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.

I think this is the right place for this. Please move if not. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/pay-deductions-teachers-supreme-court-ruling-strike-precedent-a7753991.html

May not be in the correct forum, Mods it needs an idea of both legal and more importantly, DWP. 1. I have DLA awarded since 2008, Mob - High, Care - Low. 2. In 2015 I was run over by a car driver unhappy in having to wait for me to cross the road (slowly) on my crutches. 3. I sued the driver who was convicted of a host of offences. 4. I wasn't awarded anything under CICB payments, I had to sue him myself. 5. The Drivers Insurers have now offered a take it or leave it sum. 6. I know my Solicitor will have to complete a CRU 7. I have searched the net for days for the rulings, appeals etc and have not found the answer which differs from my Solicitors (who I do not believe knows the subject) opinion that the CRU will deduct 38 months of my DLA. 8. Had the accident not happened, I would still have claimed DLA as my disability/qualification was assessed nearly 8 years before on a separate matter. 9. I am on operation 38 for my disability, I will never get better and will die with the same problem. Deduction of my DLA under the CRU would be unjust, wouldn't it? 10. Can I prevent the deduction, using case law, or the rule with respect to my circumstances, or do I have to swallow the loss of money that could have really help me buy new items, not cast-offs to help my disability? Any authoritative response would be most welcome. Thank you

I'm contacting you on behalf of my daughter - she is currently owed £1400 which has been duly paid by her ex via his wages....company deducted at source on court order. However. They have failed to send it to CSA so they can send to her. Where does she stand with this? Surely, there should be some recompense, as he has paid, she is bringing the kids up alone and only the company he works for are in profit? Any advice appreciated Teresa

I joined a recruitment agency, upon registering they simply told me I'd be paid through another company - no other information given. Payroll companies are nothing new to me, I know lots of agencies use them so I thought little of it. Got my first payslip and noticed some dodgy deductions on there, turns out the other company is an umbrella company and the hourly rate I was told by the agency was actually the uplifted rate paid to the umbrella company to cover all of the deductions, just to be clear none of this was explained to me by the agency. My contract with the agency does state that I am not their employee. The umbrella company have confirmed that they are my employer. I have not signed any contract with them. Upon asking for a copy of my contract they sent me a form I completed with my bank details on it, it has no terms or conditions of any kind. When I asked them to confirm it to be my contract they did indeed confirm it to be. After finally getting the details of all of the deductions from them, some of which are not even itemised on the payslip, I told them I believe they have made unlawful deductions from my wages as set out in sections 13 to 27 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and asked them how they wished to proceed. They then sent me a copy of an unsigned form with all of their terms and conditions of employment on it, referring to one section which allows them to make the deductions. They are claiming that I had to accept these terms and conditions when logging onto their online portal. This may or may not be of consequence but I logged onto it thinking that was the only way I could see my payslips and without knowing at the time that they would be classed as my employer. where do I stand with this? Can they really use the terms and conditions on their online portal as an employment contract? Would a tribunal uphold this bull****?

Just trying to help a colleague out at work. Long story short. - Car sold approx Sept last year - V5 sent to DVLA - No acknowledgement received - One month later moved house - Last months & this months wage packet shows unknown deductions - 2 weeks of chasing answers - Found it relates to a fine for none notification of change of keeper for sold vehicle last year - DVLA correspondence suspected to be posted to old address - Believed that court got a different address from the DWP that colleague had never heard of let alone lived at. - Colleague tracked down court and advised correct address - Summons then received to correct address this time. - In court yesterday just to plead either guilty or not guilty to 'Knowing that the fine was issued' - Pleaded not guilty. Although it looks like the case has been 'set aside' for further correspondence history, and a further court date, the 3rd installment of the fine (which will total around £800) will be taken from next pay packet regardless. - Payroll had NOT received an 'Attachment or Earnings order' so also know nothing. My question is: Can they do this? as the chap in question had absolutely no idea this was going on until his wage slips were coming up short. I have pointed him in the direction of this website for further reading and detailing. I don't think the DVLA would care but surely a court would have a responsibility to ensure that they had all the correct information before going down this route? Appalled to say the least

I recently moved out of a shared flat and the lettings agent sent through a dilapidation report detailing any damage to the property, missing items etc. and the deductions from our deposit that would be made as a result. About half of their claims were reasonable, but about half weren't so we disputed what we felt we needed to. We asked for a detailed breakdown of the costs and evidence of the damage (costs had been lumped by room rather than by each item). In response they asked for a counter offer, said a breakdown of costs was not possible, and made reference to 'expensive work' that would need to come out of the deposit but that was not mentioned in the original report. At this point it felt like they were trying to intimidate us into accepting the original offer. We sent a counter offer and they said they would pass it to the landlord. We did not receive a response to the counter offer, but rather a list of costs for additional work done to the flat far exceeding our deposit (painting, carpet replacements, things like that) that had not been outlined as necessary in the original report. They made no mention of the original report, nor our counter offer, but said a compensatory charge amounting to our full deposit would be required. Their behaviour has been odd and has seemed like the longer the dispute has gone on the more they are trying to charge us. I get the feeling they are trying to intimidate us to forking over the whole deposit but I don't want to gamble that, call their bluff, and wind up owing them much more. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello. I've been with my employer just shy of 12 months, I started as an apprentice and qualified not long ago. when starting I was told I would be paid £6.50ph (NMW at that time) and would be collected and returned home by one of their vans. My position is a painter ( was apprentice, no formal change of title, other than the fact I have qualified ) I had no problems with the firm until october last year when they failed to increase my wage inline with the NMW increase to £6.70 an hour. They did eventually around christmas time 2015. I am techincally owed the missing wages , but I didn't chase it at the time. a few months ago, the company decided to deduct fuel allowances from the all employees wages of £60 per month. this of course meant my wages dropped below NMW before tax/NI there was no signed agreement , only a notice letter. they had previously allowed employees including myself to send in fuel receipts and reimburse the fuel. finally Today I have found out that they have not paid me any overtime that I have worked recently. They haven't explained when asked why. My supervisor suggests that I was in no position to bargain and I would not have a job if I start to query their decisions. I feel that I am not respected or valued as an employee,despite putting all my effort into my job. I therefore want to leave this job. however this is the first time I will have ever done this, So I am looking for advice on how best to approach this. 1. Can I reasonably request any money owed in underpayment during the time they paid £6.50 instead of £6.70? 2. Can they deduct wages taking the wage below NMW before tax and NI? If this is not allowable , can I therefore request the money be replaced to bring my wages in line with NMW? 3. I have calculated I still have at least 7.5 days holiday to take so far this year, can I ask for this to be paid with my final payment? finally , how to progress with the resignation process. can I put the above requests in with the notice to leave email? or do them separately? if they are wrongfully? denied, how would I proceed? Many thanks

Back in 2009 a relative was in a relationship and their claim was treating them as a couple. Their partner had several social fund loans and after they seperated my relative applied for a Debt Relief Order (DRO) poor person's bankruptcy through their local CAB office. The social fund laons were added to their DRO and confirmed ok by the Official Receiver's department who dealt with the paperwork in 2010. However, the DWP have been making deductions from their benefit in respect to these old SF loans which is leaving them in financial hardship. The SF office have said they can review the deductions being made but it will probably take approximately 6-10 weeks to deal with, by which time the loan will have been repaid, so that's not an option. Today, I have discovered that the DWP won a court battle over SF loans being added to DRO's and following that case it was agreed that with effect from 19th March 2012 no one could include any SF loans to a DRO, but any DRO's prior to that date were to be written off by the DWP. Therefore, the DWP should NOT be deducting this money from their benefit but I cannot locate the court case or legislation to which this refers in order to notify the SF loan team that they are in breach of this and that all deductions should be refunded back to the claimant. I have searched througth google and gov websites etc but to no avail. Please can anyone help locate this bit of caselaw or legislation for me? Many thanks Shelley

Hi, I got a liability order for unpaid council tax last year. The arrears were £70, but then they added court costs of £120 for liability order (great!) So I owed £190 which I was informed by letter they'd take each fortnight from my JSA. This deduction has been coming off since around January, but I recently changed the London Borough I sign on and for the last two JSA payments they haven't taken any deductions (and I've been paid full JSA). I've read horror stories over on the Bailiff forum that councils don't need to contact people anymore but can just send in the bailiffs incurring a further £310 fee without notice. Ending up owing £500 from an original £60 arrears is worse than Wonga interest and should be illegal, but we know DWP and councils seem to make their own rules these days. So my question please is do I need to phone up DWP and ask why they have stopped deductions, or phone up my previous council and tell them DWP has stopped taking deductions, or should I just leave it because I haven't stopped signing on, and DWP database must be linked centrally? I don't want to kick the hornet's nest and say "Oh please can you take my money", but likewise I don't want bailiffs turning up. Thanks...

Hi All, I’ve created this post in the search for some answers on a few finer points of my AST Agreement that has recently ended. The LL/LA has come back to me requesting £378 of charges for cleaning and gardening. In my opinion I have left the flat in a clean and tidy condition so much so that the pictures taken on the day of me moving out have been used online to show new tenants! However, the two points I am curious to have answered are: 1. My moving in inventory states that “although untidy at the beginning of the tenancy the garden is to be completely tidied shortly after move in therefore must be tidy at end of tenancy”. Whereas my AST Agreement says “To keep tidy..as at commencement of the tenancy”. Can an inventory be used to state terms different to the AST Agreement? Also I have never had a copy of the check in inventory and the copy of the check in inventory i received from the LA isn’t signed by me. 2. My AST Agreement states that “the Agent must tell the tenant within 14 working days of the end of the tenancy if they propose to make any deductions from the deposit”. The LA took 18 working days to notify me of the deductions from my deposit. I have spoken to a local housing charity who said that this doesn’t hold much weight. If this is the case how come this term is included in the AST Agreement? Any help would be much appreciated

I am currently working as a bank worker at a job which I left and then returned to. They have messed up my pay over the first few months however they state in my contract I would recieve £10 per hour but are not paying me this amount as they are deducting 'holiday pay' or 'holiday relief hours' from me. As a bank worker I work as and when they need me therefore I do not take holidays. I have queried this and a colleague who puts in my hours has done the same but to no avail, they continue to deduct this amount. The total deductions from Feb to April is £234.84. What can I do?

19 yr old daughter had a baby and was on income support we didnt have to pay anything now she found a job ft and did a load of training etc started beginning of October she then finishrd income support and claimed wtc this week we are going into council to say shes started work etc shes now only doing 20 hours a week will they charge us for the previous month at the same rate or more as she was doing training and was on a trial

Hi, I trade through my own limited company. My accountant has received a letter from HMRC, addressed to my company, stating that student loan deductions must start next month. My position is that any alleged debt is statute barred. Reading through other threads on this forum has confirmed this. What is my next step? The letter says that a penalty can be charged to my company if the deductions do not start next month. I would send the standard statute barred letter. However since this has gone through my company is there any other action that I need to take to avoid incurring penalties?

Afternoon all, Myself and my wife left our property on the 3rd of sept and have since received this email from the agent. Which we believe to be highly unfair. We then received an emailing detailing cleaning costs to be £292 (for the WHOLE property to be cleaned... despite only two rooms being said as not clean enough in the check out report) in total. Our position is that:- The inventory that they have supplied is unsigned and undated by either party Costs totalling £292 (£190 for garden, £50 painting and £52 for the socket) had already been carried out. With no opportunity for us to rectify anything or agree to the fairness of costs. The property had not been cleaned professionally prior to arrival (check in states unclean level) and now the landlord is insisting on it being professionally cleaned. We have offered £150 in total and for our own cleaner to clean the kitchen and bathroom as on the check out report it states these were the unclean areas. We are now awaiting the landlords response. Please can someone advise to the above of how to approach this and if we've done the right thing? The second issue is that the the deposit was secured with mydeposits.co.uk and our initial one year tenancy ended on the 3rd July 2014 we then moved onto a periodic tenancy agreement. I have spoken to mydeposits who have confirmed the option to automatically extend the protection was not selected. Do we also now have grounds for pursuing the landlord for our deposit x3? If so how do we go about this? Can someone please point me in the direction of any guidance. kind regards Stuart

I gave a deposit of 50 for a modem when I signed up for an internet connection 6 years ago. I have given them 45 days notice that I want to cancel my account. They have told me they owe me a deposit of 46.95 (I don't know why they have deducted 3.05) and they have also informed me that they won't return my deposit in cash, but instead by bank transfer (and they are charging me a bank and administrative fee of 8 pounds for the privilege because"A standard bank & administration charge of 8.00 applies on all transfers.") Can they do this?

Hi all, We moved out of our property about a month ago. Within the 10 days the landlord requested 200 pounds worth of deductions, and we've been given the rest back by the agent. We've repeatedly asked him for what these deductions are, and so far he's only mentioned some supposed damage to a sofa which he says will cost 60 pounds to clean, then if that can't be done, more may have to be spent on repairing it. We wish to dispute this, as we absolutely did not cause this damage, and will do so with the mydeposits dispute service. However, we still don't know what else this 200 pounds is supposed to cover. We've asked for a list a number of times and all we get is the mention of the sofa. I guess he's just hedging his bets in case it costs more. I want to dispute this, but my concern is this - we need to submit evidence with our dispute, so how can we do that if we don't know what the majority of the claim is for? If we only submit evidence about the sofa, he could then change his counter claim to add in 140 quid's worth of other issues, which we'll have no chance to submit evidence about. What's our best move here? Should we demand a finalised list before we dispute, or would the fact he hasn't given us one yet count against him in a dispute? Or will we be given a chance to counter with evidence if he brings up stuff we haven't been notified of yet? Thanks in advance for any help with this. Louis

Hi, Long story short, I am on JSA and HB. I owed £75 in Council Tax arrears to Harringay last year. I made an offer of payment which was refused. I then got a letter of Court Summons which added £120. I have read on this forum many scare stories of Bailiffs turning up and adding telephone numbers in levy/visitation fees, etc. I contacted the Council by email twice now offering £3 a month (last time three weeks ago) Still no response. The government has decided that £72 JSA a week is the minimum I need to live on. So, if I refuse to pay these usary fees and charges and it ends up being an unfair £1000+ from an original fairly owed £75, how much can they take from my JSA or HB each week - baring in mind taking anything is admitting I don't have enough to live on and will be forced to steal? What is the endgame here, once the bailiffs have come and I still can't pay? Will I really go to prison, get a criminal record, have my life ruined, probably end up taking my own life - all for an original debt of £75? Thanks for any advice. I'm so angry right now.

Hi All, I am looking for some kind of an answer fr my brother as to why eve though he is in the Support Group for his ESA, he has now had over £60 per week deducted. His ESA is Contribution based and as he has severely bad MS, he was rightfully placed in the support group. Two weeks ago he got a letter telling him that because he gets Contribution based ESA, he will now have the money deducted. There was no explanation why this has happened and I can only guess it is because of the benefit being contribution based and time limited. He didn't think this applied to him because of the Support Group, obviously t does! If anyone has had any thing similar happen to them, please can you give me some advice about what I can do to help him? He is left with £30 a week to live on and it is not enough for anyone, le alone a badly disabled man. Thank you

Hi all, I have been stopped money out of my HB for non-dependants that live with me ie my 2 son's will i get this back now? as i have just got PIP, Thanks

hi i hope someone can clear this up for me. me and my wife are on the same tax code 1000L . we both get paid 4 weekly. wife pays more TAX than me even though i earned alot more this has got to be wrong ? or am i missing something. any input gratefull

Hi all, I am desperate for some help on where I stand please. I was a bus driver for Arriva London North, I was interviewed around this time last year and at interview declared I have severe asthma that I treated at home usually with rescue packs but on some occasions these did not work so I needed further treatment meaning absence. I was hired with the full knowledge of my illness. I was placed at a garage in March 2013 after my training and started actual employment as a driver rather than a trainee. I have been absent three times for around 3 week periods and once or twice for one or two days with sickness that I picked up from my children. The 3 week periods were because of severe chest infections that required stronger steroids and antibiotics that made me sleepy and moody so I could not drive a PCV vehicle. ALL my absences have been backed up by doctors certificates and one time with hospital paperwork confirming my admission with pneumonia. When I ended up with pneumonia, this was caused by the companies lack of support in providing me any reasonable adjustments. I explained to the company management numerous times that I could not breathe on the older version of buses (these being 2003 plate volvos) as the air blowers only blew hot air and the air conditioning that was fitted did not function. This caused my breathing to worsen as I needed cool air. The week before I was admitted to hospital with pneumonia I was forced to carry on driving a old volvo which blew hot air at me and could not be turned off. This was during one of the heatwave we had in the summer, this made my breathing very bad and resulted in a severe infection and hospital admission. When I returned to work following this illness I was again given this bus and route to drive but I refused on health reasons and was changed to a different route with newer buses for a period. Although I was changed, I was then put on three weeks of late shifts meaning I did not have anywhere to eat a hot meal (bearing in mind I am on constant regular medication), I again raised this with the garage management but nothing was done. In the end I raised this with the garage Operating Manager and he said he would look into it. I did not hear anything back The 3 weeks of lates I was given was not correct as the rota pattern should be one week of early, middle then lates on a constant loop. This long stint of late shifts again, made me ill resulting in more time off. As I could not use my neb when I needed it during my breaks as they were not long enough. This was because the bus change over point was a 10 minute walk from the garage each way, the breaks were only 45 mins max if you were lucky. So by the time I had gone to the toilet, sat down and gone to prepare my neb it was time to leave again. Now to date, I was sent letters to attend "probation review" meetings. These letters either arrived the day after the meeting or on the day of the meeting - my postman often arrives around 1300 upwards. Meaning I did not know about the meetings with a reasonable notice period. The letters were sent from North London to Essex/London border. The final letter received was sent next day delivery, which I received and I attended the meeting. At this meeting I was dismissed under the guise of "unsatisfactory attendance" during probationary period. I was off sick at this time also, altho my sick certificate ran out on 10/11/13 I was trying to get into my doctors to see if I could go back to work. I finally got an appointment at my doctors on 09/12/13 and was issued with a backdated certificate which ran from 10/11/13 to 16/02/14. The company are now saying I am not going to be paid my SSP for the period of 10/11/13 to 02/12/13 when I was dismissed as it took me too long to submit the certificate. Apparently not being able to get an appointment with my gp is not a good enough reason. Lastly, today I have been emailed my pay slip by payroll which has a deduction on 384.56 under the heading of "lost equip". Now, when I attended on the 02/12/13 I returned all the equipment I had with the exception of the Staff pass issued by tfl as I did not have that with me. I posted that back when I got home. There has been no breakdown of what this "lost equip" is or notification of the deduction prior to me receiving this pay slip so I have had no opportunity to sort this out. I know there is a lot of information above and it may be jumbled as I have written it as ive thought of it. Regards Bill

The deductions made is not what i singed for.Even after pointing out that they are making unauthorized deductions they still continue. Can a credit union take whatever amount they want ?

Hi, I had an inventory checkout and I was not informed about any deductions for 14 working days. But according to my tenancy agreement I need to be informed about any deductions within 10 working days. After I contacted the estate agent after 11 working days, I was told by the estate agent after a further 48 hours (i.e. 14th working day after the end of my tenancy) that there will be deduction for a maximum of £50 and it may be lower as well. I reluctantly agreed to it, but since I then didnt hear back anything from the estate agent, I contacted the estate agent again and I was told that the deduction will now be £200. So just wanted to know: 1) Can the estate agent inform me of a deduction after 14 working days, even though the tenancy agreement specifies that I should be informed with in 10 working days. 2) Can they agree something on the phone but then increase it further i.e they initially said the deduction will be a maximum of £50, but then increased it to a maximum of £200. Can some one please help and provide any useful information on how to resolve this?

Hi all, 6 month AST ended and we heard nothing about return of deposit for 2 weeks until i emailed agent to ask. They replied saying LL wanted to take deductions for some things. We asked exactly what those things were, and wrote a letter direct to LL saying if we didn't hear back we'd take legal action. Finally got a letter from him exactly 15 working days after tenancy ended. Deductions proposed are to cover damage which was already existing (we have pictures, and copy of the inventory we notated and sent to Agents detailing all this). They're even trying to claim for scuffs on a wooden floor which were indicated in their own inventory!! Plus one more thing which we don't have proof of, but certainly didn't do. They claim we damaged edge of carpet in a room and sent a picture (dated 5 days after tenancy ended) showing some short loose strands/ fraying. I'm slightly concerned they may even have set this up to frame us as it certainly didn't look like that when we left! His letter detailing deductions says what he wants to claim for, and how much, but there are no receipt or quotations?? Along with letter in post, we got a notice through DPS site that LL intended to make deductions and do we agree. We ticked no and sent it back. LL has now sent it back again, claming the deductions again. We have again ticked no we do not agree and sent it back. Today have sent a "letter before action" disputing each of the claims he makes and including a template I found on the net which covers things like LL can only claim for losses incurred, these must be accounted for, cannot use as a redecoration fund etc, and we require reply and cheque within 7 days or will proceed to court without further notice. I am wary of using the DPS arbitration/ dispute service as reading case studies it seems they often find party in favour of LL. It also seems a very faceless/ inhuman process, with little chance for us to show exactly how much LL is trying to rip us off. But I'm worried now we've rejected his claims twice on the site it will automatically go to their dispute service? I would rather go to court, even if it means paying. Apparently it will cost £70 to do this. I just wondered if anyone can let me know if I'm within the right time frame for all this and doing it in the right order? Additional points: Deposit was protected and we were notified Inventory was given to us to hand back to Agent at our leisure. They didn't show us around, attend check in, or do a check out We informed Agent of all the incorrect issues on inventory (things stated as clean when they weren't/ existing when they didn't etc) the day after moving in, by notating inventory, dating and initialling. We have copy of their fax report to show they received all this. Landlord wants to sell property - as he is claiming for costs towards replacing carpets and professional cleaning (not required in tenancy agreement) we're pretty sure he is aiming to use our deposit to do up his house to sell! We have nearly 100 pictures of property when we moved in, none from moving out unfortunately However we have 2 witnesses who helped us clean and move in/ out Deposit was over £1,000. To date they have kept all of it, even though the amount they are claiming is £450. It's now a month after we moved out and they still have our money Thank you in advance