Hello all, From the 1st September 2012 until 31st of August 2013 myself and three others lived in a property in Belfast. It was let through Property people, who managed the property thus we had very little contact with the landlord. Of the six visits he made to the house we were only notified of two. Since moving out, the landlord has been trying to claim as much of our deposit as he possibly can. before we moved out, we were told to clean the carpet as it was a brand new carpet when we moved in. We did not believe this and were later told it was not brand new and was instead professionally cleaned before moving in. Nevertheless we hired a carpet cleaner and shampoo from HSS hire and cleaned it to the best of our ability. We cleaned the entire property from top to bottom and even our letting agent upon inspecting it said was above their usual expectation for a student house. the landlord disagreed with this and insisted that the carpet wasn't cleaned at all and instead hired professional cleaners to clean the house. He also claimed that the paintwork was a disgrace even though during one of his visits we notified him of the paintwork being in poor condition (mold and general grubbiness throughout) and he agreed that it needed painted. He has so far tried to charge us for paintwork totaling to £450 as well as £100 for professional cleaning. As far as i we are aware we were never given an inventory to sign upon moving in to the property and we are currently awaiting a copy of the contract to see if it mentions anything about the house having to be left to a professionally cleaned standard upon leaving. So my question is this, as far as the paintwork stands should it not be taken as fair wear and tear as the house had a mold problem to begin with? and in general what other advice could any of you give me on how to take this forward. We have already contacted citizens advice but got a very generic looking copy and paste email back that basically said take him to a small claims court but we don't have the funds to do this. any help on this situation would be much appreciated

Hi there, i'm in need of some advice. I am a current student in Cardiff and Just moved house at the start of July. My previous tenancy agreement ended on 31st June. In my tenancy agreement is says; "2.5.1 The Member (letting agent) will tell the tenant within 10 working days of the end of the tenancy if they propose to make any deductions from the deposit" On the tenth working day after the end, i received my closing inspection which stated; "If there were any issues found on this inspection that could be deemed tenant responsibility, we will firstly review evidence such as previous inspections / inventories and correspondence throughout the tenancy that might concern the item/issue. This will allow us to ascertain if there is any tenant liability and if so, to ensure that a fair and accurate charge to your deposit is proposed. We will contact you if this is the case and there are any charges to apply to your deposit." So they have not proposed if they are making any deduction or not within their stated time scale. Where do I stand or what can I do? I did question the letting agent about this but they said any contact including the closing inspection counts as a proposal?! Sorry for the long first time post but I really need help. Thanks, Craig