Dialogue with landlord

[Lafoosa]

Hi all,
We recently moved out of a private rented house and had issues for 2 years while there that there were problems with the structure of the house causing mould, damp and leaking.
We informed the landlord of this on numerous occasions over email and in person but he never sent anyone out to fix it. Now that we've given the keys back he's got issues with the fact that the living room carpet is stained and now he's saying he wants us to pay to have the entire house professionally cleaned. (We didn't clean the windows or walls because we wanted him to see all the mould he left us to just live in when he could've fixed it).
He's also trying to get us to pay utilities again despite us already having called up the utility companies and paying all the final bills.
We've said he can keep the deposit for the last month's rent and him hiring someone to clean the carpet (there's more than enough to cover it) but he's claiming it'll cost him more than £750 to do that (the house is absolutely tiny and the living room is about 12ft square.

I don't really have any inclination to go back to that house again, especially as it would mean dragging both my kids there while I do it. We lived there for 2 years while it leaked and every single wall got covered in black mould without him doing anything about it. I don't feel like we owe him anything or that there's really anything he can do but keep the deposit which I've said he can keep.

Will he have legal standing against me if I don't hire someone?

Did you take photographs of everything?

If your deposit is held by the DPS (which it should be) then he won't be able to keep your deposit. If you raise a dispute with them then you would have to go to something like a board with the DPS and explain your story. Normally they are on the side of the tenant and not the landlord.

Did you have a written contract? Is the deposit held in DPS?

Deposit returns need to be sorted out through DPS as pp have said. Just raise a complaint through that. Your LL will have to provide coated justification of the portion of deposit he wants to keep and they will independently arbitrate.

If your LL didn't put the money in a DPS scheme then he's not able to keep any of it and you might be entitled to up to 3x the amount. You'll probably have to take him to the small claims court though. All this info will be in your "How to Rent" pack or on the Shelter website.

The deposit is being held by DPS and we have pictures of all the mould and the woodmite that is on the windows.
We have a written contract that states that we need to process clean the carpets, but it doesn't say anything about the rest of the house needing to be professionally cleaned. I also have written proof that we contacted him about the mould on numerous occasions and that he didn't do anything about it.
For some reason he keeps saying we're still "in tennancy" which we aren't because it's been more than a month since we've given notice and it states on the tennancy that we only need to give a month's notice.
Plus he keeps trying to get us to give him money for utilities which we've already paid and sorted out with the utility provider, and we've told him that.

Is it a fixed term or a rolling agreement you are on?

Mould is usually caused by condensation and is the tenant’s responsibility. If it’s around windows, then that’s almost guaranteed to be condensation. There’s not much a landlord can do except to tell you to keep the place heated at all times and ventilate - which of course he has zero rights to tell you.

England?

if you gave correct notice according to any fixed term or a rolling tenancy (sent by post or if otherwise, confirmed received - there may be a possible loophole here), returned keys, got all your stuff out and have vacated the place then you ended the tenancy. Tenants can do that - landlords can't.

presumably you took final meter readings and have confirmation from all utilities and the council that your accounts are closed. If so, that's all done.

then as mentioned, raise a dispute with your protection scheme.

We emailed to give them notice and the email was received and replied to. We got everything out bar one desk which we have said someone will be coming by to collect and we gave the keys back.
All of the accounts are closed, the council has been informed that we've moved and we gave a months notice (over a month ago now) which is how long of a notice it states to give on the tennancy.

Mould is caused by condensation and poor ventilation by the tenant.

You usually need to ask for your deposit back in writing and then the landlord has 10 working days to write you about any proposed deductions. If he doesn’t then you can request the deposit back directly from provider. When you say one month notice - it was before or on the day of the start of your contract right? It wasn’t like 1st of month and your contract/rent is due on 15th (as example). Was there a checkin and checkout inventory? It will state in your AST what conditions you’ve agreed to and it’s pretty standard that minus wear/tear, you leave it in same as checkin. So if the check in inventory says it was clean to a professional clean, that is the level it should be returned to. Condensation mould is your responsibility so the landlord will probably ask to deduct for cleaning it. Same with carpets, as mould from condensation lives and can thrive in carpets.

Did you pay your last month's rent? As your OP says you've said he can keep the deposit for it.

tenancy has ended and so has your liability for utilities and council tax. If landlord believes you have caused damage he raises a claim with the deposit protection company. He is also now an involuntary bailee for that desk and could in theory charge you storage/sell it - there is a procedure to go through for that. You do need to contact him to take that away.

That’s true about the last month - you said you told the landlord. That’s not your decision to make, per a standard AST. Did you ask and do you have his confirmation in writing? What does your AST state if you don’t have it in writing?

Because now you’ve opened yourself up to a lawsuit instead of going through mediation (where tenants are always highly favoured)

www.tenancydepositscheme.com/asktds-can-i-use-my-deposit-to-cover-my-final-months-rent/

My tenants gave a month's notice and stopped paying rent (without consultation), assuming that the deposit would cover the last month's. But their tenancy date was on a different day of the month. They gave notice on 14th November, expecting to leave on 14th December. But they'd signed their tenancy on 1st of the month and were on a rolling periodic tenancy. So in effect their last month was 1st -31st December and they'd given me 6 weeks notice.

Has something similar happened in this case?

Agree with PP that you can't use the deposit to pay for the last month's rent - otherwise the LL has no deposit from which to deduct repair costs, cleaning etc.

Your lease may say that the carpets should be professionally cleaned, in which case they should be. But £750 sounds waaaay too much, so I would get it done under your control rather than let the LL do it and deduct from the deposit.

Dispute with the dps. I did this and won.

@fedupdotcomlo, that link from one of the two official deposit schemes says

“Assuming the deposit is the equivalent of a month’s rent, accepting the deposit as a substitute for the final month’s rent will mean that the landlord cannot access the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service, which is offered for free by TDS”

So she’s going to be taken to court as the landlord can’t use the resolution service.

I've learned, thank you.