Hoping to get some opinions or advice on getting my deposit back.

Just moved out of a rented house after being there for a year and a half. The letting agency is asking for £273(50% of the total cost) to replace the toilet that has a crack in the bowl. They are saying that I must have dropped something into the toilet to cause the crack, however I have never dropped anything in that isn’t of a faecal nature and my diet does not include rocks. My thinking is that since I haven’t dropped anything onto it then this should come under fair wear and tear and be replaced by the landlord (I’m pretty sure the toilet is quite old).

There are photos of the toilet before and after I moved in but they are too grainy to see if there was a crack already.

It seems like it will be my word against theirs so I’m not sure where it’s going to end up. The deposit is in a tenancy deposit scheme. I’ve agreed to a £75 cleaning cost and £96 to repaint a ceiling where my bike stand was (which is fair enough).

Anyone had any similar experiences?

Sounds like a load of shit to me.

There are photos of the toilet

THis whole incident is just a flash in the pan.

Hello Dave

You can always go to adjudication under the deposit scheme who will assess the likelihood that this falls under fair wear and tear.

If the toilet bowl in question is already pretty old, then you can argue that, even if you caused the damage, it was through normal use, and the landlord has already had a significant number of years’ use of the item, so there’s no way you should be paying half the cost of a replacement.

https://www.mydeposits.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mydeposits-fair-wear-and-tear-guide.pdf

Obviously, if you are an excessively fat knacker, this will be taken into account.

He might be just yanking your chain to see if you’re flush with cash.

The letting agency is asking for £273(50% of the total cost) to replace the toilet that has a crack in the bowl.

£546 for replacing a toilet bowl?

I’d suggest he’s pulling your pants down and going in dry.

For reference, the last toilet pan I bought ( about two hours ago, I buy quite a lot of toilets ) was  £78.06 ex VAT. ( An Armitage Shanks Sandrigham 21 Close coupled pan with horizontal outlet., if you care)

Doesn’t include the cistern or the seat.

A competent DIYer could replace the pan in a couple of hours.  A plumber could do it in two including a read at the paper and a bacon butty.

£546 for replacing a toilet bowl?

My thoughts exactly.

Don’t get stressed about it, this sort of thing could send you potty or drive you round the bend.

I’d be incistern on another quote at least.

Were you aware of the crack before you were notified of the charge and if so are you sure it was there when you moved in? Either way though that cost is a joke, that would be what I’d expect the full cost to be (assuming a good brand was used as well).

I do like this bit though:

£96 to repaint a ceiling where my bike stand was

Class 🙂

I would be asking the question: What does he suggest that you did to crack a toilet bowl? crack, but not chip (I assume).

And what more likely: that, or the bowl cracking via wear and tear?

You have no way of proving a negative – but I’d just be asking him to offer a plausible explaination of what you might have done to cause a toilet bowl to crack.

I’m a landlord myself, and I’d be telling them to whistle for it.

but I’d just be asking him to offer a plausible explaination of what you might have done to cause a toilet bowl to crack.

why would he need to? If the bowl was not cracked before the let, why would he need to suggest how it got broken during the let, just that it was broken. The only arguing point would be to show if it was either fair ware and tear or not, not how.

as for £546 for replacing a toilet bowl? theyre having a laugh!

why would he need to suggest how it got broken during the let, just that it was broken. The only arguing point would be to show if it was either fair ware and tear or not, not how

Thats the point…. owner is arguing damage, the OP is arguing wear and tear (on the basis that he didin’t do anything to damage it)

thats why I wrote this bit:

You have no way of proving a negative

So the question is: what’s more likely? That the Tennant has dropped a lump-hammer in the bowl, which cracked but did not chip the porcelain, and is now lying about it, OR that this is wear and tear.

There is no way of really knowing…. so its about what is the most likely explanation.

From experience, tell them to jog on.

Our last tenants left the flat in an absolute state. So much condensation that every bit of wallpaper had to be replaced, not just the ones the kids had pulled off. The cat they absolutely didn’t have, hadn’t shed it’s hair every****ingwhere (the OH is allergic to cats so that alone made cleaning a misery), and hadn’t shredded the carpets when they’d locked it in. They’d kicked all the trim pieces out of the laminate flooring. And left the place generally a mess.

Apparently all wear and tear for 18 months. Some of that stuff had been in for 10 years of us living there and still looked perfectly fine when we moved out!

I’m not sure if it was there when I moved in but I’m hoping the letting agent took good enough photos that show it was, I did know about it before they asked for money though, but since it was small and I hadn’t done anything to cause it, I didn’t mention it. The rest of the house is in a state anyway.

That’s a good point about cracking but not chipping the porcelain, there aren’t any chips in there. I think it may be because the toilet is screwed to the floor but the floorboards are mostly wobbly and loose, so it could have stressed the toilet in that way.

I have also complained that the letting agent has done a bad job of assessing for damage, since it was the landlord that found the damage, not them. I have pointed out that if they didn’t see it when I checked out, would they have seen it when I checked in?

Thanks also for your comments on the quote, I did think it was steep!

Cheers all for your ascisternce

It is not your liability, I have just replaced a toilet seat as a landlord. Agent confirmed it was my cost despite it being all of 2 years old.

Just write to agent confirming that you are only xx kilos and that you have enjoyed normal use of said toilet. Adjudicator will side with you.

That’s bad behaviour from the agent and landlord.

the last toilet pan I bought ( about two hours ago, I buy quite a lot of toilets )

You do know they’re multi-use, yeah?

You do know they’re multi-use, yeah?

Not the way I use them.

£546!? Shit a brick!

You can always go to adjudication under the deposit scheme who will assess the likelihood that this falls under fair wear and tear

This! Don’t try to fight it on yer own.
It’s Leaders isn’t it? I know it is. ****.

Take a shit in a box and post it to the landlord with a little note asking how he thinks you cracked the pan with one of these?

I have been told by someone with experience that an ice cream tub is good for this and can be left on a sunny windowsill for a day or two before posting.

That’s bad behaviour from the agent and landlord.

Bog standard in their industry.

£546!? Shit a brick!

Maybe that’s why it’s cracked? Although I would thought the OP would feel one of those passing through 😉

Offer to fit it for your landlord as long as he pays you half, so £273 cash. Buy new pan and fit, pocket nearly £200 to put towards bike parts for a couple of hours work

Btw it is really easy I did a whole toilet a couple of months ago, toughest part was getting the silicone perfect

I’ll bet the Op. was a little flushed when the bill came through the post!

Have you done owt to annoy your landlord? Sounds like he is is taking the pi55 with what he want to charge you for a few odd jobs.

If you’d already done the check out with the agent and the damage wasn’t picked up then, how can they/the landlord prove that it didn’t occur afterwards?

To those asking what could possibly break a toilet. I was in a student house a long time ago and one of my friends put a banger down the loo and cracked the bowl. He fixed the bit that blew out with araldite after a quote from a plumber was more than he could afford and at the end of the tenancy the landlord never noticed and we got our deposit back. Hmmmm op your not in Bristol are you?!

We had a cracked toilet bowl in our house. I’m sure someone must have dropped something off the shelf above into it and not mentioned it. It wasn’t just cracked but there was a fairly obvious chip in the middle of the crack that looked like an impact mark. If you had a pan bolted to loose floorboards I can imagine you could crack the pan but you ought to be able to see how the loose boards related to the crack?

What happened to the ceiling and why the need for a clean? I would think it’s more difficult to argue the toilet if there’s already evidence that you haven’t looked after the place.

A plumber could do it in two including a read at the paper and a bacon butty. a comprehensive test drive

Myti – Nope no bangers have been down there!

Burko – the bike rack is one of those floor to ceiling types that pushes up to secure itself. My one has some little rubber pads to give some grip and they have left a faint mark on the paint. I think paying 90% of the cost of redoing the whole ceiling is a bit much but I’m trying to pick my battles.

I’ve told them that I would rather get the Tenancy Deposit Scheme to adjudicate, so unless the landlord starts being more reasonable I will start a dispute with them. Reading the guidance online I’m pretty confident they would side with me or at least ask me to pay much less than £273.

If you’d already done the check out with the agent and the damage wasn’t picked up then, how can they/the landlord prove that it didn’t occur afterwards?

This. If the agency took the keys without noting the damage the landlord deosn’t have a leg to stand on.

If the agency took the keys without noting the damage the landlord doesn’t have a pot to pi** in. leg to stand on.

FIFY

I is confused, surely the whole point of a toilet is that you don’t want your deposit back.

They’re stiffing you for the full amount, not going 50:50.

I had this with a neighboring property once that was let out. We had a leak on a shared roof and agreed to go 50:50…their preferred builder put the wrong invoice through our door with a clear breakdown of materials and labour but when I spoke to them they said it was double.

Good point about the checkout report being done and not noting the damage, I suspect that if the adjudicator saw the report then they would quickly side with me.

Well they dropped the request for me to pay for any of the toilet as soon as I mentioned using the TDS as adjudicators so I don’t think they thought they would ever come out on top!

Thanks all for your help

I was in a student house a long time ago and one of my friends put a banger down the loo

took me a while to realise you meant an actual firework there 😆

Well they dropped the request for me to pay for any of the toilet as soon as I mentioned using the TDS as adjudicators so I don’t think they thought they would ever come out on top!

Thanks all for your help

They’re already on top because of the cleaning and painting fee. What’s the bet that that small mark you left on the ceiling will still be there when the next tenants turn up?

And that the loo will still have a hard-to-spot crack in it…