Letting agent making deductions from deposit

[Helish]

We recently out of a rental house where we didn't have the best relationship with the landlord. On moving out we used a professional cleaning company and carpet cleaning co as I knew the agents would try and take money off us. They've predictably come back to say the house needs a professional clean due to finger marks around a couple of light switches and a small mark on the carpet (the size of the tip of my finger). They're also trying to charge us for a new door, when we noted on our original inventory that the door had been filled in where a hole had been. So, what are our options/next steps? There's no way I'm letting them take a chunk of our deposit for minor marks or items that were damaged prior to our tenancy. All advice gratefully received!

We had a similar situation, in the end our agents backed down because we stood our ground, but I was ready to take it to dispute - this is very easy to do, and it all goes through the deposit protection agencies so is impartial.

In the meantime, I'd suggest keeping everything in writing, and backing up all your arguments with as much evidence as you can - photos etc are great. Don't admit any liability and keep it businesslike, no emotive arguments.

All the deposit protection agencies offer loads of advice online on how to dispute, so read over all of that. They also tell you how agencies SHOULD conduct check outs/end of tenancies - if your agent hasn't stuck to the rules, your position is strong.

Thanks Nancy, I will check where our deposit is held - do we complain straight to them as presently we've been emailing the agent? Luckily we have receipts and the original inventory which has DH's notes when we moved in.

Thanks Fruit, they used an external company to do the inventory and I think she was justifying her fee as she couldn't find much to note. Certainly it was a more picky report than when we moved in, hence DH making lots of additional notes. We've asked the agent to confirm the inventory company used our annotated report

No, you try and resolve it with the agents first, and if you can't, then you dispute.

We had a similar thing - inventory clerk blatantly trying to justify their fee. We used their own photos to show the house in exactly the same condition!

Thanks. I'm hoping they'll give in just to make us go away. New tenants have already moved in which goes against any justification for having to make repairs due to the house being uninhabitable for subsequent tenants. It's just a pain in the arse dealing with them.

Yes, we had the same situation, the house was sold, and still they were trying to claim for redecoration etc.

I just based my arguments on the state of the house, and the evidence I had of that, I didn't really bring the sale up. I would have done if it had gone to dispute though. Legally speaking, you can't pursue someone for compensation if you haven't actually suffered a loss.

Ah, that's a good point. They definitely haven't suffered a loss. They're charging us to have the front lawn mowed, but it was in the same state last weekend so I'll be interested to see the invoice for that one.
Glad to know we're not the only ones who have been in this position, but sad to know there are so many greedy agents/landlords out there.

Well, they have to justify their fees somehow!

It leaves a bad taste, doesn't it? We were good tenants and really looked after the place, but still they try and squeeze some extra cash out of us, urgh. To be fair, I've had more landlords who haven't been like this.

We made sure we left the house in a better condition than when we took it on. First time we've had to deal with this, previous landlords have been reasonable and always returned the deposit. We're going to buy after this!