Left our rented property about a month ago, we had 3 to 6 monthly inspections by the estate agents which we passed every single time. We constantly reported damp in the walls at the back of the property, this was eventually put down to a broken gutter and next doors out house that adjoined our kitchen at the back. This was eventually fixed as we we’re ready to move out.
Now we’ve moved out the owner and estate agent won’t release our deposit because of the damage to plaster, paintwork and cleaning that was all down to the damp in the house.
What do we do? Also is there anything we can do about living in a house with damp that was reported for nearly 2 years?

Your deposit should have been lodged with one of the schemes which have a dispute resolution service. If of course your deposit wasn’t lodged, and you were not informed of where it was lodged then your landlord is in a world of bother, Citizens advice and then money claim online.

https://www.gov.uk/deposit-protection-schemes-and-landlords/overview

https://www.gov.uk/deposit-protection-schemes-and-landlords/if-you-dont-protect-your-tenants-deposit

Landlord speaking.
Was the deposit protected by the landlord/agent? You should have the protection information?
(cross psot doh_)

But you should win this if you follow the protection route, the protection agency will see your side. If its not portected than a spot of legal action will win you back up to 3x your deposit.

Cheers everyone.
It’s just so annoying that we reported so much to them, we reported that the extractor in the bathroom wasn’t working properly so the bathroom was getting mould. 6 months later they changed the extractor but wouldn’t let us decorate. Now they want us to pay for re grouting, cleaning and resilicone the bathroom.
The day we moved out I broke a key in one of the locks, I was honest enough to tell them I’d pay for this even though it probably never would have been found.
Any more advice?

The phrase normal wear and tear springs to mind. (They can’t use your deposit to pay for normal wear and tear). Then perhaps bombers, or finding your ex landlords shoes and weeing in them.

IIRC the deposit scheme has been in effect for around about 6 years.
We’ve just come out of a rented property after nearly 5 years. I managed to break the oven glass (whilst cleaning it!) 2 days before we were to hand back the keys.
The upshot was we either paid £110 contribution towards the door (total cost £166) or we could dispute the £166 and it would got to arbitration for that amount.
They CANNOT withhold the whole deposit from you.
Plus if you informed the agent on a number of occasions that you had damp due to xyz because of repairs required to the property (which were not of your doing) how can you be made liable for that?
I’d be calling the agent and having a “chat”.

One more thing, the landlord have also billed us for carpet cleaning? Is this fair?

No its not fair. or legally enforcable (unless he can prove you stained the carpets)

As a landlord I am likely to be sanctioned by the local council if I let the mould persisit, the fact that you have moaned about it is great. If the landlord can prove he did everyhting in his power tos top the mould then he might have a case. So if he fitted, trickle vents, wall vents, working extraction in abthroom and kitchen, outdoor washingline or condensor/vented to outdoor tumble dryer and there was still mould, then it might be your fault for drying stuff on the radiators with all the vents and vemntilation closed/off. But he would ahve to prove he did all the good things AND you did all the bad things.
Seek out the protection info. if you were not served this info at the beggining of he tenancy or at some point this year when the law changed (cant remeber when) then he is in breach and you can sue him for 3x deposit, regarldess of any fault/nonfault damage.

Dude the tenancy deposit law was created for exactly this, you need to find out about it, and enforce it. As a landlord I am telling you the law and all the systems are on your side. KICK HIS ARSE.

You’ve helped so much. Thankyou, my Mrs was so upset about this, we’d have to use our credit cards to pay for our bills in the new house (might still have to)

Citizens advice, if that fails try Consumer action group forum. Or get a solictor.
Or come back here and we will try and support you.

Make sure the estate agent knows the whole story. I had similar in a flat I left, leaking bathroom ceiling, reported many times, the owner called me at 2pm one day to say the repair man was on his way, I told her she had to be there or arrange a time with me as I was at work. This was never rearranged. Come moving out day and she tried to get me to pay for new living room curtains due to “damage” which was a 1 inch long crush mark on the horrid orangey velvet from the sofa sitting against it, the damp bathroom, pipes under the bath leaking and the carpets not being vacuumed well (her provided vacuum was broken before we moved in and mine had a snapped belt a week before moving).

I battled with the agency for a while before realising the guy I was talking to didn’t know the history – forwarded him the email history inc my photos from the leak 6 months previous, I had my deposit back within a week and an apology from the agency.

Can I echo all the comments made . My daughter & son in law were in a similar position in a property with a damp and mould problem. Had a handover inspection when they left and the landlord said he’ll send them their deposit back direct to their bank asap.. They waited a week or so nothing. Finally phoned him to be told there mould here, damp there such and such is broken etc etc and I’m keeping the entire deposit. He never sent any estimates or anything to substantiate his claim and wouldn’t budge so I launched a dispute via the deposit scheme (which is a job in itself) and we got back their deposit in full after about a month.

I’m convinced that the B*stard simply does this to every tenant and keeps what he can get away with. Not everyone has the stomach or time for the fight !

I found the DPS to be a joke I’m afraid.

Our entire deposit from aa place we moved out of 18 months ago is locked with them as the landlord refused to enter into any arbritration as they know they would lose. We have never had any figure/quote from the landlord/agent and we have a lot of evidence of them breaking the law including fly tipping, unsafe boiler (oil) and breaking planning and building regs. I’ll get round to the small claims at some point but its a hassle I could do without.

abdyl I am sorry but that is just wrong the landlord has limited time to respond or they have to find in your favour. Go back to DPS and demand they fix it. Or tweet Paul Lewis.

Great! Sounds like I’m entering a world of pain! I’ve emailed the estate agent with my reasons to dispute each issue and also told them I’ll be speaking to the CAB.

Do you have any evidence that you reported these various issues? Emails, text messages, letters, time and date of calls? The more evidence you have, the stronger your case will be.

jonnytheleyther – Member

One more thing, the landlord have also billed us for carpet cleaning? Is this fair?
It was in the terms of our contract that the carpets were professionally cleaned (with a receipt to prove it). If it wasnt in your contract terms then they can sod off, unless you genuinely left them filthy.

Sounds like the landlord is trying it on to me. Mind you when we gave out letting agent notice they came round to inspect the property just after we moved out and then a final handover when we gave them back the keys. (we had a 2 week overlap between moving out and the tenancy ending.)
This gave them the oppertunity to advise us what was expected of us and what remedial action we would need to take to have the property in the agreed condition.

We haven’t got any evidence of what we said on visits, but the company definitely took pictures on iPads and made notes. Also the issues wouldn’t have been eventually fixed unless we kept telling them about them.

I’ll have a look at our contracts when I get in later about the carpets, fairly sure a progressional cleaning wasn’t mentioned but there was a lot going on when we moved in so I’ll have to double check.

dbcooper – you’re a typical landlord that everyone on stw hates! Always money grabbing, treating tenants like scum etc etc…oh hang on, this isn’t supposed to happen – stop being so bloody helpful, you’ll give us all a good name!

OP – seriously, read a website or something. This is very straightforward stuff assuming you have evidence of your complaints. There are strict rules and timelines for this stuff – find out who has the deposit money – it should be on your tenancy agreement. Your landlord is a dick.

Our contract had a clause about the flat being cleaned to “a professional standard” but that doesn’t mean that a professional has to do it.

That sort of thing is a ‘checkout fee’ anyway, they’re not allowed to take anything out of the deposit for that, only for damage.

CB – I effen hate scumbag landlords and take great pelasure in skewering them, as thye make us all look bad. I provide more than just a roof, its a service, the tenants deserve to be treated fairly with good customer service and I like to sleep well at night knowing I have been good to them, a purely selfish act on part.

Also its important to remember that just because it says so in the contract does not make it legal or enforcable, you cannot sign your rights away.
So things like insisting on a professional cleaner is possibly not enforceable, the TDS might not approve.

Why not? If its in the terms you’ve agreed to, you’re kind of obliged.
Obviously a contract cannot make you do something illegal / against your rights / unreasonable, but I wouldnt say getting carpets cleaned is unreasonable at all.
What rights are they signing away, apart from the right to have dirty carpets?

I think the point is that they should be cleaned to a certain standard vs expecting a tenant to pay for professional cleaning that may be expensive and unnecessary if the carpets have been reasonably looked after. The end result is reasonable, it’s not reasonable to dictate how the tenant gets the result.

Question- am I legally entitled to see the 3/6 monthly reports we had and what was recorded by camera and in notes?

Shouldn’t think so if you didn’t pay for them. I know hindsight is an amazing thing but you should have raised any worries highlighted in writing at the time. Either by registered letter or email.

Our landlord tried the same on us in previous flat.

Turned out they didn’t use a deposit protection scheme. Claimed ignorance, even though landlord was a solicitor and had numerous buy-to-lets. Eventually settled for 2X our deposit. Wish I’s held out for the likely (but not definite) 3X if the issue had gone before a judge.

Point is, that you have a leg to stand on, even if they didn’t use the protection scheme. You’ll likely get a settlement for well over your deposit. And if they did use such a scheme, it sounds as though arbitrator will rule in your favour.

Might be a long process, and get a no-win-no-fee law firm on the case if no scheme was used, but will be worth the toil in the end.

I should think you are entitled to see the monthly reports.

Question- am I legally entitled to see the 3/6 monthly reports we had and what was recorded by camera and in notes?

Depending on how they’ve recorded what, you should certainly get copies of what they have on file regarding correspondence and conversations between them and you via a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act.

You may get everything (reports etc.) depending on how much time and energy they want to spend figuring out what the legal requirement to disclose is – many smaller businesses without specialist data governance people will just disclose everything in your file, which is likely to include reports etc.

It’s quite a large company that rented to us, ironically they’re the same company that’s selling us our house too so I’m hoping they don’t want to upset us too much.

Sounds like you have leverage then!

Hi all, waited a while until I knew where I was with this. Been 8 weeks since we left the property and we haven’t had a penny back. Been waiting for the maintenance team from the estate agents to go to the property and do a report.

Had email today from landlord “I would like to be reimbursed for carpet cleaning (£152) oven cleaning (£75) and locks fixing (£65) and painting of the hallway (£280) £572 total.”

We admit we accidentally broke the lock the day we moved out, one lock, not plural? Baffled by the rest, when we were living in a house with chronic damp (that was reported) so damp staines on carpets will happen. The oven is an odd one as I cleaned it the day before we moved out.

The estate agent have said we can contact the DPS to dispute.

What would you people in the know say about this?

Also on the report after inspection from the estate agents these comments are on the inspection document…

“Property left in good condition few areas need cleaning. No major issues detected”

Pretty sure 8 weeks is too late to making deductions now.

Contact the DPS and dispute. You should have just done it as soon as they got difficult about it. It’s what it’s there for.

Dispute with the DPS and try and get any reports and supporting information from the agents.
I was lucky my landlord and agents were pretty reasonable. Your landlord sounds like he’s at it.
There’s no way on earth I’d be paying towards damage caused by someone else’s failure to deal with issues in time.
See if you can get anything from the agent about notifying them of the damp problem. Although I doubt it, given they won’t want to rock the boat with your ex-landlord.

Had email today from landlord “I would like to be reimbursed for carpet cleaning (£152) oven cleaning (£75) and locks fixing (£65) and painting of the hallway (£280) £572 total.”

My response would be…
What was wrong with the carpets?
Oven?
Receipts for lock fitting though £65 sounds fair to have a lock professionally fitted.
Painting – explanation why it was more than normal wear and tear.

Basically they can probably get you for cleaning if it wasn’t clean.
Locks fair game
Painting should just be wear and tear so not your issue

If the carpets needed cleaning due to leaks/damp then they don’t really have a leg to stand on
The issue then comes if the agent passed on the reports, amazingly when I had issues with an agent they had no record of any communications at all – amazing isn’t it.
The learning point is to back up every communication on damage in writing.

Good luck but detail and date everything you have, submit to DPS, keep it factual not emotional. Ask for the interim inspection info to back up both your/landlords claims.

Good Luck.

I’ve been through this recently from the other side… but mikew pretty much nails it. Most of what he’s asking for is not reasonable and/or wear & tear.

We also resolved our situation much more quickly. We did have agents helping facilitate the negotiations…. and yes, there are negotiations. We had damaged stuff that needed replacing/repairing but knew that having to go to arbitration would be a ballache and they might not side with us anyway. We let some stuff slide, to show that we were reasonable and held on for other stuff that we were really not happy with.

Good luck and keep at them”