Landlord & end of tenancy fuckery

[Nyon]

We moved out of a rental property over a month ago. Letting agency have been refusing to start process of releasing deposit as apparently there was a flood when the new tenants tried to use something in the flat. We had reported this issue three times by phone (which each of member of staff is now denying) and we have 5 emails with the problem mentioned - including the first when it mentions leaking. Considering the mildness of the problem when we left, I’m struggling to understand why they’re now claiming almost 2k in damages because of our failure to report the problem. We’ll enter into the deposit realisation service but what are our rights here? I feel completely sick with this - we tried so hard to report the issue and they kept saying they’d sort and never did. This is also an agency that left us without hot water for three months alongside a whole heap of other problems.

I do however have the landlord’s email - would it be awful to me to forward the initial email reporting the problem?

If you have emails that prove you have reported the problem then the dps company need to know that. If the landlord is trying to keep your deposit for a problem that they should have fixed you have every right to dispute this and provide your proof of everything and the dps will pay you your deposit

So the letting agency can’t say, you didn’t chase us hard enough to fix? I mean, three calls and five emails is quite a lot over a four month period. And they acknowledged the problem every time!

If you have evidence you did report it then across the entire four months then it’s probably fine. If all the contact was in month one they may have assumed it was fixed by the landlord. The damage is probably low level leaks that started while you lived there - the only problem I can see is if the plumber suggested this started months before you reported it (and while you were living there).

You contacted them. They acknowledged the problem and you've a paper trail, I assume they acknowledged the problem via return email?

They're taking advantage and the dps shouldn't have any problem returning the deposit.

If the letting agency didn't inform the landlord or the landlord didn't want to spend money fixing a problem that's nothing to do with you.

The tenancy deposit folk (can’t remember their real name) are very fair. If you’ve got evidence of you having reported the problem you’ll be fine.

Also, they can’t claim for more than the deposit held anyway.

I would never use a letting agency and I am a Landlord. You need to contact the Landlord direct and tell him or her what occurred and show them the emails.

Oh awesome news, thank you. No, the problem was reported every month, with acknowledgements every time, with me unfortunately utterly losing my temper down the phone to one of the staff as they weren’t doing anything to fix the problem.

It also can’t be low level leaks - they’re claiming that when the device was used, it flooded so badly it went into the flat below. The object can’t hold that much water!

It could still be low level but as you reported it should be okay.

I had the tenant from Hell once who in the 5 years he stayed never once cleaned or opened a window (Dh and I left it to the LA to inspect the property but the tenants never allowed it - so we negotiated that they would contact us if there was ever an issue; but of course they didn’t) and the floor boards were disintegrating in certain sections under both the washing machine and bathtub as he’d had a low level leak that had yet to go down to the flat downstairs (water was in the cladding in between). We caught it after he moved out and before the new tenant moved in thankfully but cost us 5K to fix.