Deposit - £300 cleaning bill deducted!

[jo5ephedward5]

Hi – here’s the deal,

My girlfriend rented a place last year with her friends. They took out the agreement in June and paid deposit and rent from then but didn’t move in until September due to holidays visiting parents etc. So we collect Keys in September last year, the place was a hole, the landlady said she had, had friends staying over to stop people thinking it was empty! Wtf, I was ready to flip then but my girlfriend saw it as a goodwill gesture and gave the landlady the benefit of the doubt…the problem was the place was messed up, no washing up done, food trodden into the floors etc.

Anyway a few week later she called and complained about the mess as it had taken her 2 weeks to clean the place up and it wasn’t in that state when they viewed it…she was told that she was in the real world now and that the landlady had grown up things to do like managed her properties – what patronising rubbish. GF is 19 yr old student by the way.

Anyway, upon leaving, the place was immaculate and far better than when they took over the lease, there were a few items that were discussed to come out of the deposit but couldn’t have been more than £50 worth, now she’s had the deposit returned and its down £300 for cleaning…I don’t see how as it was left well above her standards!

How do we challenge these, as they were not mentioned in the closing inventory.

To make matters worse my GF has gone to Africa for 3 months now and has forgotten to cancel the standing order to the old Land Lady, I have logged onto her online banking and now stopped it but this means my GF is £1000 down how do we get it back? Ex Land Lady wont speak to me as not my agreement and obviously GF cant call from Africa so I said I’d write on her behalf – I hope this is where you guys can help me ?

What do I write first and how do I word it, she took the lease through a letting agents but they were not managing the property and we haven’t any pictures of it to prove mess etc.

[blacksheep1979]

I would ask for a receipt for the cleaning and for the refund of the overpaid amount. If she refuses to refund the money and won't provide the receipt LBA then take her to small claims court.

Whenever you move into a new property take photos of it seal them in an envelope (stamp over the sticky down bit) and post it to yourself - this proves the state of the propert and any damages as you moved in/on the postal date. Sorry thats a bit late for your old problem though.

Don't worry its a common try on by landlordsa nd magistrates are fairly used to it.

[Jhawc24]

Read through the thread on here Unfair deposit deductions as it's got a letter template to use. You will need to amend the letter to suit plus ask for the return of the overpayment of rent. Ask (on behalf of the gf) for a breakdown of the £300 cleaning bill plus invoices to back it up.

Good luck.