AIBU re Landlady/deposit

[Greenkit]

Moved out of rented 20th April, tenancy till 29th April. I cleaned the whole place, washed carpets, and scrubbed woodwork (not that it was a mess).

Letting agent came back and said there were weeds in the garden, so i went back and got rid of those, an hour before the new tenant moved in, all good.

Emailed the letting agent yesterday, just hada call to say the landlady is having a think about the deposit and a "few things wrong" so i asked what these were....a bit of limescale round the sink and the hob wasnt up to standard.

She lives up North, i am SW, so her only view would be by pictures and the letting agent. The house is spotless, i even asked a next door neighbour to have a look and she said it looked better than when her friend (the landlady) lived there.

Apparently I shall have a call back later with her thoughts......

What can I do or say?
And am I being U to request all my deposit back

deposit held in a scheme

Protected within 30 days and prescribed information (protection certificate etc) given? Inventory done with photos? Was it cleaned to this almighty standard when you moved in and does she have proof of that?

Did you take photos? If so email them to letting agent and landlady stating clearly that the place was spotless. Withholding the deposit for a bit of limescale sounds ridiculous; she's taking the piss.

I"m assuming letting agent did an inventory when you moved out? Why has she taken so long to come back?

Put your claim in to the deposit protection company stating the above with any evidence.

'Having a think' - call agent back and say you want the full deposit returned in the next 5 working days or you will take legal advice.

Ask for before and after photos as proof. Landlady may be able to charge you for the cost of a professional clean if the property wasn't left in the condition you found it in.

Pretty sure you can dispute any issues with the deposit scheme itself? So landlady says she is keeping x amount for the hob. Dont you then have the ability to put your side across to the deposit people including evidence it was cleaned, photos etc? I've luckily never had to fight for any deposits as have rented for years, but have always thought that if any landlord tried to claim some of the deposit I would be able to submit a counter argument? I always take my own photos at end of tenancy for this reason.

Does anyone get their deposits back? Anyone can find something if they look hard enough. Scale around a tap? How much is that worth?

Contact the deposit protection scheme and tell the agent you’ve done it. The change of tune will be instant and the money will miraculously appear in your account.

Shes taking the piss. If you were there weeding the garden an hour before the new tenants moved in she obviously hadn't intended to pay for gardening so I assume she didn't pay for cleaning either. No costs means no deductions, ignore her and send your evidence to the deposit scheme

They must have done the inventory check already if the new tenants have moved in. You are not being unreasonable to expect the whole deposit back.how long were you in there?

So my daughter was there 4 months, she split with her BF and i moved in to help with the rent.

They made her do all her checks again, at a cost, plus mine obviously and we had to start a new 6 month tenancy.

The house hadnt been decorated in 20yrs, as she wanted the tenants to get in a proffesional if they wanted it decorated.

Claim your deposit back from the deposit scheme. Inform the agent you've done that.

What did the original inventory say?

Scheme will find in your favour. I've had a place pretty much trashed and scheme found in tenant's favour.

You will get your money back from the scheme don’t worry at all.

Since new tenants are already in the only "proof" they have is before tenancy and after tenancy photos of the sink and hob for comparison.

If they can't produce those they don't have a leg to stand on.

I have contacted the scheme and requested my money back directly. They have 5 days to come up with something good or else its paid into my account.

She is a CF, she tried to claim for a bath, the tenants previous to us and previous to them, must have used a corrosive on the enamel bath and you can see marks where they squirted it round the bath edge.

Obviously over time the enamel has further eroded as its not protected, she said if we had looked after it better it wouldnt have faded.

I said perhaps she should have chased the last two tenants then for a new bath....

Do waste time faffing about with he said /she said, the agent should now tell you what the cost of rectifying these issues are and how much of your deposit will be returned to you. You can the dispute this with the deposit scheme.

Think we cross posted op, looks like it's sorted.

Sounds like such a scammer. The only way she can "keep" some of the deposit is if it is being used for professional cleaners in circumstances that the house wasn't left in a good enough standards, or to replace/repair damages proven to be caused by the tenant. The fact the new tenants are already in the house prices she's not intending on getting the house professionally cleaned, so the limescale and weeding "issues" were completely irrelevant. We had similar years ago when we rented. They claimed there was an iron mark on the bedroom carpet. I told them I didn't even own an iron (which was true) and they changed their story to a hair straightener burn, again, I didn't own any. So they then dropped that and started saying there was dust on the skirting boards and muddy footprints on the hard floors. We moved out a week earlier than our tenancy ended, so they could do viewings easier, and they inspected the house a week later after having tons of viewers traipsing in and out! I went back and cleaned it all, as I was adamant I wasn't paying a penny, they then had the cheek to say that the microwave, which we bought then asked the landlord if they wanted to keep it as we got a better one for our new house, was dirty! We'd used it probably twice, and it only cost a tenner, they charged us £20 for professional cleaning of it! This was all the estate agent though, landlord wasn't aware of any of it. And what made us laugh the most is we left the house spotless. When we moved in, it was grim and we had to get a professional to clean the oven before we could use it. We were only there 6 months, and when we left the house looks a damn sight better than it did when we first moved there. They took about £300 of our deposit in the end. I was furious but fed up with fighting with them.

We had an estate agent try it on with us as well - house disgusting when we moved in (piles of drug paraphernalia, rubbish, fag ends even though supposedly no smoking, dust, dirt, clearly not hoovered for years type thing), spotless when we moved out, they tried to charge us for cleaning, even though they were having the whole place renovated (it was in a terrible state with rising damp, rotting window frames, leaks in the ceiling that we'd been nagging them to fix and 30 year old carpets/kitchen/linos with holes in).
I asked them what they thought was not up to scratch and they eventually said the oven, which was a joke because the oven didn't even work anyway (again - reported but no action taken).
I was really surprised that a well known estate agent would behave like that, wouldn't have surprised me from dodgy landlord!
In the end we got our full deposit back but it took a lot of effort. The scheme was basically pointless and not able to do anything to assist at all.

UPDATE

I am pleased to announce the full deposit has landed in my bank

I guess they were trying it on, but when I claimed it back they didnt have a leg to stand on.

well done OP!

Thank you