Hello, I really would appreciate some advice on my current situation. We rented a flat for 18 months which ended a few days ago. Before we signed the agreement, we requested a check in report several times from the agent and our request was never acknowledged. The deposit is protected with TDS. When we moved into the flat, we spotted some damage around the place, the building is also pretty old, and it does show sign of wear and tear. However we trusted the landlord and assumed they already knew about the pre existing damage and we went around taking some photos of the place. The place was 'clean' but it certainly wasn't spotless as we had to do another full clean before we unpacked. The tenancy has now finished and we are now currently in a dispute with the landlord for a breach of contract. Professional Clean The landlord only provided us with receipts 11 days before the end of the agreement that the place needs to be professionally cleaned as it was professionally cleaned at the start. The contract states 'To pay (or pay for cleaning) to the same standard as check in'. If we had known it was cleaned from the start we would have made a complaint. We returned the flat in a totally clean state however she is not satisfied. She is using this as a formality to get the next tenant to pay for professional cleaning. Sofa We requested the landlord remove a sofa from the flat and we agreed to replace it with one of similar value and condition. The agent informed us that the landlord did not know the value or condition however we have discretion on its replacement as long as it did not need to be removed from the flat. (We have email evidence). Our circumstances changed and we ended up buying a brand new sofa which we never intended to leave it behind because we paid £400 for it. We told the agent that we will remove our sofa and replace it with a second hand sofa as we agreed on the email. However the contract says that we would replace it with a 'new sofa' which is not what we agreed with on the emails. So she is not happy with the second hand sofa we left behind and she said it will have to be removed even though we said that we will buy a new sofa cover but she did not agree to it. It was never our intention to leave behind a new sofa. I told her that this is an unfair clause and is not in line with what we agreed via email. The agent never bought this clause to our attention, if we had known we surely would have requested some changes to it. The reason why they removed the our sofa was because it was not 'like for like' and it wasn't 'in keeping with the flat' I told her that if there were caveats to the removal of the sofa this should have been agreed upfront with us. It was a pretty decent second hand Ikea sofa, all it needed was a new cover. Damage There was pre existing damage to the property when we moved in. We knew it was there but never reported it, only because we trusted the landlord and assumed that they were aware of it. Now she has come back and said we deliberately damaged and she is seeking compensation. From my understanding, she cannot force us to get a professional clean done as long as we left it in a clean state (which we did), any damage cannot be substantiated without a check in report, and the sofa is a unique situation. She said that she is not legally obligated to get a check in report done. This may be the case, but she is saying that she has photos of the flat, before we moved in and everything was in working order. My feeling is that she has gone around taking photos of the flat after we moved out to represent a 'perfect' state. She now says that she wants to take legal action against us, and my worry is that she will go down the small claims court route and I am not too sure what to do and what my rights are. Basically she has waged a personal vendetta against us because we actually stood up to her and refused to pay for the professional cleaning of the flat which we had no obligation to do. Please help. We are professional honest people, we paid the rent on time and it is pretty awful how this woman is now treating us. Thanks in advance