a proper deep clean has been done, at the beginning and the end of every tenancy I do!

Door jambs
Light switches and sockets
Top of skirting
Extractor fans
Hinges of oven, dishwasher etc
Waste and overflow of sinks, end of taps, shower heads
Is there toilet cleaner in the bowl? I'll flush it...
Window frames
Behind doors (a dead giveaway, very common to be filthy in a self clean)
Top corners of rooms and cobwebs!

That's where I start ....

This is terrible. I am a landlord and the only time I’ve not returned a full deposit as a matter of course was when a built in wardrobe door was broken in half. In terms of cleaning I alway get a between tenancy clean which is also how I check everything is in working order.
I’ve even replaced soiled mattresses without charging tennants. I dont understand how people think a deposit is extra profit.

@CuriousaboutSamphire lots of excellent advice, thank you

I’ll check with my husband he is doing all the wordy bits (he investigated the inventory requirements after our experience with the carpet hacking guy so hopefully he’s aware of the need for lots of descriptions)

Description Door: white painted frame and 6 panel fire door, chrome lever handle, chrome transition strip, rear of door as front

Condition Frame chipped at low levels; sticky residue to upper level at rear; 1 x black scuff mark to low level at rear

That sort of level...