Thank you for all the helpful advice, I`ve put off contacting mydeposits until I have seen my solicitor.Will keep you all updated as and when anything happens.

Hello all, This is my first time posting on here,have been looking around for a while though, and, have picked up some excellent advice, this post might seem to be a bit long winded, but please be patient and I will explain. We moved into a property under an AST on the 24/10/2008, paid the deposit and one months rent in advance,this totalled £2150, the property was let unfurnished, through a letting agent,and we were told that we had to pay the rent direct to the landlord,and, that the deposit would also be protected under the relevent legislation. We always paid the rent on time, kept the place spotlessly clean, so that when the time came to leave there would not be any problems, we gave notice on the 18/01/2010 to leave in the middle of feburary,this is when the problems started. We spent 2 days cleaning the house from top to bottom, including shampooing the carpets, deep cleaning the bathroom and kitchen,washing all paintwork etc,leaving( so we thought) the house ready to move into for the next tenants, after speaking to the letting agent about the deposit, they told us that it was being held by the landlord, I then phoned the landlord asking for the deposit to be returned. To cut a long story short they are trying to charge us £850 for redecoration to the kitchen, £200 for oven cleaning, plus other charges for the cooker hood being covered in grease, when I questioned this they told me that it had just been redecorated just before we moved in,which was a blatant lie, the decor was ok, but nothing special,after this phone call I was beside myself with rage, especially after all the cleaning work we had done to the place . After this phone call I decided to do a little digging, I found out that the deposit was registered with mydeposits,but, we were NEVER sent any notification, or certificate to sign,as is required, because of this I do not have a reference number for the deposit, so cannot find out when it was registered. I also have to mention that at no time on moving in were we asked to sign any inventory. If anyone can offer any advice regarding the above it would be much appreciated. Very many thanks.