OK, I'll try not to make this too long but here goes...
Exdp and I moved into a house with one yo D's in April last year. (2012) it was a privately rented house joint owned by a friend of exdp and another man who he had meet through the friend on many occasions.
At the start both landlords were great. As landlord one was a close friend and colleuge of exdp he was very relaxed with tenancy agreement and deposits. He was helping us get on our feet after a disaster ( nothing of our doing) at the last place we lived.
Landlords came round to do an inspection once or twice. We told them the hearing was totally broken. Nothing ever done about it. Freezing cold house.
September time we have a house fire. The dog knocked the electric cooker so one hob was left on slightly. Only for ten mins or so. I am bathing D's, sm OK me billows under the door desperately try to get him out etc etc. Firemen turn up, say that the tiles used as a splash back were in fact floor tiles and illegal and had given off toxic fumes. So ds and I are carted to Hosp for toxic smoke I halation. Landlord comes round couple of days layer with a drill, and steel plate. Rips tiles off drills it in. No safety or accident reports, nothing mentioned about insurance or safety checks.
Anyway, exdp moved out new year time, ( mutual relationship breakdown kinda thing) and I stayed on in the house. I signed a new tendency agreement, one exactly the same as the first, for a six month period.
Found out that exdp hadn't played the deposit to landlord yet, but pro aptly did before my tenancy agreement started and told me the money was mine to have back.
Fine months on I gave my months notice as I could not afford the upkeep of the house on my own. This is all fine. Landlords come round and do an inspection.
To cut to the chase, we handed the property back over. I explained that it was not up to the standard I would have likes, but trying to do it all on my own with a toddler no transport or help was impossible.
Nothing major but the carpets needed a clean little bit more painting and cleaning. Seriously not a lot. I explained this band apologised saying I fully expected to have some of my deposit taken off me. Even helped them find quotes for the work.
Went to the house last night, landlords stroll in late and smirking and hand me a spreadsheet with a list of things they have bought to do up the property, also labour hours for themselves and loss of rent. They have charged me for 40 hours ( 2 men) working on it, skip runs, double price carpet cleaning than the quote we found, and hundreds of pounds worth of silly things like £7 gloves to clear waste...there were two bin liners I had it proffessionaly cleared.even down to things like cloths and 7 lots of rollers and paintbrushes and paint pads.....its a two bed semi. Not big. He's also charging me for loss of rent. It was handed over when he asked for it to be.
He's given me a bill for over 750£. My deposit was only 575. He wants me to pay the rest.
It says nothing about this in the contract. We didn't even have a condition report. We had no paperwork on anything. Like safety checks etc, just a general copy and paste tendency agreement. He left us without heating for over a year with a baby, his carelessness could have killed us, and I didn't kick up a fuss because he was exdps friend. Can he do this???
I've asked for a copy of his tenemcy agreement, energy effiency ratings, health and safety checks, and all other paperwork ( we had one out of date fire blanket in the house and no extinguisher) but he won't get back to me. What can I do? I desperately need some of that money to live on.
Thank you so much if you have got this far. Any help would be so greatley appreeciated