To be bracing myself for landlord to try and take all our £1,200 deposit back

[Helpmepleasenow48]

We are now the proud FTB/owners of our first home. We were previously renting for 10 years and moved to our new home 2 weeks ago
Now the property we were renting was in a state needing decoration when we moved in. Things went wrong as soon as moved in - only minor things like drawers coming out and hinges going and a mirror frame fell apart when we moved it. The upstairs toilet seat broke but it was an an unusual shape so the landlord had to order a new one and even when it was replaced the hinges weren't and ended up going rusty. The garden bricks started falling apart from frost.
Then the bathroom floor got a hole and the oven stopped working and the boiler made s terrible noise.
We reported all these things to the landlord but only the oven was fixed. Over the years she put the rent up from £750 to £995. She never visited and even left her agreement with the rental agency so they all but collected the rent. Anyway about four years ago we knew we were going to come into some money and we communicated with the landlord that we might buy the property. Basically we had it valued but she wanted more than the value, we also had building work and damp proof costed - which would have cost at least £30k.
So we put in an offer on a property nearby in November and now own it. We did our best to clean the property - we gave her a month's notice, but we think she's peed off because we didn't give her more notice/offer her more for the property. When we told her the bathroom floor was broken she told us she expected us to mend it. She said she was renting and made minor improvemts to her home. We know she's on an interest only mortgage because all her mortgage statements were sent to the address. She paid £500 a month and her mortgage is actually more than our new one! She owes £220k and we have £200k mortgage. This I digress a bit but we are pretty sure this income hasn't been declared to HMRC as I set up a limited company and rang them last week to change address they wanted to know who owned the property. I told them we rented through a letting agent.
So now worried I may have dobbed landlord in and we won't get our deposit back.

Our landlord took all of ours for non-payment of rent, even though they were the reason our housing benefit was stopped (because they failed to produce the evidence asked of them by the council). I kept asking the landlord for it, never got it. He moved us to another flat as he was redoing our old one - have us the evidence we needed for a new housing benefit claim and everything has been fine at new flat since.

Then got a letter saying he has taken our £1k deposit from the previous flat for the rent. But he was very SLY about it - didn't tell DPS that we had moved address, that HE had moved us to another one of his properties. DPS sent the letter about us being able to challenge the decision etc to out old address. By the time we heard about it all our deposit was gone and the time limit for challenging it had gone. That was undoubtedly the landlords plan.

I kept saying "the money is waiting to be paid for you you just need to show xyz" no luck, but perfectly willing to provide it for the new property when he moved us. Really fucked me off that one.

OP, I think HMRC and the deposit protection schemes now cross reference data with each other, so HMRC can find landlords who aren't declaring their rental income, so she might already have been found out

Or if she hasn't been and you shop her, she may think it was the deposit scheme rather than you

Agree with others that 'accidental' crappy landlords give reputable ones a bad name, as well as dodging tax

For taking our stuff out of the loft. No inventory was made of the loft and in fact it was a third full of all her stuff. I've replied with all this.

Eh?! She’s charging you for taking your things out of the loft?

I would not be charging a tenant for cleaning after ten years! You expect to have to clean a property after ten years. After that length of time you’d be decorating and putting new carpets in. Nevermind a clean.

Stand your ground OP. Don't let her take anything. And am I correct in thinking she didn't do an annual gas check?

Letting agents now have to tell HMRC about all the landlords they collect rent for too. Tax free rental income is hard to hide now, I imagine a lot of people are going to get a shock.

If the rental income is used to pay the mortgage the landlord doesn't necessarily owe anything to the HMRC though.

That’s not true re rental income and mortgage payments. In any event, just because there isn’t any tax due doesn’t mean the income doesn’t need to be declared.

That isn’t true. There’s no longer tax relief on mortgage interest. The whole of the income is taxable.

I've started a dispute with TDS and asking for full payment wish me luck

Good luck. You’ll be fine. I’m a ll as I said upthread. She’s totally unprofessional. Shame on her expecting you to pay her this money. I hope you get the full amount.

You don't need luck. You'll get your money back. It is very unusual for TDS to side with the LL if the LL does not have cast-iron proof e.g. receipts, photos, correspondence etc. If there is doubt, they may adjudicate for a lesser amount but you have tried to be reasonable so it's already weighted in your favout.

Your LL possibly does not realise this. Which makes her even shadier than she already sounds. Accidental landlord or not, once you're letting somewhere and taking money for it you are responsible by law for certain things and it's up to you to find this stuff out and comply with what you need to do.

Alsohuman
Yeh a family member never used to declare their income. Sold rentals never paid capital gain either. It really pissed me off when I always declared all of mine.

I’m looking forward to your post telling us you have £1200 in your account.

I hope so but assuming the worst! Feel guilty - never like being confrontational but this feels like I am! Yuk!

Gosh you're not being confrontational at all, you're just doing the right thing. As someone said upthread, she's a chancer.

Okay she's still pushing us despite the dispute now starting and I've conceded a further £150 so £250 in total.

Why are you conceding more now that you have started the dispute? Stop! Let the TDS sort it.

Stop conceding, ffs! Dispute the lot and get your money back. Honestly, OP, you’re far too nice for your own good!

Please stop conceding. Your ll is a snake. Again. I am a ll. I would never treat my tenants like this

I don't understand why you are conceding anything. You don't owe her anything. 10 years anything that's dirty, lost or even damaged, is all reasonable wear and tear, especially as she did nothing to the property while you were there.!

Okay - LL is going to pay us £920 of the £1,190.50 deposit we paid. I know it's not ideal, but it means we get the money back today. Also - we have worked out she's a mortgage prisoner, unable to get a normal deal.
So she can't sell and is being forced to rent out so she can keep renting where she lives, she doesn't want to move back to the house...
Thank you for all your support here, 99% of you have been kind and it has given me the emotional oomph I needed to get even back what we have. I do feel we could have cleaned the place a bit better...

You lost £270 when you didn't need to, love. That's a shame. But glad you got the majority of it back. Next time, hold firm and don't concede ANYTHING.

If you’re happy with that then that’s OK. You’d have got it all in dispute but sometimes it’s worth the peace of mind of having it settled. Enjoy being a homeowner! (And put away money for repairs/emergencies/overpaying the mortgage!)