I've been reading and lurking, but not yet posted.
In the years that I rented houses, I always did them up.
I remember one, where the LL was pretty decent, fixing things and doing the odd job. We always asked permission for things that we wanted to change but weren't broken as such. I recarpeted the whole downstairs, painted it, kept it spotlessly clean.
I remember the move out day. The LL came with a clipboard and said right, let's see how much we can knock off your deposit. He'd never behaved like this before.
He inspected every room. Left with a blank piece of paper and had to hand me the cheque for the full deposit. It clearly stung him. But, all he could say was how beautiful it was, better than when he bought it.
The next tenant had huge issues with damp and mould in the house. (We knew because we'd made good friends with the neighbours who told us about her complaints). We ran into the LL a couple of years later and he said he'd never had such good tenants and he was sorry about the deposit thing. I just chuckled and said no worries. I've never had a deposit kept back, because I've never left a place in a worse condition than I moved into.
And as a LL I think that has to be worth something, rules and regulations aside. It sounds like youre in a similar position, and I imagine all will be well, it's just this shitty bit in-between that's a killer.
Hang tight.