To be extremely pissed off with the owners of the last house we rented, regarding our deposit?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Left house about a month ago. Agent did the walk out, said house was the cleanest she had ever seen, the garden looked lovely and we would get all our deposit returned, no problems.

Owners moved back, agent said they were "delighted" with the condition of the house and the garden. This week, agent has called to say they may have to withold some of the deposit as the window keys aren't there. We are sure we left all window keys on the relevant shelf, but told agent that if we find them here, we will return them, if not, we will arrange for DH's brother (who owns a local reputable windows company) to put new locks in. This is apparently not acceptable, they just want to deduct money and do it themselves. Oh and they've just noticed a few marks on one of the walls and will be deducting money for that as well.

I am fucking furious - I think this is just a way of making money out of us, and when is it going to stop? What else are they going to "notice" so that our deposit is slowly whittled away? Surely there must be some cut off point - agents told us we'd get all the deposit back, not it seems this is not going to be the case. House rented (and deposit paid) prior to new deposit protection scheme.

Bump!

Did they or the agent sign anything? Signed handover that everythnig was ok?

If not, maybe write and say you dispute this, quote their comments at the time you left and say that if they do not return your deposit within 10 days you will take them to small claims court. If they are trying it on, this may make them think twice.

But some landlords and agents do this EVERY time. They always find stuff that amazingly costs the exact amount of money to fix as you gave them for deposit.

Spooky.

I have been both a landlord and a tenant, and in all cases an inventory checker was paid to do check in and check out - if the Agent did the walk out shouldn't he have been responsible for checking for keys?

I thought things like marks on walls were wear and tear?

I am spitting - we also rent out a flat in London and leave it to the agent to decide what is reasonable wear and tear. We wouldn't go and have a good hawk round afterwards and pick holes in everything. I feel like shitting through the letterbox of their horrible little house. Bastards.

Threaten them, the law's changed on this recently I think, they can't do this any more, all deposits have to be held by agents etc. I'd write a carefully worded but polite letter stating your case and giving a deadline beyond which you'll take it to the small claims court. How annoying.

more about law here

I have been a landlord and tenant, and I think it is reasonable you should pay up for the lost keys - may seem trivial to you, but annoying an inconvenient for the new tenant. I would not consider it aceeptable for you to arrange the replacing of the locks either. As to the marks, I would consider them fair wear and tear, tho' I am a reasonable landlord and have very rarely made any deduction from deposit, only for blatant breach like unpaid rent!
However we have been charged for marks on the wall, so some are greedier than others.
You should have had a written check-out inventory and a receipt for those keys you gave back - if you didn't you are on sticky ground. I would not ever trust agents - we don;'t use them any more because have dound they will say anything to get on to the next commission earning appointment...

I would have thought that, once they've moved back in, it would be impossible to say what was done by you and what by them. The deposit should have been returned to you before then.

When we rented, we lost a huge chunk of our deposit because the removal men put a mark on one wall, moving a bed down the stairs. One mark on a magnolia wall which could have easily been painted over but, because it was all open plan, we got stung for repainting the whole downstairs, staircase and landing. I doubt very much that they actually did the work either. Some landlords just use it as an excuse to make more money.

its so common sadly

our landlord at the old palce didnt come check for 4 weeks in June, when they did the grass was long (quelle surprise) so they deducted- wait for it-
£400 to mow it.

And they got away with it, they told some cock and bull to CAB who then couldnta dvise su they took on their case

We also were landlords for a time, and we know what tenatnts can be like- ours took the kitchen!- but there are so very many rip off landlords around sadly

£400 to mow a lawn!!! And they got away with that? I'm speechless.

I've suffered when we have moved out of a rental property that the landlords were selling after. you can imagine the things that they tried to claim were NOT wear and tear. Annoying, especially considering a lot of them don't give a toss about maintaining the place when you are actually living there!

I ended up calling the agent a twat in his office.

He was though.

i think you are best to negotiate direct with the owners as opposed to the agent

advice here

mummydoit they use3ed a premier landscapers

lesson learned anyway- conversely we find agents better that private landlords

did you sign anything to say you had given the keys back and did the owners accept this?

It's so common for landlords to cheat tenants out of deposits here, nearly all of the students I work with fail to pay the last month's rent before they skip off because they know the landlord's going to keep their deposit, anyhow.

Some, however, digitally record all walk-throughs on both move in and move out and then threaten to go to court over the monies.

I have been a tenant and I am a landlord now. Things are better for the tenant now. Desposits have to be kept in an account that seperate from the landlord's or the agency's money.

We had one set of truely hideous tenants who didn't pay the rent and left excretment smeared all over the walls. We took them to court inorder to justify taking one and half thousand pounds off them. Nowadays you can't just keep a desposit.

Peachy, I'm surprised that you didn't go to the small claims court. £400 to cut the lawn is ridiculous.

If you are going to rent a house I would choose a letting agency that is registered with ALARA. That way if you do get unfairly conned then you have someone to complain to.

I think that a landlord is within his/ her rights to charge for keys to be cut if you lose them. However you should be charged the cost of having the keys cut rather than having locks replaced. Its up to the landlord to keep spares. More than £5 per key lost is unreasonable.

I don't think we did lose the keys though - we left all window keys on the window sill. It's his word against ours and the agents did the walk out and told us they would refund the deposit in full. Unfortunately we paid the deposit before the new scheme came in.

Kookaburra - why don't you think it's reasonable for us to arrange replacement of the locks? I just want to ensure we're not being ripped off.

DH did the walk out and the agent checked the inventory thoroughly.

RT I agree- but we had too much on our plate, had to let it go

Plus there were some nasty byullying tactics involved- threats amde to Dh. wasn't worth it

MrsSchadenfreude, this has happened so many times to us (virtually every time we have left a rented property), that we have stopped paying the last month's rent before we move out. Not a nice thing to do to landlords I agree but who can afford to lose their deposit if they are moving into another rental and need another month's deposit? There is no way of getting the money back - you can take them to the small claims court, but it will cost you, and it's your word against theirs and no guarantee you'll be better off at the end of it.

Btw we always leave a rented property in a good clean tidy state and don't take anything that is not ours, obviously - but whatever you do it's not good enough.