Tenant has changed carpet, door and curtains!!

[Member786488]

He’s leaving tomorrow as was served a s.21 in July, my daughter is moving in.

he’s just told me how much he’s ‘improved’ the flat - he’s put in a horrible cheap grey fluffy carpet over a lovely, hard wearing, (expensive) and neutral one, he’s put a couple of doors in because he ‘doesn’t like open plan’, and my (again, neutral) blinds and curtains have been replaced with dark red things.

his deposit is £860. I don’t want to have an uncomfortable conversation but I think I’m going to have to. What’s reasonable here?

I can’t believe he did all that without asking!

@MargotBamborough - that thread did cross my mind too when I was reading this one.

Madness!

OP "OP "thanks again for your advice - when it came to it I just couldn’t cope with more endless arguments and phone calls."

I am so sorry. Do you know where he's gone? Obviously he won't ask you for a reference.

I understand that feeling of being too stressed to deal with it but wonder if there's anyone who can do it on your behalf. He's probably sold on your original things.

Absolute wanker. Wish I believed in karma.

That was a really silly thing to do OP, the agent and deposit people would have dealt with it all.

That said, when my nightmare carpet-painting fire raising tenant vacated my flat she did not get a penny of the deposit back, but she knew she didn’t have a leg to stand in so she skipped town without paying the last month’s rent. I am still in 2 minds about whether or not to sue her for it plus the extra damage that wasn’t covered by the insurance and exceeded the deposit amount.

We really enjoyed cleaning the shit that her pet rabbits had left behind the sofa. No, she did not have permission to keep pets..

@WhatYouWearing I don't feel sorry for him and I'm a long term private tenant. It's people like this totally flouting any sense of what's ok that are causing some landlords to sell up and hence why there are now real property shortages for really good decent tenants. It's not the only reason of course- but it doesn't help -

@WhatYouWearing hoping you don't feel the same after the update!

You must be very privileged to throw away the lion's share of £1000 because you're worried about awkward phone calls. Anyway, you don't need to deal directly with him at all to keep his deposit if it was in the scheme. If you don't even know how the scheme works, it's a good thing you're not going to be a landlord any more.

@Member786488 The deposit protection scheme could have this resolved within a few weeks at the most but your agent should be dealing with this. It's what you pay them for. I used to have to do this all the time and if there's photographic evidence, you can certainly send them the inventory vs dated pictures to get it wrapped up very quickly, along with the gist of the information saying he said he couldn't get hold of you. If he couldn't reach you, the answer is NO because it's not his property.

If the agent holds it you have made a mistake - that's illegal. It should be in a tenancy deposit scheme. The tenant may get compensation because you failed to use the deposit scheme. So probably best not to antagonise and write off whatever they have done in this case (although what he has done sounds wrong). Fine is up to 3 times the value of the deposit:

https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection/if-your-landlord-doesnt-protect-your-deposit

What @TheOccupier said…..

If the OP is using an agent I think it's highly unlikely that the deposit is not in a deposit protection scheme.

It's only rogue landlords going it alone who fail to protect deposits these days. An agency would have too much to lose.

@Member786488

I’m so sorry that this has happened to you.

I think you should seriously consider taking the cost of making good out of his deposit. It’s certainly not nice that whoever lives there next, regardless of their relationship to you, has to live with stained, rumpled, badly laid carpet. Even when cleaned, it doesn’t sound like it will be pleasant to have down.

As for what he did with the door! I’m furious for you!

A listed building and he nails a plastic concertina door to the kitchen! Despicable!

The extra sting is that it sounds like you bent over backwards to accommodate him, allowing his dog, and liaising with the local authority to get him rehomed somewhere more suitable.

Again, I’m so sorry 🌺

I do feel like a wuss, but I also feel free. The reputable estate agent only did a finder service (hah!) and, other than instructions re the deposit they won’t engage with him at all. They don’t have to, and won’t even allow him into their office because he’s so abusive when trying to find other properties. Likewise AgeUk and they help most people!

he’s now under the care of the local authority, and has a social worker, who I’ve been liaising with while we’ve waited for a bungalow to become free for him.

He’s not my problem any more, and that, as they say, is priceless.

Sounds like a total nightmare. I would also just drawn a line under it. He could have stayed there causing lots more damage, so a lucky escape!

That's not true. There are two types of TDS, one where a TDS agent holds the deposit and one where the landlord / letting agent holds the deposit. As long as it is registered with the TDS in the appropriate way, then it doesn't matter who holds the deposit.

Other than that, the TDS don't need to be involved unless there is a dispute in which case, the registered keeper has to transfer the deposit to the TDS who will decide and adjudicate, then transfer the deposit back to the relevant party.

Don't ask me how I know all this, I just know 😞

I don’t think sincerely hope not that you meant to use the word Wahhabism. It refers to a particular type of Islamic practice and theology.

@JoanOfAllTrades ...... talk about looking for offence in the oddest of places.

Wow I didn't mean to post that and had to look again when I said what you had put.
I have never heard of that word.
Will ask to be deleted
Sorry.

I wasn’t offended but equally, I didn’t want the PP to find out much later or be piled on for a simple mistake. And I explained what the term meant.

I didn’t think I was mean or nasty about what I posted, I wanted the poster to know what that term meant as it was clearly spellcheck doing its wonderful thing.

If anything, you are the one offended by what I posted, when I was trying to be helpful!

Sorry, I didn’t realise you were the poster. I didn’t mean to cause offence.

I wasn’t trying to offend you, but I know how sometimes posters can be piled in and I didn’t want that to happen. And I didn’t think it would make sense to just put that you shouldn’t have put that word, and have you wondering what the heck I was on about.

@JoanOfAllTrades no I apologise.
Totally jumped in without reading what I had put.

@Stomacharmeleon

As soon as I saw it, I knew it was a silly autocorrect thing, hence I thought I had better let you know. It’s got a very interesting back story to the movement.

I have to admit, I did think though that I might have missed something crucial and the OP was Muslim, hence you used it, as it could have been appropriate in relation to keeping/not keeping the deposit 🤔

@JoanOfAllTrades now I am off to google.... :)

😆 thank you @JoanOfAllTrades and @Stomacharmeleon for this unexpected diversion. Having spent 10 years in the Middle East and driven many times through the Wahiba I knew the reference and recognised that it was a typo - but it made me laugh.

Yes, that’s what I said, fixed terms are absolutely a thing - but the tenancy doesn’t end at the end of the fixed term, it rolls onto either contractual or statutory periodic unless either the tenant leaves or the landlord serves notice. The landlord serving notice does not end the tenancy however, only a court or the tenant can do that.