return of a deposit

[kelgre]

Hi,

I rented a room in a 3 bedroom house for just under 1 yr, and signed a lodgers agreement at the beginning of the tenancy. I paid the landlord £425 deposit. The landlord did not live in the property but had his mail delievered to the property so would come and go as he pleased. Often people would carry out work in the property without us being told. In the end there were 2 of us left living in the property and we decided to rent a flat together as it was quite unnerving having the landlord let himself in whithout notice, especially if in the bath! We both gave the landlord 1 months notice (by this time our lodgers agreement had run out and according to the agreement neither parties needed to give any notice). The landlord was very annoyed upon receiving our notice. He replied to our letter a week later claiming he'd been away and had only just received our notice (interesting as the next day there was a 'to let' sign in the garden from an agent and the following day the property was on the internet with photos of our rooms). He was adamant that we needed to give 2 months notice. However, despite saying he would get back to us on the issue of the 1 months notice, he didn't.

About a week prior to us vacating the property we asked the landlord to advise us if there would be any reason for him to take any part of our deposit so that we could rememdy any problems before we moved out. He agreed.

We didn't hear from the landlord and moved out on the 8th of July, leaving the keys under the bin as instructed to do so.

We waited 1 month for the return of our deposit. It was only returned after numerous letters, the last one threatening court action. However, when the deposit was reurned, £310 had been deducted (£155 from each of us) for general cleaning and dry cleaning the sofa.

We had thoroughly cleaned the house before leaving and left it in a cleaner state than when we moved in. The sofa had not been dry cleaned when I moved into the property and apart from a small pen stain on a cushion and a food stain (left by a previous tenenant) was clean when we left.

We have sent a letter to the land lord explaining that we believe the deductions were unreasonable. However, he has written back saying he considers the cleaning costs reasonable and that he's been 'nice' and not charged us for renovating his kitchen after damage done due to a leak from the bathroom (this was caused through no fault of any of the lodgers, I might add).

What should I do next? If I take this to court is there a good chance I will win?

I'd appreciate any help as I am at my 'wits end'. Have rented for years and always had great references from my land lords.

: )

[tonycee]

Ask for a copy of the cleaning bill. As a landlord £300 is not unreasonable to have a house cleaned, however as a tennant, you also have rights..
From my own experience, if you let the agreement run out, you dont have much to go on. If you dont get a result, you might just have to put this one down to experience. Just a thought, was there much cash involved in the rent payments ?
This link might help.
Tenancy agreements

[kelgre]

Thank u so much for your reply, I will definitely check out the website. I do feel the landlord is being unfair as we were lodgers. The lodger in the third room had £25 deducted from her deposit when she vacated (to clean a large red wine stain in her bedroom). I just feel it was really unfair of him to charge us £310 for cleaning - especially as the property was cleaner when we left than it was when we moved in. I am determined to follow this through and take it to court if we need to as I truly believe he is being unreasonable.

However, whether we win or not is another story....

: )