Landlord issues

[movedhome]

Hi just looking for some advice

We rented a property for a year, landlord knew it would be 1 year as we were expecting a baby and would need more space by the time baby was 6/7 months.

When we viewed the place, the carpets were stained and dirty, landlord acknowledged this, there was no end of tenancy clean done by previous tenant. We cleaned the carpets with a hired carpet cleaner and moved in. Landlord told us we could put up shelves, pictures etc as with all of his properties, he makes good and redecorated neutral every time there is a change of tenants.

We moved 2 weeks ago and all we did was pay for a professional oven clean as that has been done when we moved in, landlord messaged on our group chat (him, his wife, DH and I) and said the carpets were filthy and he was getting a quote for somebody to clean them. We reluctantly agreed to pay £107 for the carpets to be cleaned as we just wanted to get the rest of the deposit back quickly (we are clean people and I hoovered etc regularly, they were a better state when we moved out that when we moved in) but then he said that they were so disgusting it needed doing twice, so £214, we refused to pay for the second clean. He then said that the walls are marked and that we need to pay for his decorator to spend a day painting. Also that we had put a shelf up in the kitchen and the holes need filling and kitchen needs repainting. We refused this. No walls are marked other than a tiny bit at the bottom of the hall way when you come in front door. I regularly cleaned skirting boards etc and he told us we could put any pictures or shelves up (we put up one shelf the whole time we were there).

After a bit of a standoff he agreed to pay the rest of our deposit minus the £107. That was a week ago, my DH text last night to ask when the rest of it is being returned and he said he's on holiday now until 18th and will return it when he's back.

He had our deposit protected with mydeposits.co.uk and then I noticed that it says "we understand from your landlord that you are now extending your stay in the property on a statutory periodic tenancy) this is not true, we moved into our new home on 25th and went back and forth moving bits and cleaned the place and then handed keys in on 31st January when our tenancy was over. I've attached the screenshot.

We need the money back before 18th, is there anything I can do in this situation?

Thanks

Yeah, let the deposit company know that this is not the case, the landlord has tried to dispute costs and is dragging out repaying the deposit.

It won't go well for him, but you will need to speak up and likely will need evidence.

Speak to mydeposits about your situation and advise them of the facts

I would phone mydeposits or use their live chat feature and clarify that you're no longer renting the property. Then you can find out if/when they can release the money to you?

Have you photos of the state of the place when you moved in? I'd be disputing the cleaning costs too..

You shouldn't be agreeing to any costs directly with the landlord. Let the deposit scheme deal with it all. It's their job. The landlord tells them what he thinks you owe, you can dispute that with them by sending evidence etc. that's the whole point as it's stops landlords ripping you off