Deposit: damage and missing items

[whatever1980]

Hi

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

Don't be greedy. Tenant paid her rent, this is business not charity.

Jesus that place looks filthy. I know nothing about letting but to my mind if anyone is letting a property get in that state they are not taking the slightest care of anything, and in fact actively behaving in a way that will damage things, so nothing can be considered reasonable "wear and tear".
Although I'm another one on the side of that has to be pure filth in the toilet - there is no enamel to wear away, just porcelain and the only way the porcelain would go missing would be if bits actually chipped off. If the toilet can't be cleaned and needs to be replaced, that's 100% the tenants fault for being a filthy cow.

Thanks all

I emptied toilet of water and on two occasions used a whole bottle of harpic black over night then the HG brand. There is orange around the black (looks like rust) which makes me think it is enamel or a coating that has come off. There is definitely a coating which has come off. Don't know if they were on medication which would do this? I spoke with neighbour and he has no trouble with water in his toilet doing this. Toilet is only about 10 years old or so.

I charged her £400 less per month than market rate for all the tenancy. Instigated all repairs within 24 hours. All stat checks carried out as per the law. They led a very cluttered life to be polite so didn't realise how bad or unclean things had gotten until house was cleared.

Thanks for advice everyone

Did you follow the instructions for the toilet cleaning products? On their website, Harpic don't appear to ask for the water to be removed nor for it to be left overnight.

I wonder if you caused this damage yourself.

Does your deposit scheme suggest the expected life of vinyl? I would have thought after 5 years of a tenancy, it isn't unreasonable for you to replace. It's different to how long it lasts in your own home, as the tenant can easily cause accidental damage to vinyl during the move in and move out.

Oven cleaning fee (receipt?) and replacement blinds certainly seems fair to charge for.

Was the money in a tenancy deposit scheme and did you carry out regular checks on the property?

If not, you don’t have a leg to stand on.

Was the property not inspected during the tenancy? If so, I would be asking the agent to cough up (I succeeded in getting an agent to do this recently for the inspection reports not reflecting the poor state of the property).

If not, you won’t get away with charging much. The deposit schemes tend to favour the tenant.

Did you do a check in and check out inspection with the tenant with photos?

@Swissrollover definitely didn't cause this damage. I've multiple photos of inside toilet bowl when they left and it was exactly the same as this.

Inspections were carried out but letting agent said that because they were hoarders it was difficult to truly inspect.

Going with a different agency this time

My experience of renting out a house was that it’s not up to the landlord to decide how much money to withhold from the deposit for damage. Our tenant of two years caused some damage and took a few fitted items from the house when she left. There had been regular inspections and we had photos taken by the property management company six months previously and at the start of the tenancy.

i think the system was that initially we did not return the deposit so the tenant could raise a dispute through the deposit scheme. We then had to fill in a report listing all the damage showing before and after photos and providing quotes for both the repairs and replacing missing items. The deposit scheme then made a ruling on what was damage and what was normal wear and tear before returning the remainder of the money.

It definitely ruled in favour of the tenant as we spent over £2000 to get the house back up to the initial condition so we could re let it and were awarded just over £500 from the deposit. However, I was happy with that, we could have saved some money by doing the cleaning and decorating ourselves and accepted that there are always costs when renting out a property. We had received rental money without issues and had a contingency fund set up to cover any unexpected bills.

The next tenants lived in the house for five years and it was absolutely immaculate when they left, no significant damage and spotlessly clean. Even so, we still redecorated and replaced the hall carpet which was getting rather worn before resetting.

Regarding the garden, as the house has a huge garden, we pay for a gardener to look after it rather than leave it up to the tenant.

Rest of vinyl has lasted the course as it was thick and quite expensive just not sure what caused the hole

It's a lovely bathroom OP. I'm a renter myself and tbh I think you can claim for the vinyl damage having had a quick google. It says small nicks are wear and tear but larger holes like yours are claimable. That oven is a disgrace tbh and I'd be ashamed to have left it like that. Still not sure what to say about the toilet - it seems super odd that all the 'damage' is below the waterline which is why I keep thinking limescale despite your updates!

Yes - but the tenant rented the LL’s property from them… so ‘yes’ it is a business.

I’m a landlord myself -

Lino after 5 years for what it’s worth I’d replace- its wear and tear and no charge to the tenant.

Toilet - I’d probably just replace it - cheapest one from Screwfix is like £80 and then just the labour to install unless you know how to do it yourself… (easy enough) - I’d be charging the tenant for at least 50% of this.

Oven - You provided the oven, unless malicious damage then it is something that you would cover.

Garden - an hour with a trowel and gloves will solve this issue. Easy fix.

Cleaning costs I would definitely recover. Seems like you need Kim and Aggie to come in!

Storage costs/ moving - Your discretion as a landlord.

I’d think that most of the deposit would be retained as it is.

Thanks for the advice everyone very much appreciated. I think I'm good to go now.