giving up lease

[deste]

When giving up a house after a three year lease how much lee-way do you get for wear and tear. No damage done but it does need a bit of a repaint. Was not allowed to repaint unless it was done by a professional and repainted back to the original colour. The house was cleaned before entry but no painting or replacing anything except for the cooker which is still immaculate. The house is very old fashioned the kitchen has old formica units etc. I had similar carpet 22 years ago in my dining room so the carpets are ancient. We know it has to be cleaned inside and out but dont know what to expect. There is a large deposit resting on this.

It depends how much of a git your landlord wants to be. If lease was taken out three years ago, then it could be down to his/her discretion how much is returned as it was not legal obligation to have deposit holding scheme at time. Was a proper inventory drawn up at the start of the tenancy?

If you have been decent tenants, then I would let a bit of knocked paintwork and fingermarks go but some people are much more bloodsucking business-like. Sorry, I can't give a clearer answer.

Hi thanks, the paintwork was chipped all over the house. There was an inventory done which cost £200 pounds approx. Are you saying they should not have taken a deposit or are they not allowed to keep the deposit or do you mean something else. They have checked the property constantly and the only comment they made was to hoover the carpet on one occasion. There is damp in two of the bedrooms but we have pointed that out and were told to open the windows in winter.

Nowadays a landlord is not allowed to hold deposit personally to stop them running off with it. It has to be held by registered third party but that only came in last year so, legally, your landlord may be within rights to be holding it (I don't think it was retrospective, it was just with new tenancies).

You have a lot of leeway for wear and tear!! More than most landlords can imagine

Also I'm pretty sure wear and tear tailored to occupants so what a single person and a famly of 6 are allowed are completely different

Shelter have some useful info (and a helpline open until midnight I believe), take photos of everything look for photos showing how preperty was. If a tiny spot which is not noticable consider touching up (check inventory to make sure you're not touching up his favourite belmish)

If in doubt small claims court/moneyclaims online, they are VERY sympathetic to the tennant and recognise the days of landlords viewing deposit as fund for renovations are long gone.

(Obviously no mumsnetter is like this!)

The scheme lala is referring to came in recently, landlords have to put deposit in a scheme (funded via the interest on the deposits or a separate insurance policy) but it's not retrospective.

FWIW we left a very damp property and got our whole deposit back however landlord should never have let it to us they knew about the damp, MAJOR problem in the block, we told them about it several times, didn't however get money to compensate us for damaged clothes (wonders off thinking will insurance cover it?....)
Good luck

Thanks, this is a large estate agent in Surrey so hopefully they will be fair.