Any rental deposit experts? (Garden)

[mouldyhousemouldylife]

I've been living in a student houseshare for the past few months which has turned out to be a total shithole which had a broken toilet, completely rusty oven, mould in several areas, damp walls, leaking windows, leaking radiators, hadn't been cleaned and, specific to the thread, the garden wasn't in good shape and hasn't been tended to either. It was quite a mess.

We've also had a leak from the bathroom into the living room below every time the shower was used for the entire tenancy and despite being told contractors were coming on specific days it has turned out to be a lie to keep us waiting until we move out so they didn't have to make the repairs.

We've never used the garden and now that I'm moving out I've noticed it's even more of a mess and is very overgrown.

There is no mention of the garden in the contract.

Seeing as it was already a mess and the house was a shithole from the beginning, and that the landlord duped is into believing he would make (legally required) repairs (we haven't had a living room for the entire tenancy) and didn't, I am against paying to sort out what was already a mess, just because it's more of a mess now.

Anyone know the actual legalities of this?

Thank you!

If maintaining the garden wasn’t in the contract, then you can’t be charged for it.

The landlord not fulfilling his obligations was probably more for you to chase us during tenancy.

If there is anything that you were liable for and didn’t do or damaged etc then you might as well get charged for it.

Thank you,

Oh I have been chasing the reposes during the tenancy - we've been given several dates over the last few months where nobody turned up and the most recent one was last week, and we are moving out now... I did get in touch with the council but held off out of fear he would retaliate and be a dick about the deposit.

Repairs *

The deposit needs to be in a deposit scheme. If it isn’t, then the landlord will be in trouble and it isn’t possible to ‘retaliate’. I think you might even get double your deposit back if it isn’t in a scheme.

It is protected properly, surprisingly

Take photos of everything and keep copies of all emails or letters etc incase your landlord tries to withhold some fo your deposit.

The DPS usually falls on the side of the tenant in any case. So I don’t think you have much to worry about. If the garden was overgrown in the inventory photos there is your evidence.

Don’t add the other repairs into the situation because they have no bearing on the garden. However annoying they are. Speaking as a LL.