This op is slightly different to the one in chat but I have a conversation there too.
DP and I rented a room from a landlord who also lived in the house (we shared the kitchen and everyone did their own cooking. Our room and the other rented-out room shared a bathroom). We payed a £550 deposit by bank transfer which was not put in a deposite protection scheme and we have no reciept for it. We asked for a contract when we first moved in but because we were desperate we couldn't wait for it before moving in. We lived there for 6 months and no contract was ever signed. We payed our rent by direct debit for this whole period. As the landlord is a property solicitor (which we knew from the beginning) we were never too worried as we assumed he was doing it by the book.
We ended up renting a field there for my dp's parent's pony as they lost their grazing. The pony moved in after we had lived there for 2 months and therefore had paid 2 months rent. We payed the rent to him for the field but as a seperate transaction on a different day of the month to the rent for the room. There was also no contract for this agreement.
3 weeks ago we moved out. The official inspection of the room to check we didn't damage it was on the 31st March, even though he had already "inspected" the room while we were at work before we moved out (without telling us he would be doing this). We moved out 3 weeks before the inspection but he wouldn't do it earlier. We have now been presented with a letter explaining the following:
He has found 2 pin holes and a nail hole in the room. We asked about putting in the nail right at the beginning and were told we couldn't put the nail in until we had lived there for a couple of months, but that we could use pins instead. He is now denying saying this, and withholding the deposit until the holes have been filled in and the room repainted. The other people renting a room there were told the same thing concerning pins.
He has also billed us for some things in the field. Some of the fence was broken before the pony moved in, which he knew and warned us about, which we now have to pay for. He is also claiming that our pony broke some rails and tried to eat some, but we never saw any more broken or any chewed rails. The fencing in maybe 8-10 year old wood and in poor condition and the replacement he is billing us for is brand new and the labour to fit it. His horse is now living on the other side of the fence and has chewed lots of rails in his field and the door of his stable so we think this damage was done by his horse. It also looks like it was chewed from the other direction to our field (although this is clearly not an exact science).
There was also a broken old stable in the field (which he advised us not to use as it was not safe) which the pony broke some planks in the wall of. We have been billed for repairing the whole stable again with new materials. We have also been billed to put a new gate on the field even though the old gate was fine and undamaged by the pony, and for the damage to some branbles at the bottom of the field which he is billing us to because the pony trampled through (which he did) and chewed (which he didn't). The bill for the brambles is to make it into stock proof fencing with posts and rails - it was not a boundary when we moved our pony out there - just a messy bit at the bottom of the field, and it clearly wasn't stock proof either!
This bill for the field and the holes in the house comes to £540, so the landlord has said he will not be repaying the deposit and will give us the £10 in cash.
We know he said that we could make the holes, he also said the same thing to the other couple renting there who also do not have contracts with him. We do not think that we should be paying for those things in the field. Although we don't have a contract for either agreement, we paid rent on different days and moved in on different days so we think that the deposit we paid for the room should not be anything to do with the field.
Is there anything we can do to get the rent back? The letter he has sent has an itemised bill for all the deductions he will be making from the deposit, with the offer to pay the remaining £10 in cash. Is this enough "evidence" along with the bank transfer to prove we paid a deposit?
Who should pay for reasonable wear and tear (e.g. the field gate which worked fine and was not damaged, but was made of old wood and didn't look shiney and new)?
Is there a law I could look up which explains when it is ok to use the deposit from one (verbal) contract in relation to a different(again verbal) contract?