Holiday rental security deposit being withheld.

[Rascallsall]

Following my elderly mother's ill health earlier in the year, I booked a luxury self catering holiday home through a holiday company specialising in these homes for the whole family. The house for a week cost more than £3000 and I had to pay a £1000 cleared funds deposit.
We had a couple of maintenance issues whilst there. Water had got into an outside light fusing most of the lights downstairs the first evening and the door bell rang (by itself) from 3 to 4 am another night, before we managed to turn it off. We called the maintenance company the following mornings and both these issues were fixed promptly.
I did have some anxiety (I was a bit of a nightmare ) that we might damage something in this wonderful home so great care had to be taken by all. Despite this my adult twin daughters managed to ruin an enamel frying pan. I found an identical replacement on eBay and Amazon ( for around £20) but wasn't sure if it would arrive before we left. As a temporary measure I replaced it with a Tefal one. I left a note to explain and expect the deposit returned to reflect the cost of the enamel pan.
After we returned home I was contacted by the property company who said the security deposit would be retained whilst they dealt with a couple of issues. The pan and a green "melted" stain on one of the sofas. The stain is in the frame of the sofa and covered by the sofa arm and back cushions and as well some additional decorative cushions. I never saw the stain and the only things we did in the lounge was eat chocolates and Haribos and have a few drinks whilst watching TV . At first I thought it could be a squished Haribo but in the photo it looks like hair gel or candle wax.
I have said that unless it is a Haribo then we definitely didn't cause the stain. A week has now passed and I haven't heard anything. I really need some advice as to what to do/say now. This is giving me so much anxiety and to say that the holiday has been ruined would be an understatement. Does anyone have any advice please?

I work for a holiday company and it does take a bit of time to check everything is in order before giving back the security deposit (ours is £250 and we allow up to 3 weeks while everything is checked) so it maybe that they are just crossing the dotting the i's and crossing the t's.

We would also never take anything from the bond without discussion with a guest first. If it was necessary to keep something, it would be a mutually agreed amount, not all of it.

The onus on them is also to prove that you did the damage. Argue your corner if the damage/mark was already there. Fair wear and tear is no reason to keep the deposit either.

Thank you so much Nap for replying. I am absolutely certain we didn't cause the stain and I think it is entirely possible that housekeeping could have lifted the large sofa cushions to hoover under and not spotted the stain during their cleans. Just wish I could stop worrying about it. Do you think I should contact the company for an update? We left on the 19th May.

we own a villa in Spain and take £250 deposit for up to 12 guests.
we have never withheld a deposit for fear of a bad review and we have had broken sunbeds, tiles cracked, fridge basket broken, feet marks in the walls beside bed, felt tip on bed linen etc etc etc
its just not worth it, we put it down to wear and tear.

Thank you Birdlady. Throughout the week I kept trying to reassure myself that the £1000 was in case we turned it into a party house for the week and trashed it. We couldn't have been more careful and there were only 7 of us adults in a house for 10 to 12. You need to send me your house details for next year so that I can actually go somewhere and relax a little!!!