Thanks Mariner for your reply. But my question is now the landlord says that we never reported that the heating system was not working (BIG LIE!!) there must be evidence that we reported all these issues and that a plumber was sent who unfortunately confirmed that the system could not be repaired. I spoke with the landlord when we first realised we did not have heating on the mobile about that and he was completely aware of this issue! but I don't think this can be proved?? Another question is if we are not happy with the TDS decision, it is possible not to accept the decision and going to court?? Because we are ready to go there if necessary to stop this man for taking our money. It is incredibly frustrating to see how people like this disgraceful man are trying to take advantage of some others like us that the only thing we do is to work hard every single day to earn some money. Regards

Thanks Steve for your reply. Definitely the deposit is held by the agents that want to get rid of the issue asap. They have been encouraging us to go to TDS to solve the problem so the money would go to them. It should be straightforward as many of the claims from the landlord were reported already on the checking report but he is just trying to see if he can get some money from us. DISGUSTING!!! Also, is it possible to claim interest for this delay? We should have had the money one month ago and to be honest I don't know when we will get it if we can get any, but I thinks we can still put some pressure with this.

Hello there, I hope someone can help with this issue that is giving me so much stress. We moved out of this property one month ago and moved in a year and a half before. The property was rented through estate agents and they managed the property during the tenancy. When we moved in the property was in a very bad state as it was kept empty for more than 1 year. We asked agents to paint and clean before moving in but nothing was done. They confirmed that the landlord would prefer us to decorate and therefore we could paint ourselves and we did it. It was an initial check in inventory to which we added many different things we found such as dirty carpets in toilet, cracks in walls, wardrobe door falling out etc. and a copy forwarded to agents. It was July. Some months later when winter arrived we realised that heating system was not working and was reported to the managing agents several times. A plumber was sent to check the system and he confirmed that nothing could be done as it was something structural ( the house had an extension done). We had last two winters with no heating in several rooms, horrendous! but even with the plumber confirmation we kept reporting. We had 2 leaks on the ensuite that were reported and the plumber had to take to vinyl floor off in order to access to the pipes. The leak damaged the ceiling downstairs and needed repaint. We had 2 announced visits from landlord with his family to take some furniture and belongings that they kept in the loft and that we were not aware of or no one informed us about that. Although we were aware this is not right we intended to be welcoming and showed him around the painting and decorating and how much clean the house looked. He did not express any complaint about decorating or painting. In fact in one of these visits he informed us his intention of increasing the rent. As we couldn't cope with the cold another winter or another rent increase we decided to move out, we gave notice and made arrangements for check out inventory with agents. On the check out report nothing remarkable is stated or not raised concerns and the agent emailed me stating that it shouldn't be any problem on the returning of the deposit but the landlord needed to confirm this. The landlord replied that he wanted to have his own check out report himself and visited the property. He has made many remarks about damages that were already included in the check in report and he wants us to pay for things that were reported already at the beginning of the tenancy. He wants us to pay for new decorations as apparently we did not have permission to decorate??? He saw the decoration already when he came unannounced (he has stated he never visited the property but thanks God we've got neighbours as witnesses) and he never complained. He wants us to pay for carpets fitted in 1997 that there reported dirty and in bad state on the check in. He wants us to pay for painting ceilings for the leaks we did not have anything to do with as this ensuite was unused. He wants us to pay for a replacement for the wardrobe door that was reported on the check in. He wants us to pay for repainting walls that were reported dirty and full of marks on the check in. He wants us to pay for so many things that were reported already!!! He states that we never complained about heating system not working!!! I hope the estate agents keep all the records of the reports. We found out last week that deposit is held with TDS ( we didn't know until then) and now the agents are rushing us to report this to TDS so they can be out of the issue asap. We are not sure about TDS as we have heard that even with a lot of evidence they tend to favour the landlord. We thought about going to court as we can add the possible breach of contract for not providing a heating system working properly, visiting property unannounced etc... We would like to have some advice please as it is around £1800 that we don't want to loose... It is very frustrating to have to deal with this kind of people trying to get some betterment for their properties with someone else's monies. Should we go to court or otherwise is it better to try with TDS? Can we go to court if we are not happy with TDS decision? Please any help is very much appreciated and do not hesitate to ask any questions. Regards