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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Landlord wants to take £300 from our deposit

147 replies

Beatrice11 · 25/03/2020 07:38

Hi everyone, just wanted to ask what’s everybody’s opinion.
Long story short, we moved out of the previous accomodation and want to get our deposit back. Landlord has been a bit difficult throughout the tenancy, but now he’s saying that he wants to take £300 from the deposit, the reasons are: we moved out one day later then we supposed to, because our son wasn’t well. We cleared the garage a week later. Now he is saying that it is £100 for being one day late with moving out and £200 for keeping our stuff in the garage for one more week. The rent we were paying was £1275/per month. The cost of renting out a garage in that area is £100/ month top- and starts from £50/ month.
We have been asking him to return the deposit for the last 3 weeks. Last week he texted us to come to his house and he will pay cash- he then didn’t open the door. Next day I’ve sent an email saying that we will take further steps- he replied that he didn’t open the door as he had a suspicious of COVID 19! He knew that we were coming ( we texted him a couple of hours before) and he didn’t warn us that he was feeling ill!
He refused to make an inventory check when we were moving out; we left the house in a much better condition then it was when we were moving in.
I think if he asked for £100 althogether, it would be fair, but not £300! He is saying that it is favourable to us!
We are now considering taking this to the deposit insurance scheme he used to protect the deposit.
Also, he is refusing to make a bank transfer, he want’s to give us cash- my understanding is that the current goverment statement urges everyone to stay at home emplies that we should not go to his house- any idea on that matter and where I could report him?
Sorry for a long post, but I am just getting sick of him.

OP posts:
Sindragosan · 25/03/2020 08:22

Just go to the DPS, he has no intention of giving you the deposit back at all, hence the 'shock' at your email. He'll fart around for months if you keep trying to get it back yourself.

BitterAndOnlySlightlyTwisted · 25/03/2020 08:28

No-one rents a property on a daily basis. If your tenancy agreement expired on the day before you actually vacated the property the landlord would be fully entitled to charge you for an additional rental-period. I.e. another full month’s rent. That they are seeking to charge you the equivalent of one week’s rent means you are getting off lightly.

Get onto the deposit scheme and ask for the whole of your deposit to be returned.The landlord will need to justify why they are seeking to make a deduction but you could risk losing the lot.

You say the landlord failed to do a check-out inventory but where is the check-in and do you have a copy of it?

PegasusReturns · 25/03/2020 08:28

Go through the DPS.

He’s chancing his luck and you should probably pay something but let them decide.

slashlover · 25/03/2020 08:35

Would everyone saying the landlord is being unreasonable be happy to move into a property late AND have the previous tenant's stuff in the garage?

KaptenKrusty · 25/03/2020 08:41

This is why the scheme exists - just go through that - I don’t know why you are wasting your time dealing with him directly!! Do not take cash from him either that’s crazy

The scheme may well take the 300 from the deposit - but who knows. Just stop engaging with landlord all together and step over to the scheme

kasho5 · 25/03/2020 08:42

That sounds really suspicious that he is offering cash - he should be releasing the deposit through the DPS and putting a claim in for any money he wants to retain. If you then dispute this, the DPS will decide whether he has reasonable grounds and in my experience they don't automatically side with the landlord. If he originally said he wouldn't charge you for the garage then it is unfair to change his mind. By my calculation you should owe £42 for the extra day - not £100.

Quarantimespringclean · 25/03/2020 08:43

It sounds fair enough to me. You didn’t vacate the premises at the time agreed and that has incurred penalties. You can’t expect to pay market rate for an unagreed, uncontracted occupancy of the garage.

Louise91417 · 25/03/2020 08:43

Dont understand why he didnt do inventory check when you moved out...this would be his "reasoning"to DPS...the £300 does sound reasonable for delay on moving stuff from garage,my guess would be that with inventory DPS would agree with landlord but without it you could have a loophole..

Lunafortheloveogod · 25/03/2020 08:43

Would you rent a house with the previous tenants stuff in the garage? And assuming they had keys to access it, no set day to come for it etc?

Probably not, you used the property for an extra week he’s charged you a week.. not the extra month he could’ve swung for. If you disagree dispute it through the scheme n see what they say.

Spiderandmay · 25/03/2020 08:45

I think both of you are being unreasonable. He was unable to use the house for one day and his garage for a week, that he owned. Not you, you gave up your right to stay in the property and leave your things there when you stopped paying rent. Would you expect to overstay your welcome in a hotel for a week with no financial consequences?

noisehelp · 25/03/2020 08:47

I agree with pp. You stayed in the property for a week and a day longer than you were suppose to. That means the landlord couldn't rent it out to anyone else during that time. If he had another tennant lined up he could have lost them if they needed to move by a certain day and you were still in the house. I think £300 is reasonable.

HugoSpritz · 25/03/2020 08:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Beatrice11 · 25/03/2020 08:55

He has insured the deposit in one of the schemes but he chose an option where he was keeping the money so I guess that is why he is now insisting to pay back cash.
I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t for the corona virus situation. Apparently the law allows cash payments in general, however not sure in this situation

OP posts:
PlanDeRaccordement · 25/03/2020 08:55

The insistence on cash is weird, but the £300 deduction is fair.
Moving out deadline is a contractual deadline. Which you broke by not fully moving out until a week afterwards. Sorry but the garage counts as part of the property. Why? Because no one can move in behind you until all your property is removed.
For a property worth £1275 a month, it should be £335 minimum you owe him, so rounding it down to £300 in light of your son’s illness was a nice concession.
Many landlords can charge you a full months rent if you miss your move out deadline. He’s just charging you the extra time you took with a discount.

Thingsdogetbetter · 25/03/2020 08:56

When he sent emails to say no deductions was he aware you'd left a garage full of stuff? Had you told him you were leaving it for a week - if not how was he supposed to know how long it would be there for and when he could move in new tenants? I'd presume anyone wanting to rent a property with a garage would want that garage to be immediately available to them on moving in, not sometime in the future. This may have delayed a new tenant moving in and cost him money.

He may be returning the rest in cash because like everything else the DPS is fucked up at the moment and there will be long delays in deposits being returned the normal way. He may be trying to be fair to you after you took, frankly, the piss.

I'm presuming you didn't tell him and negotiate the extra day in property and the extra week in part of the property BEFOREHAND as costs would have been discussed then.

As pp has said he could be entitled to charge a full months rent so £300 may be a great deal. Check your lease about over staying. Make sure you are legally in the right before you go in guns blazing.

ellendegeneres · 25/03/2020 08:57

I think YABU. You didn’t return the property in its entirety when your contract was over. You should have been out on say the 31st not the 1st then leaving your stuff til the 7th in the garage.

My dp rents a place with garage and when he moved in the garage was full so they agreed to a rent reduction for that month based on him being unable to access what he was paying for.

So your ll would have lost that money and would be recouping it from the person storing their stuff there (you in this circumstance)

I do think it’s dodgy he’s not going through the dps though, that’s not sounding right at all. So request through them for your money back and see what they determine

mothertruck3r · 25/03/2020 08:59

When you have got your deposit back, don't forget to report him to HMRC!

Mummyoflittledragon · 25/03/2020 09:00

I am a ll. Go through the dps. Include the supporting evidence that he originally said he would not charge you - but was that based on the day or the week with the garage? Did he start work eg painting etc in the house? If he of his contractors were working on the house to get ready for the next tenants, you weren’t able to use the property.

Right now your money is protected. Once the dps has adjudicated how much to return to you, you must get it within 10 days of that date.

londonrach · 25/03/2020 09:02

Go via the dps. Saying that when you move out you move out and you lucky you got your stuff even if its just in the garage.

BigChocFrenzy · 25/03/2020 09:03

When there is a dispute, the deposit scheme decides how much is owed
It is a free service

So, don't pay anything now, just refer the dispute

Original poster
Beatrice11 · 25/03/2020 09:03

The landlord wanted to do some refurbishment to the property and there was nobody moving in straigh after us.
He was aware of the delay in clearing the garage when he said he would give the deposit back. Even in his last email where he mentioned the deduction for the first time, he said he wasn’t planning to do so originally. He mentioned nothing about it for 3 weeks, just now when I said I would take further steps

OP posts:
MyOwnSummer · 25/03/2020 09:04

You need to contact the scheme where your deposit is registered and log a dispute. A mediator will assess the evidence submitted by both sides, and make a judgement.

If you were paying £1275 p.c.m and left the garage full of your stuff for a week, the landlord could not have re-let the property and therefore has lost a week's rent. Had he wanted to move another tenant in the day after you left, he would have had no choice but to put your things in storage and bill you for removal / storage costs.

£300 is actually fair in the circumstances. I would still recommend you go through the official mediation scheme as there is a chance that the adjudicator will take a kinder view, if he potentially fails to submit solid evidence.

Kisskiss · 25/03/2020 09:04

By leaving your belongings in the garage for an extra week you essentially occupied the property for an extra week...

BigChocFrenzy · 25/03/2020 09:04

and wanting cash is very odd atm - and absolutely not a legal requirement

When the deposit scheme rules what you need to pay, then do so via internet banking

BigChocFrenzy · 25/03/2020 09:06

The adjudicator is often kinder to the tenant than many people expect