costs of repair - help please!!!

[karljj1]

I have received an invoice from my previous estate agents, showing the breakdown of the costs involved.
They are quoting £10 for replacing 5 lightbulbs, £90 for garden maintenance, £76 to have the carpets cleaned and £9 bank charges.

I think these figures are hugely inflated, the garden wasnt that big, and only the grass needed cutting. Due to the size of the garden this would of taken an hour at most.

Lightbulbs do not cost £2 each, i have looked around and they cost on average £1 each.

When we moved in, we hired a carpet cleaner which cost us £20 for the machine. The house wasnt very big, and so it wouldnt have taken them very long to clean the carpets, approx 2-3 hours.

Also they are charging me £9 in bank charges. We paid the rent by various methods, but none would of cost the agents money.

Does anyone have a rough idea of whether these charges are accurate?

Thanks

[MrShed]

You are negating their labour costs. The lightbulb costs you can have little quibble with. The carpet cleaning sounds about right. The garden sounds expensive, and I would certainly dispute the bank charge.

[karljj1]

The estate agents are really co operative. they wont give me the landlord details, because they have a managed let or something so any problems goes thru them. i have written to them again today to say that as we didnt have an inventory they have no right to deduct anything from our deposit, when we moved out in feb the weather had been to bad to mow the grass. if we had, we would have done more damage to the garden, which they know about. The house was cleaned after we had moved out, and when it came to handing the keys back, i was told that it wouldnt be a problem for us to have my deposit back.
They are now blaming the landlord saying he is not happy with the state of the house, so surely if they had agreed verbally to give me back our deposit they should honor that?

[MrShed]

Unfortunately, you cannot prove it. Yes they should, but without it in writing you cannot prove it. Without a signed inventory however, they cannot withhold anything.

[Esio Trot]

Originally Posted by karljj1

They are now blaming the landlord saying he is not happy with the state of the house, so surely if they had agreed verbally to give me back our deposit they should honor that?

As I have posted before, instead of just talking about the deposit, you need to find out under what status it is held by the agent: Landlords Agent or Stakeholder.

This is very important. The reason for this is that as the former, the agent will have to do just what the landlord says; the latter, then it is held in a position of trust, and the agent is bound by law to act impartially for both parties (even if he is also acting as agent for the landlord).

Look on your tenancy agreement. If it says nothing, and you have looked carefully, then is is held as stakeholder.

Once you have found this out, you can be given more specific advice.