Deposit dispute

[Cordelia_cat]

Hello

I wondered if anyone could offer me some advice.

I moved out of a rented property in Nov 2006 - we had a £2100 deposit on the property.

We did not sign an inventory.

We arranaged 3 times for the landlady to come and do a check out / key hand over - each time she did not turn up.

After two weeks of us leaving she found new tenants via a letting agency and then decided she should have a look at the house herself.

At this point she brought builders in with her who subsequently did 3 days work and charged her £1200.

Once the new tennants moved in i asked her for the deposit back - she used various excuses - the final one being she had losy the contract and needed us to give her the depsoit receipt and also a copy of the contract.

She then said she needed a lot more work doing to the property.

We sent her a letter 2 weeks ago demanding she detail why she did not return the deposit.

She sent us an invoice - signed by herself detailing entire re decorating or property, returfing of garden, replacement of blinds, cleaning of curtains, locks changed, an additional charge for rent for the period we did not return the keys, professional carpet cleaning - we now apparently owe her £200.

We have photogrpahs of the garden and also the lounge area showing the wall to be reasonable.

I have numerous emails showing we attempted to arrange check out with her.

The blinds she is claimiing for never existed.

And finally the reason we moved out of the property in the first place is because there was a building site behind our garden which caused massive amounts of dust to come into the house which probably effected the cream curtains.

The house was spotless as were the carpets (all the floors were wooden apart from the stairs which were carpeted)- she did not visit the property until 2 weeks later and many estate/ letting agents had been through it in the meantime.

we now want to go to small claims court -but want to make sure we have grounds for this - and also how we should approach the claim - do we give all the evidence rght now or do we summarise.

In addition she has requested £200 within 14 days - do we send one final letter telling her about court action.

All very fustrating -

thanks

[blacksheep1979]

yup give her notice you intend to take her to court, give her 14 days then issue the court doccuments.

[Cordelia_cat]

i have already given her a letter giving her 14 days notice - she came back with the deductions list - i disagree with this - do i have to go back to her again or can i go straight to small claims ?

[Joa]

court will look at reasonableness of your actions, so do not be too hasty. Make sure that negotiation has been exhausted. i suggest you write back to the l/lady and disseminate her letter, point by point, on a factual basis. Warn her about your intentions and give tight deadline.
Post your particulars of claim here so we can comment and help out.