to not want to pay the M.O.D £1,557.79, which i dont have anyway...

[pinkdolly]

ok so Dh left the forces in July. We had been living in surplus family housing as we were moved out of our married quarters due to extreme safety issues. It was all a bit of a mess-up really. But there we go.

The only place they could find us at the tme was a massive victorian 4 bed house. Which on the face of it was very nice.

however the 2 years there wee the longest of my life. The landlord really wasnt very good. The bolier needed replacing and broke repeatedly. Rather then installing a new one he just fixed every part under the sun. Which meant for the most part we were left trying to heat this big old house with electric heaters supplied by the landlord. He had said he would refund us the bill for this but never did.

The whole house had been painted with a water based paint, which the letting agent had said was really silly, as we couldnt clean the finger marks off without the paint coming off too (at that point we had one little girl learning to walk and a 5 and 6 tear old).

Anyway when we left my dh spent a week painting and scrubbing. He had a team of about 10 people help with this. But the marks didnt all come off the walls as we couldnt scrub anywhere near as hard as we should have done.

Anyway today i have just had the bill come through for the house.
£1090.31 for repainting#
£359.90 for a new living room carpet- scorched by one of the heaters supplied by the landlord, which we wouldnever have had to use if the boiler was not broken. And a few other bits all adding up to the figure at the top.

Now am i being unreasonable in thinkng we should not have topay all of this amount. my dh worked really hard to sort the house out when we left (i had a very colicky 2 month old so couldnt really help). He made every effort he could to sort it out.
The rental agreement said we would have to pay for anything beyond fair wear and tear. Well what do u expect with a family of young kiddies.

in any case we literally do not have the money. Dh left for a lower paid job and we just about make ends meet as it is.

what do u think we should do?

have you any of the agreements in writing or were they all verbal?

Hmm this seems very unfair. The landlord should really have done an inspection before you left. What did he say about the carpet at the time you reported it? Repainting seems extravagant if your DH did it already.

If you hadn't told him about the carpet at the time (he should have accepted liability and got insurance to pay I assume) then I would pay that, but I would definitely argue the toss about the repainting. Did you take photos?

contact ssafa they will help,or maybe british legion?

It is unfair, but DH/MOD charge everyone for anything they can get away with.

As a landlord i have always completely redecorated between lets so I think the repainting is definitely wear and tear - no shadow of a doubt.

Obviously meant DE/MOD? Not DH

Im afraid at the time I was having a mini nervous break-down. My 2 month old had practically not stopped crying since he was born and was still taking 30-40 mns to latch on before taking a feed day and night. So as you can imagine I was just a jibberng wreck.

There was an inspection with the landlord present. And he wasn't overly happy about the walls. I was not at the inspection as I was with the children. The forces representative said that she could see what an an effort Marc had made to sort it the house out and that was noted.

Madame- yes I would have thought that too, but they have charcged us a grand for it.
Thanx for the info regardng the british legion and ssafa will give it a go.

Tho not sure in reality where to go from here. We have no savings and and evry penney is accounted for monthly at the moment.

The bill says they want immediate and full payment. Hmm, not gonna happen I think.

No photos were taken. We had asked for someone from the forces to come around and tell us exactly what they wanted done (like they do in a march out of MQ) but they said they dont do that in private rented and just said fair wear and tear is accepted. So we didn't know hat to expect really.

oh yes the carpet- we had explained to the landlord the damage on the carpet and it being one of his heaters that caused it and he said he would sort it out.

Did you have Forces Financial insurance? Fairly sure ours covers any charges on march out.

Are they withholding your DH's final pay until this is sorted?

Is the £1K for repainting the whole house? I'd ask for a breakdown by room. Surely not every single room requires redecorating?

Who was the landlord, and who is demanding the money? What sort of tenancy did you have?

I think you should try posting on LandlordZone for some expert advice.

Sorry never heard of Forces financial insurance. We had bog standard house insurance. Dh got his final pay slip months ago. So they owe us nothing.

The landlord was just a civii and it is the MOD who are demaning payment for works undertaken. No there is no breakdown of painting. That may be a good point ot raise. The tenancy was justa bog standard 6 shorthold 6 month one.

Why were you not present at march out?

because i was very badly depressed and had 4 children, one of those a 2 month old who never stopped crying. And was told previously to allow 3 hours for march out (in the end it was a little over 3 hours being such a big house)So it was just my dh.

i was looking after he kids basically

(the)!

I´m not sure.

You were only there 2yrs.

We rented privately in Germany for a year-we are a family, and the place was more or less expected to be as pristine as the day we moved in.

We paid to have the placed painted & carpets cleaned professionally.

It was expensive, but worth it as the onus was then on the company and not us to get it "up to scratch".

But you shouldn´t be replacing a carpet-unless the damage was caused by you using the heater incorrectly/knocking it over, imo.

Well as far as I understand it the landlord is the only party allowed to charge you for any damages, and they must be able to prove (ie with reciepts/photos) any work or damages they want you to pay for. But maybe the MOD involvement changes that?

Anyway I still recommend you get advice off LandlordZone or similar. You can join and post on the forum realy easily.

sorry i thought your orignial post meant that neither of you were at march out we always got told a total on the day of the march out and where given a chance to sort it out ourselves to reduce it.

Ouch, poor you

I separated from my husband early this year and left him to do the march out. The bill was £350 for repainting the house as I had forgotten to fill some minor picture holes up before I left.

If it is any help at all, it wasn't taken from XHs' pay, or his half pension, so not sure how they would enforce 'payment in full'

I know it still leaves a big unpaid bill, but will hopefully give you time to get in touch with an organisation that may help?

Sorry just re-read and realised your DH left the forces in july. Ignore me, talking rubbish!

Who was your DH with? Navy, RAF, Army? Have you tried their families federation?

I don't know how it works with the MOD, but could you explain the situation to the housing officer and generally try and get him/her to negotiate?

The paint situation is unreasonable as it should be able to be wiped. The landlord will be wanting to rent to the MOD again, so will probably be willing to negotiate.

Did you not have to do a 14 day report when you moved in? I'd have thought it would still be done even if it was civvi rented?

Did you pay any kind of bond when you moved in?

Get onto the CAB, the Office of Fair Trading or, failing that, the Sun - you might even make a profit!

Sounds out of order to me. YANBU.