What happens when a landlord/estate agent disputes deposit.

[Peppadreamer]

I'm gutted at how this has played out and I'm hoping for some advice on what the process will be.

We lived in our rental for 10 years. We were model tenants, never any complaints or issues and we maintained the property to a high standard.

The property was a btl and as soon as the mortgage was paid, the LL decided to sell. This was a very stressful time as we have children at the local school and family houses are like gold dust where we are. We managed to find a new home and gave the EA our 2 month notice.

The house we lived in was a new build, approx 25-30yo. There has NEVER been any maintenance or decorating completed by the LL since the day it was built. They didn't even paint the walls or change the carpets when we moved in.

The kitchen and fittings were tired and dated but still in good condition so we didn't mind. We had the place professionally painted and the carpets professionally cleaned every few years to keep the place looking good.

As we left, we had a professional end of tenancy clean carried out and had all the walls freshly painted. We completed a walk around with the EA. They told us the place looked amazing considering how old it was and the lack of maintenance from them. No issues were flagged.

We have since been waiting for our deposit and have noticed the house is on the market. There has been absolutely no upgrades throughout, it is being sold exactly as we left it.

The EA have waited the full 30 days before they decided to raise an issue with the deposit scheme. They want a chunk of our deposit for cleaning costs.

This has been a kick in the teeth tbh. The issues highlighted are from tired fixtures and fittings or general wear and tear of appliances that have been in place since the property was built. Things that should have been maintained by them but have never been touched.

I have disputed their claim as I don't agree that the place wasn't "clean" and thankfully I took photos of everything before we left as proof.

What happens next? It's honestly so upsetting that we left the property in better condition to what we received it. They have made us wait the full 30 day period before responding to our repayment request, further delaying us receiving our money and they are wanting us to pay them for the lack of maintenance on their property.

This is not a landlord bashing thread, but these types of landlords are absolutely the ones that give good landlords a bad name.

When you communicated the things that needed maintaining/replacing/repairing to the LL during your tenancy, what did the LL say at the time? If the LL didn't know things needed doing how would they know until they check after you move out?

All communication was done through the EA.

There was no major issues to communicate. They know that the place was never painted or maintained as they hadn't paid for any of this to happen. It wasn't in bad condition and everything was in working order however, all original fixtures and fittings had become dated and a bit tired looking.

We had inspections yearly so surely if there was any issues, they would have picked them up in the 10 years we were there?

We did a walk through with the EA at the end of tenancy and they told us there was no concerns and everything looks amazing (their words) so why would they then decide to raise an issue with the built in fixtures looking tired and needing a clean?

It feels like a money grab and completely unnecessary considering we left it looking much better than how it looked when we moved in.

If your deposit is with one of the official companies, it's down to the land lord to prove his case.
Send the company all your photos. Copy of the details if the end of tenancy clean etc and you should be fine.

When the estate agents did the walk-through, did they complete an inventory with photos? You should have then received a copy of the dated report.

If they didn't, the landlord and estate agents can't prove any of the claimed 'damage' was down to you.

It's good you have photos. I'd check with the deposit scheme what the landlord is claiming, then use your photos to dispute the claims. You can take a screenshot of the details of when the photos were taken and send that with them.

Usually the deposit schemes work on a 7 year time frame for wear and tear. So if a carpet is two years old and ruined by a tenant, then the landlord can claim for 5/7ths of the cost of the carpet. If the carpet was 7 years old then they probably wouldn't get anything, or much. So if your interior wasn't painted or updated at all in ten years then they don't have a leg to stand on.

You can contact Shelter for advice as well.

Get in touch with Shelter.
Look up their web site. There’s probably advice there about tenancy/deposit disputes.

Ring Citizens Advice. They can be really helpful.

Google the Gov.uk website & look up tenancies and your rights.

If the deposit has been properly deposited (as per the law) go to the deposit people & dispute the matter.
Ask the agent for access to wherever the deposit is held. You can then look it up & check out the dispute process. By law you should have had this info at the start of your tenancy.

If the deposit hasn’t been legally retained, you are in a very strong position to take it to court & win your case.

The landlord employs an agent to deal with admin’ and probably pays them quite handsomely. That what agents are for.

Send in your photos and the invoices for the end of tenancy clean, carpet cleaning and painting. This will be ample proof that your landlord has no claim.

Is your deposit held by one of the tenancy deposit schemes? It should have been

I've helped a few friends deal with similar situations. Some landlords are just disgustingly greedy. They don't seem to understand they have to invest in their asset. Everyone I helped got their deposit back so I hope you have similar success. I think the deposit schemes should penalise landlords who try and do this when it is just reasonable wear and tear

Unless there are photos at the beginning and end of the tenancy the landlord cannot prove that any “damage” was caused by you. The deposit scheme arbitration tends to favour the tenant especially in cases of long tenancies. I’d submit the receipt from your cleaner and as many photos as you can together with a statement detailing concisely the work you did during the tenancy and copies of any correspondence from the Agent showing this was done with consent.

This exact scenario happened to me. It was horrible. I’d looked after the house and honestly think I was a model tenant. I took it to dispute and they found in my favour but it took a while.

And I was pissed off that they were selling it and it was clean on exit. They had no reason to make such a fuss about reasonable wear and tear. It was honestly pure greed and landlords trying their luck.

You need to find out where your deposit is held. Once you know that then you can raise a dispute through them. It quite easy to do and it’s great that you have photos!
I was in a similar situation. Rented for 15+ never any issues between me and the landlord. Mines was an old house that did need a refresh of paint but it was clean and liveable! So much so they put it on the market a week after I left and it sold in 3 days!!
my then landlord made out that it was in a state of disrepair and that it needed thousands of pounds worth of work done on it. I raised a dispute and the landlord needs to record what is wrong and how much they are holding back on the deposit. Then the deposit scheme let you write your objection as to why this didn’t need doing. I was really upset by all of this and I’m not quite sure why my landlord did it to me especially when they had sold the house so quickly and never intended to live in it again. Like you I scrubbed the house before I left and it was in a fair condition as that was my home.
the deposit protection scheme found in my favour and I got all of my deposit back. It’s a long process but defo worth it. More for the fact that I knew it was left in a good condition and the deposit people sided with me.

As long as it's being held in a scheme, you should get all of your deposit back. Highly unlikely you will not.

If it's not being held in a scheme, or insured under a scheme, you can claim the whole deposit and more.

As pp have said, that's the first thing to find out.

Then go through the deposit scheme. Send them all your before and after photos, your bill/receipt/cleaning invoice from your end of tenancy clean and copy of the entry and exit inventory.

How thorough was the end of tenancy clean, like is the LL claiming for the oven needing cleaning eg, or the dishwasher or washing machine, for example? Inside cupboards?

Fair wear and tear, is a standard clause.
id excepted to the TPS to resolve for you

Sympathies, OP. This happened to us. We left a property spotless after 4 years occupancy, but full-of-BS LL claimed the deposit for 'cleaning'.

If you can show that you paid for a professional clean (receipt) and have images showing it in good condition then they are unlikely to get anything. Not after 10 years.

Definitely go through your deposit scheme. It will be up to your landlord to evidence any damage etc. Respond with photos etc. We had a family member whose landlord tried to claim amity £1400, and the scheme agreed £35 😂😂

As PP said the deposit protection scheme will generally side with tenants if there's photographic evidence to support which you have. So there's nothing they can do. They also need to show the evidence of the costs ie receipts sonit can't be an invented number either

The deposit schemes are pretty good about wear and tear in my experience.

I lived in a brand new flat for 3 years and when we moved out the agent pointed out the hob had a few scratches from one of our pans. We weren’t unwilling to pay something for it but tried to claim for the cost of a new hob! The scheme sided with us and they got a small proportion of the amount suggested, given they couldn’t expect it to be brand new after 3 years.

I think agents/landlords claim for well over what’s reasonable in the hope you’ll either give in to get the rest of your deposit back and/or they’ll end up with a good chunk after negotiating.

Our tenancy agreement said that the LL had 48 hours to notify us of anything they weren't satisfied with. They were not happy about some cobwebs on the lights in the conservatory so we came back a d cleaned them off. Full deposit returned to us within next 24 hours. Waiting a month for them to raise an issue is unreasonable I would say.

I’d be amazed if you didn’t get your full deposit back. If you have been tenants for 10 years, left the property as good condition as you have put here and have evidence of both professional clean and photos plus an inventory done - there’s really nothing they can claim against. It might take some time, but this is exactly what the tenancy deposit scheme is intended to manage fairly.

Thank you for all the helpful replies.

We are in a deposit scheme so hopefully they can help. I'm waiting for a reply from my dispute.

We notified the deposit scheme that our tenancy was over and they then gave the LL 2 weeks to reply. There was no reply and the deposit scheme gave them a further 2 weeks, totaling 30 days.

There was no response again until the deadline on exactly day 30 when they claimed the place wasn't clean and they had to spend a few hundred to get it up to industry standard.

During this 30 day period the property was listed up for sale and the sale pics are identical to the way we left it. We've taken some screenshot's of the sale listing too, for future reference.

They have claimed that a random surface wasn't wiped somewhere when it's actually a tired looking, built in wooden shelf that was painted when the house was built. Also a surface in the kitchen and a window.

It's bizarre are there are multiple shelves identical to the painted wooden one but they have raised an issue with only one needing cleaned. I personally cleaned all the windows (that are 30 years old, very tired looking and no longer doing the job they should be) Thankfully I have photos and I've send a reply to the deposit scheme to investigate.

They are trying to knock a few hundred off for "cleaning costs" however surely if it was needing cleaned like they claimed (it wasn't) a quick wipe of a wooden shelf wouldn't have cost a few hundred pounds.

There was no photos sent from them and no any inventory leaving report given to us from the EA when we completed the walk around. Just a verbal confirmation that everything was good.

They also haven't made any changes to the items they are claiming for as I've checked the listing and everything is identical to how we left it.

You would think that being good tenants for a decade and respecting their property and them, would have counted for something but no, they are obviously just money grabbers and it's vile.

Tbh Op, I've had tenants who claim the property was thoroughly cleaned but it really wasn't. There's often limescale so thick it has to be chipped off the toilets, and shower screens with dirt all along the bottom edges, because you can't see it when standing up they think it's clean. They also often forget the top of doors and above the doors. Cupboards are often left with wipe marks over them and carpets left where theyve obviously vacuumed with a cheap cleaner but when i use mine, i get half a cleaner full of debris. And don't get me started on ovens and hobs.

After 10 years the majority of issues will be wear and tear. If you used a professional cleaner, it doesn't mean a lot. Mine used a professional cleaner and afterwards it took two of us 4 hours to clean to my standard.

Nevertheless without an inventory there's little chance of success, unless they took photos, which I do.

Having photos is the best thing you did - it backs your case and eliminates any dispute.

You’ve actually saved them a job by making cosmetic improvements to their property with the paint. I’d definitely be sending the photos to the EA and raising a dispute. You can also go to the ombudsman too.

I've had great luck with the Deposit Protection Scheme, in the two instances where there's been a dispute, I got my entire deposit back. The most important thing is the Landlord/agent has to prove guilt, you don't have to prove your innocence. If you have photos and a receipt or invoice from the cleaners you used then I doubt they have a leg to stand on.

My most recent experience, we moved into a two bedroom house and several of the light fixtures had missing or no bulbs at all. The day we moved in, we jiggled them around, took a bulb from the room we didn't use and put it in the landing etc with the plan to buy new ones. Long and short of it is we never got around to it because we didn't use the room or we used floor and table lamps rather than over head lights so didn't really need to. When we moved out we were asked to pay £40 to replace three bulbs. Tenants are responsible for replacing bulbs, that I accept, but buying what was never there is something else.....plus, three bulbs don't cost £40!!!! I couldn't prove the bulbs were never there, but the agent couldn't prove they were, the DPS sided with me and I got all my money back.