Hello all,

I was recently recommended to look at this page first time poster, just quickly want to say how great it is.

I am having a problem with my landlord trying to deduct almost my entire deposit for work he supposedly carried out to the property following us leaving. I have lived at many rented houses before and I have never ever had a problem with getting my entire deposit back previously, so clearly something isn't right. What’s worse is the house in dispute I actually went above and beyond the call of duty to make it nice before I left. The reason I did this was because we got on with the landlord and even recommended him to our friends to do work for them (he is a kitchen fitter by trade) so because we have a decent relationship with him I went the extra mile to get it way nicer than any house I have ever left previously. I filled in all the holes where the pictures had been and even painted them with the same paint so you couldn't even tell they was there. I bleached the whole kitchen and even got a special hoover to suck out all the dents were heavy stuff like the bed and wardrobes had made the carpet flat. Unfortunately our relationship soured soon after hearing that he is trying to take us for almost all of our deposit. Supposedly his claims when asking him to send evidence were

1 - Full days kitchen cleaning - He sent me a picture of 1 cupboard with a slight few marks from where the bottom of the tins had sat, we did clean the whole kitchen with bleach but we didn't get it professionally steam cleaned or anything so potentially there may have been a few stubborn marks that didn't come off initially, but having checked the tenancy agreement there is nothing in here saying that it needs professionally cleaning. He said there was mould in the kitchen? Having looked at the picture it doesn't look like there is. We have a baby so the kitchen is kept clean. We turned the kitchen off at the plug after leaving so not sure if maybe something formed in the time it was left off, but if there was something then it evidently is very small, and was missed on the initial clean we did, even on the close up of the picture it's not obvious that the fridge is unclean. I asked him to send any evidence he has to me in full, but he only send 1x close up of some small marks in the cupboard and 1x picure of the fridge, which doesn't even look particularly dirty.

2 - Toilet seat broken - I admitted that if he wants to he can deduct us for this, however arguably this is wear and tear and wasn't fitted properly neither was it photographed. The toilet seat to say the whole house had recently been refurbished wasn't on properly when we moved, it was one of those special soft closers and it looked to me as if the landlord or whoever fitted it hadn't got the fixins secured properly so it was actually stuck to the toilet instead using silicone - Regretfully though we never got round to telling the letting agent about this as it just wasn't that broken to be unusable so wasn't a big deal to us at the time.

3 - He said the bathroom cabinet was split at the bottom, however having looked at it it seems very minor and was certainly not something we ever noticed

4 - He says the blinds needed cleaning? we cleaned the entire house including the blinds, granted they were not professionally cleaned but this wasn't in our contract also he hasn't sent us any photo evidence of this

5 - He said the bracket that holds the integrated fridge in place was broken and the corner moulding needed putting back on - When we put the washing machine on due to very poor foresight john had sat the plug for the washing machine that the fridge was plugged into directly on top of the fridge, I had to manoeuvre the fridge slightly out in order to get the plug for washing machine in. The corner moulding then fell off because it was only glued on with no more nails, it wasn't fixed on with brackets. When I put the washing machine back in I re glued the corner moulding back on. I did not break any brackets. I suppose it's possible they could have broken over time but they are under the worktops so out of view so I didn't notice until we moved when I took the washing machine back out. I think he is being very harsh charging me for this especially considering it was very difficult getting the washing machine in and out in the first place. worst case scenario a couple of plastic brackets aren't going to cost more than a couple of quid if he wants to get so pedantic over it.

6 - The paint being a different colour - we asked the landlord when we moved in if he could put pictures up to which his response was "make the place your own". as mentioned before I went to more effort in this house to make it nice due to our relationship (ex relationship) with the landlord. Obviously when a picture is hung on a wall for 2 years the sun stains & trace dirt discolours the area around it, however unlike any other house with this one I went above and beyond by filling all the holes and smoothing them then repainting the area with the same colour paint which had been left for us in the cellar so it was definitely an exact match. Landlord is claiming he had to spend 2x days redecorating the bedroom the living room and the kitchen because despite them being the same colour due to the age difference the difference can be seen in certain lights. He didn't even send any photo evidence of this despite it being by far the biggest thing they are trying to deduct from us. Alternatively if i had left the marks & nails where the pictures had been wouldn't it had needed re decorating anyway? Feels a bit like a no win situation unless i was expected not to put pictures up and perform a full redecoration upon exiting which again wasn't in the tenancy agreement. Contradictory to this in fact the agreement says that reasonable allowances should be made for wear and tear by the landlord, something I feel he hasn't done.

He is not an experienced landlord, he only has 2 houses and we are his first in this house as it was a restoration project when we moved so potentially he hasn't had anyone move out of one of his houses yet so part of me thinks he is not properly in touch with reality on what he should and should not claim for. I feel like he is trying to take us for a ride here and he is putting claims in for the most ridiculous things. Being an experienced tenant, I have never ever had my deposit docked for anything, and ironically despite my current landlord trying to charge £550 for 3 days labour and materials I have never ever left a house in such good condition as this last one.

I want to know what options are available to me and even the potential for compensation. I am not the sort of person to normally seek this but the amount of inconvenience and stress he has put me through has been beyond reason.

The first question has to be, were there any inventories done either on your moving in, or moving out?

What about your assured deposit scheme, I would be approaching them.

Yes there was one moving in, don't recall it mentioning white brackets underneath the worktop not sure about the one moving out if there was one then we wasn't present. Yeah I am trying to come to an agreement with him, i've even said if he wants to he can deduct the toilet seat. but I think he will probably not accept this. Therefore I think going via the dispute service is the only way. I think given the poor amount of evidence he has provided me and the quite black and white nature of all the jobs being wear and tear I do not imagine there is any chance he will be successful but it's my time and the inconvenience that i'm annoyed about more than anything. Say if we went through this service and win, can i then pursue for the time and inconvenience via county court, or could I even skip the disagreement service and go straight to county court. Or is this not even a possibility do I just put it down to bad experience and never recommend him again?

You must go through the deposit protection scheme first.

They are there to look at disputes and solve them.

If they don't solve to your satisfaction then you can take further action.

Don't jump your guns.