Hi all, I'm looking for advice on where I stand legally for being reimbursed for expenses me and my flatmate accumulated during a leak in a basement flat. We were away over the weekend, when we returned the carpets in two bedrooms were soaked about 25%. It took two days to get in contact with the landlord even though we had three numbers to contact for emergencies. It took them a week to get someone out to see the flat. They couldn't figure out where the water was coming from after two weeks of investigation. During this period the carpets where not removed and where still living there, at this point the smell of damp was unbearable and all our belongings was affected by the smell. After telling the landlords we refused to stay there we stayed at a hotel for one night then temporarily stayed in a vacant flat for a week, then moved to another flat for another week, then we stayed in a hotel for two weeks, this was paid by us. We moved back into the flat about 6 weeks after we reported the issue. As all our belongings were still in the flat they absorbed the foul smell of damp from the carpets so we had to get all our clothes laundered because there was so much, again, we paid for this. After we moved back into the flat we submitted all the invoices for hotels, dry cleaning and other items we felt should be reimbursed like (rent, broadband, council tax, electricity) as we were still paying for this even though we vacant from the apartment. We stayed there until our tenancy ended in February. We were informed the landlord would reimburse us for the cost of dry cleaning as a "good will gesture" about a month ago because their insurer wouldn't cover it. We just received an email saying their insurer would only cover the cost of the rent and a good will gesture from the landlord, which only just covers the cost of the hotel (£2000). The landlord will no longer cover the cost of the dry cleaning (£400). They told us to claim for dry cleaning on our contents insurance even though they said they would cover the costs, plus we moved out of the flat nearly 3 months ago. The whole time we have had to chase the landlords for updates regarding the claim and the progress of the leak, they originally wouldn't remove the wet through carpets until we demanded it, thus making the smell 100 times worse, we had to push to have mattresses and other soft furnishing because the smell was still present months after we returned to the flat. I have been £2500 out of pocket since this happened 6 months ago and now I wont get back even though I have been told I would be reimbursed. We feel we should be compensated and reimbursed for more. Where do we stand? Should we get legal advice? Apologise if this is typed all slap dash, I'm really angry about the whole situation. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, First of all I'd like to thank in advance of any help given and to apologise if this is in the wrong section as it is my first post. Last year I was on a years placement in Manchester as part of my sandwich degree. During that time I lived in a shared house with 4 our people. The monthly rent was £350 and £70 of that was for bills. On the 10/07/08 I paid my deposit of £280 and started my tenancy on the 14/07/08, that is also when I signed the contract and the landlord said that he will give me a copy of it, but never did. Just over a year later I moved out on the 16/08/09 and the landlord has kept all of my deposit. As part of the contract I had to give him 1 months notice of when I was going to move out, but I had to bring it forward a week. So I let him know (via a text message) and he replayed and said it was OK. When I contacted him (via text message again) about my deposit he said that I owed him a total of £351 and summarised to this: - £91 for the extra week of rent as I notified 3 weeks before moving out instead of 4 weeks. - £200 for breaking the bed by standing on it and there being a huge dip in the middle. - £70 for redecorating because the wall paper has started to peel as a result of me drying clothes in my room and marks on the ceiling where I blue tacked a small antenna for my TV. I can understand about the £91 for the rent (even though he said it was ok), but the rest is surely wear and tear. Also I do not think that there was an inventory done at the start because the person who lived in the house previously moved out the day before. Also I was told that the person who lived in the room before me was charged £50 for stains on the mattress and when I was tiding the room before moving out I flipped the mattress over and what do you know I find that it was covered in stains so he never preplaced it. He never sent me any kind of information about a deposit protection scheme. He would enter the house as he pleased and rarely gave at least 24 hours notice before showing someone round. During that period I didn't know that i should have written to him about moving out etc, but I do have a copy of all the text messages that we sent to one another and some voicemails. The main question is HELP what do I do?