landlord witholding partial deposit

[Jatmon76]

Hello ,

My mother recently moved out of rented accommodation (via a letting agent) after about 1.5 years, and we have now been told the Landlord is withholding £150 for damage to the living room carpet.

I am absolutely livid about this for several reasons.

1. The carpet was in such a bad state of disrepair when she first moved in, that she called the lettings agents in the first week and asked "Would the landlord meet her half way to paying for new flooring / carpet?". The carpet was very old, worn, and filthy. There was no response from Landlord.

2. I have spoken to the lettings agents to find out if the previous tenants had their deposit withheld for the carpet. The answer was yes. I then asked why the carpet was not replaced then ? They couldn't give me an answer.

3. She has had to move from the flat because the landlord very rarely fixed any faults with the property. These included:

A. The gas fire was condemned. It was leaking carbon monoxide. This was reported and yet he did not replace the fire. This meant for the last 3 months of her tenancy, my mother had no fire during the winter. She was informed it would be replaced, so in the mean time, used a portable electric heater. This meant her final electricity bill was £150 more than the previous quarter! The fire was never replaced.

B. Cracked windows in the kitchen and bedroom, some of which could not be opened as they were that old and/or the keys were lost. The landlord said this was not a health and safety problem

C. The hot water did not work for 4 months (over separate periods). Initially she was without hot water for 3 weeks in a row as the landlord was on holiday. Once fixed, it continually broke down again.

I have told the letting agent I will not be paying the landlord a penny. The landlord has subsequently knocked £50 off and is now asking £100, which I still refuse to pay.

I realise £100 is not an earth shattering amount, but it is more to do with the principal of the matter.

My question is as this will probably go to arbitration, what are our chances of winning? Also, do I have any case for recompense due to the fact my mother was without hot water for long periods of time, and no fire for 3 months during the winter.

Rant over.

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

J

[hedgey06]

Hi Jatmon, welcome to CAG

This is isn't my area of expertise, but it does sound as though the landlord is acting unreasonably here.

Hopefully, somebody will be along soon to answer the above, but if you don't get a reply............. just post BUMP on this thread as this takes your thread back to the top.

Best of luck with this

[Jatmon76]

Thanks Hedgey.

Oh, and BUMP.....

[Jatmon76]

I've now been told by the letting agency that as neither of us can agree, it needs to go to arbitration.

However, they have told me that it's up to me to find an arbitrator to sort the issue out. Is this the case ?

Why do the letting agency (who are currently holding our money) not appoint an arbitrator? Or as it is by law still our money, why is it not the landlords responsibility to appoint an arbitrator?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

[hedgey06]

Hi again Jatmon,

I'm sorry that you still haven't had a reply to your query. If you don't hear anything on your thread within the next 24 hours, please send me a PM (private message) and I'll try to get somebody to look at your thread to give you some advice on this matter.