I've been having some trouble with my old landlord over the past couple of months, on the old chestnut of getting the deposit back. I thought I'd tell the story here, partly because this forum helped me get a lot of things straight, and partly because I think some parts of my letters may make useful templates for others with the same problem. You will recognise in my letters parts of templates already posted here.
To give some background, we had lived in the property for exactly a year with no problems in rent etc. Monthly rent was £1200, and we had given a deposit of £1510. At the start of the tenancy I had toured the house, removing hideous paintings and ornaments, wrapping them, and putting them in boxes in the loft.
At the last minute, our new landlord delayed us by a week, so we paid £300 to the landlord of the current place to let us stay on for another week. We paid this from the deposit meaning we then had £1210 to come.
Towards the end of the tenancy we fixed up a few things like toilet seats to get the property back into comparable condition to how it was when we moved in. A window had spontaneously broken in the middle of the night, which we eventually paid for as the landlord blankly refused, indirectly accusing us of lying about it breaking on its own, and then ignoring our offer of compromise (by splitting the cost).
At the time of final inspection we identified two spots of cleaning (which we did the next day) and agreed that the cost of removing some of our stuff (that we didn't want) could be deducted from the deposit. We also identified two broken tap covers and one broken toilet roll holder, which we agreed to replace.
I was surprised that there was no comparison against inventory, especially as there were still boxes in the loft, but the end of the inspection came and all was agreed. The landlord paid us £900 there and then by cheque, and we agreed that any deductions would be taken from the remaining £310 to be refunded in a few days’ time.
A few weeks later, we received this document attached to an email:
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It was full of issues apparently discovered after the final inspection. It was therefore completely impossible to prove that we’d caused them. From here on I decided to correspond only by recorded mail so that I would have proof of delivery of everything I sent. It’s important to note when reading my letters from now on that I tried hard to avoid discussing or addressing things that were irrelevant or invalid, for fear of lending them any kind of credence. Here is the letter I replied with, sent on August 30:
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The ARLA document that I included with the letter was this one:
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A few days later we had an email confirming receipt of the letter. Another few days later we went on holiday for a fortnight, and then shortly after that I had to go into hospital for some minor surgery which took me out of work for about two weeks. For all of that time we did not receive anything more from the landlord. Once I was out of hospital, I wrote the following Letter Before Action, sent on October 6:
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Again, there was silence, and I was getting ready to file a claim, until finally on October 18 we received the following email from the landlord’s solicitor:
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It completely misunderstands things I have put in my previous letters, includes lies about who paid for the window (although I’m sure the solicitor thought that part was true), and in general displays a shocking lack of knowledge of the laws of property rental. Sentimental value indeed! Imagine the disastrous consequences if landlords were allowed to claim for that! Sadly, that was one of the things I felt I had to excise from my reply, it being utterly irrelevant. I knew sentimental value would have no bearing in court. The letter also introduces “the statue”, which had never been mentioned up to this point.
I replied to the solicitor with the following letter:
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At least things were moving now, and a few days later, I received the following reply:
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It’s laughable really. The basic gist of it is “we’re right, we reckon we’d win in court, we’re annoyed with you for arguing with us when we know we’re right, but, er, we’re so
generous, yeah, that’s it,
generous, that we’re going to give you back your entire deposit minus £20.” And it contains (as good as) an admission that no expense was incurred clearing the house (looks like the landlord did it himself which is impossible to prove and therefore to charge for) when it mentions getting quotes for the work after the fact.
I accepted this offer with the following letter:
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I resisted countering the points in their letter to ensure that I got the money. After all, £20 to clear the house and repair a few broken items is less than I thought I would have to pay. I wasn’t trying to get away scot-free, just only to pay what we’d agreed. But it seems that they really, really don’t want to go to court (I can’t imagine why) and so I accepted the money.
Once the money was in my account however, I sent them the following receipt:
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Obviously at this time I felt comfortable that I could counter the points without fear of losing money. I therefore did so for two reasons: firstly, well, I suppose I wanted to have the last word, and secondly, I did not want to be on the record as admitting, even implicitly, that we had taken the painting and statue, or that we should have paid the full amount mentioned in the email we received at the end of August.
So there you go. I hope you’ve been entertained or found something you can use. If not, then please accept my sincere apologies for wasting your time.
Oh yes, and thanks to everyone on this forum for having the same bother before me and posting about it, so that I could be sure of myself and sound authoritative when writing my letters.
A long story about landlords and deposits that may help you 
I choked on my tea when I read the first line of the second sol's letter: (bitch queen voice) "For your information..." Seriously, well done 
