Deposit: damage and missing items

[whatever1980]

Hi

Tenant has moved out after 5 years and have noticed some damage

Oven - looks like seal needs replaced and obviously cleaned.

Floor in bathroom has hole in limo (this was brand new when moved in)

Enamel has come off toilet bowl inside and again toilet is 10 years old so not very old

Garden was never weeded

Tenant also left possessions in property for 2 extra weeks. I arranged for items to be delivered to her house

I also cleaned property as would've taken hours as very unclean.

Would you seek to deduct anything from deposit please?

Is the deposit protected?

Lino, 5 years is getting on a bit, wear and tear.

Oven doesn’t look great, what was you thinking re costs.

Toilet wear and tear?

Yes definitely. I assume you had an inventory before tenant moved in? The floor is damaged so you would need to get them to cover the cost of repair. Tenants are also usually liable for the cost of cleaning when they move out aren’t they? They’re supposed to leave the property how they found it.

Are you letting it back out again, I think reasonable to consider lost costs re possessions.

Was there an inventory on tenant starting tenancy?
Was the property professionally cleaned before they moved in?
Doers contract ask for professional clean on departure?

Lino = wear and tear. Re-do it and you may reasonable get a % contribution (around 20% as it's such a big hole).

Oven = repair would be your cost. Clean tenant's cost depending on inventory/pre-tenancy clean.

Garden = that doesn't look awful to me, certainly not 5 years of not weeding. You could probably charge for an hour of a gardener but personally I'd let that go.

Rent is liable for the 2 weeks possessions were still there.

Lino is wear and tear. Toilet just looks like it needs a bottle of coke down it overnight. I would charge for an oven clean and garden tidy although if gardening isn't mentioned in the contract then I am not sure if that can be charged for?

I don't think that's enamel come off the toilet is it? It looks like limescale and is fairly easy to get rid of. Push the water back up the U bend leaving the dark colour exposed and then pour some HG limescale remover (the liquid, not the spray) on it. It should glow white to indicate limescale and then dissolve it. May take a few applications.

I rented for years and that looks like wear and tear for the lino. The oven is a disgrace and I'd charge them for that.

Toilets needs water removing and a good dosing of black Harpic overnight.That stuff removes everything!

Thanks all

Toilet - yes enamel has come off and is also stained. Letting agent wants me to get a new toilet. So that would be plumber and toilet costs. I've tried numerous specialist cleaning products for toilet but obviously enamel has come off. I suppose I'm thinking of toilets in my house where there are six of us and toilet put in in 2006. Not stained and enamel still on. Not quite sure how happened here - lack of cleaning?

Vinyl in bathroom floor was expensive and quite thick not sure what happened there.

Blinds also missing from kitchen

@DumpedByText and @Sparklfairy I used both of those and emptied toilet. It's the enamel unfortunately. If need to empty toilet again and potentially paint bowl with enamel paint.

Should I deduct £100?

£30 for oven
£30 for Lino
£40 for missing blinds

I'll leave the toilet, cleaning, transport costs for her stuff to her (she didn't thank me for this despite fact she has no car) and additional time she left her stuff in house.

Is the deposit in a TDS scheme?

If not - you can't deduct anything at all because it's been held illegally.

If it is you need to explain where those figures have come from. You can't just decide amounts, you need to show quotes and workings out.

I would absolutely deduct for time property was left in house.

Unless you have a picture of the condition of the enamel and proof of them misusing the toilet in some way then you pay for that.

Lino - you might get a bit but it won't be the cost of redoing it with new lino. How much is 5 year old lino worth?

Oven - you repair. Was it cleaned before they moved in? Is there proff of this? If so you could charge for oven clean.

Garden- not sure how you can prove they haven't gardened in five years. Weeds grow. What does your contract say about the garden?

Yep all in scheme.

Not claiming for toilet. Never in my life seen a toilet in a house like that though. House was filthy. She admitted she's not cleaned kitchen for 5 years.

Deducting £100 sounds very reasonable to me. Have you plenty of photos of before and after.

Hi @MoreNotLess yes lots of before photos so have the evidence. Thanks all

I don't think you can charge for damage as the lino and oven seal are wear and tear really. You should definitely charge for cleaning, and you can charge for gardening. I would get a cleaning quote and deduct it. It looks like way more than £100 worth of cleaning.

I'd get a quote for cleaning too tbh.

Assuming you have photos of original state of house.

I'd replace toilet, you can't leave as is, approx 300.

Don't think I'd replace lino.

Full professional clean.

I'd do all these and get invoices, then take full amount off deposit.

The fact that they didn't even attempt to clean would make me think they'd expect to have deposit deducted.

I'm not sure that enamel coming off a toilet bowl would be down to 'wear and tear' unless their diet consisted of gravel and pan scubbers.

The garden and lino I'd over-look. The garden is nothing an hour and some gardening gloves won't fix, and the hole looks quite small and can be chalked up to wear and tear.
That oven is trashed though! As is the toilet! I've just left a 14 year tenancy, and neither the oven, nor the toilet were anything like that! I'd deduct full replacement costs personally.

Surely the toilet is porcelain, not enamel?