Hi We have just moved to a rented property (2 months now) and the landlady wants to evict us. She has said that we have deceived her to get into the property, we are in the property illegally as we have not signed her inventory dated 2012, now she is saying that the tenancy agreement was only proposed and now she is saying we have trashed the property and her representative will inspect it and if we do not co-operate they have keys and will enter anyway. Also she said it was our responsibility to register our own deposit. She will not accept phone calls and her letters sent to us are quite nasty and she loves her red pen to underline all the words It was rented through an estate agents, we have been in contact with them but I think they are scared of her She has never met us and I do not think she has been to the property for a number of years. I would like to sue her as she knew before we moved in that we wanted to rent long term and she was more than happy to take our money. We have no money to move as we put it all into this property. I would like practical and legal advise please.

Hi All, My landlady told us in Feb that she was selling our house. We moved out in April when a suitable property came up, but had to pay double rent and council tax on the two properties until the end of June when my tenancy ended I did however manage to get a one month discount on the old property as I wasn't living there. Now that the landlady is renovating the house to sell, she too has applied for the council tax discount (as she's not living there) and has been declined as there needs to be a period of 6 weeks of someone living there since that last claim before she's entitled to it. Because of this, she has told me that what I did was 'unacceptable' and that she will be taking the £119 (one month's council tax) out of my deposit. We are going through the DPS, but but the email this morning told me that my request for repayment of my deposit has been declined and that that I to settle it with her - which is impossible as she is totally unreasonable. Who is in the right here? She is stating that it was my responsibility to pay all bills (which I have done), but in claiming the discount (which I was perfectly entitled to), I have breached this part of my contract. Any advice much welcomed.

Hi All, Please bear with me. I was made redundant over a year ago, and as a single Mum, I've just started my own business, but am still relying heavily on benefits while I find my feet - financially. Our landlady's told us she's selling the house in June and as we've been here for 5 years and are so happy and settled, I'd love to somehow be able to buy it. The house is expected to go on the market for 220K. My mum recently sold her house and has a 30K deposit she can give us and I'm now considering the following options: 1. My ex, who earns a good wage (100K) can 'Buy to let' for us? This sounds too good to be true - what are the issues surrounding this? 2. Would my 71 year old Mum be able to re-mortgage her house that she owns outright? It's value is 200K. Is she able to do this at her age - how much could she raise - again - what are the issues surrounding this? I'm pretty convinced that our dream's not achievable, but I thought I'd ask here first - I've heard great things about this forum. Here's hoping, Many thanks in advance.

After checking out of a property about 9 months ago (after a 2 year and 5 month tenancy) we received a letter of claim from the landlady. We negotiated through the Agents and came to an amount which we both agree to be a fair deduction from the deposit. (Although we believe we were very generous). The Landlady refused any offer and said that she want to take this to court, and after 9 months send her letter of demand. She refused any input from a mediator like the TDS and did not even received our responses to the agent about a number of the issues on the list of claims. Therefore her claim do include things which are irrelevant because of her lack of knowledge as a result of her refusal for any negotiation. The deposit was £1600 (which now has been fully returned to us) but she claim £8300+. Many of the high claim items is round figures plucked out of thin air and zero information where it come from (like quotations, costings, etc.) and there is anyway no way that, should we agree to the issue, that the cost will even come to close the amount she claim. A solicitor send her a letter asking for calculations and evidence where the cost is coming from. The solicitor also pointed out to her that the court will frown on her refusal for negotiation. Her response once again illustrated that she is clueless with once again nothing to substantiate her amounts. I am very happy to see her in court and many of her claims will be very easy to shoot down but I have a few questions. Filing a claim of this amount and going to a hearing will be expensive. We will make her a reasonable offer (on the same basis as before) but what will happen to this costs? If the judge accept our proposal, or order an amount slightly more, will be require to pay these costs? I will really appreciate it if someone can give me more clarity on this.

Hi, A very good friend of mine is to help me out by renting a room from me and living with me to help with the garden, house etc. He also cooks meals etc due to my disability. My health is much improved, I still have to be careful to avoid a relapse. He is in full time work and I do not claim benefits. However occasionally he does get a small top up of UC when his wages are very low. Therefore I think I may need a formal template since he has just left his bedsit?? I do not know.

Our Landlady has constantly dropped hints that this 3 bedroom house should be for a family not a couple so my Mrs and I are looking for somewhere else (daughter left home). Talking to Landlady yesterday she said she'd give us back the deposit 10 days after we leave. She's a tight bitch so I don't trust her. 1. Is that even legal? 2. Whose to say she wont just walk around the house making up stories to diddle us out of our deposit money?

Hi I really need your help I have a £500 deposit and the landlady had said I have left the mattress in a disgusting condition which I have not it was not in the best of shape when I moved in...I have disputed it with her and she has said she will leave £200 in my account from the £500 deposit...the mattress was thin and rubbish and not even a memory foam which I have seen from £169 from top shops....Just get most of my money back I offered to get her a mattress....what are my rights/what can I do.... Thanks

Hi there, My partner and I moved into a privately rented flat 2 months ago. We really get on with our landlady and are good tenants. The property is always spotless, bills are always paid on time and we really do look after our home. When we moved, we were asked by the letting agent if we had a pet. (At the time) the answer was a no. They confirmed that their 'standard' clause was 'no pets', however there is a clause that states we could have a pet with the landlord's written consent (and this can be broken at any time). I called the letting agent as my partner and I have decided that we would really like a kitten. We have both had experience in owning a pet and my other half is at home everyday (he works a couple mins away from our flat). I e-mailed our landlady to ask if it would be possible to have a kitten. Initially, she said no due to the above standard clause. I then pointed out that in black and white on the tenancy agreement, (directly underneath the 'no pets' clause, ironically), it states that if the landlord gave written consent, we could keep an animal. She then responded by saying she will speak to the Management company as this is a separate contract and will come back to me So I'm a bit annoyed, and very upset. This is HER contract and we signed the agreement which stated that we could have an animal with written consent. Landlords/Tenants, I would really appreciate your advice as to where we stand! Extra bit of info - She is coming over early next week to do an inspection, which we are not worried about in the slightest and we have agreed that we will advise her if the answer is a 'no', we will be moving as this would have affected our initial decision.

Hi i wonder if anyone can give me info on my problem. Me and my friend was renting a flat and gave 1 months notice to leaving. this flat was recently purchased by the landlady in question. Now we were renting this flat through a company called PMC which went bust and passed our flat to McAfee just before our ex landlady purchased the flat. Now at the time of the flat being moved from PMC to McAfee and the buying of the flat by our ex landlady no one inquired about the deposit. i.e when our ex landlady bought the flat she never bothered (even thought she was warned by McAfee) getting the deposit from the bankrupt company. Anyway now our ex landlady has the neck to refuse us our deposit because she doesn't have it (or didn't bother to get it on purchasing) Now might i add that she is saying that the place was left untidy and the carpets were bad which i can assure is not true as we cleaned the place from top to bottom...and also might i add the landlady has never been in the flat (even though we had arranged for her to come inspect the flat on purchasing but she never bothered) to even know what the carpets have been like and i assure you them carpets have been in there since BC! At the end of the day she cannot with hold this deposit on that ground as she never was in the flat in the first place. might i also add that our deposit was not entered into the new deposit protection scheme as we started renting before this came into the matter. any advice is welcomed and thank you in advance

Tenancy deposit not refunded i need a bit of help for my nephew please. He, his wife and 5 children rented a house and paid £3,000.00 deposit and an advance in rent of £6,000.00. They applied for housing benefit but could not get the landladys address as she claimed she was on witness protection, so while they were waiting for the housing benefit to be sorted, they got into arrears. Then H.B. lapsed, and they had to start a new claim. Eventually, the council gave them the address of the landlord....... Due to the arrears the landlady gave them an eviction notice........To cut a long story short, to date, she has not given them their deposit back. She tried to claim that the property was untidy and trashed, but my nephew has photographic eveidence and video evidence that the whole house was decorated and a new carpet laid in the lounge.He also has witnesses to the decorating because they were the ones who helped him decorate. I think the landlady has spent the deposit and not protected it under the Tenancy Deposit Protection scheme.. I drafted a Notice Before Action requesting the landlady pays the deposit back within 14 days and that she gives documentation that the deposit is protected. So far ,after 9 days, no reply.The landlady could easily have paid back the deposit minus the rent arrears, but she has failed to do so.In the letter, I have threatened her with a county court summons if the deposit is not paid by 18th September.. Any more help and advice would be greatly appreciated. P.S. My nephew rented the property for 2 years and in that time, never got any info. from the landlady that his deposit was protected.

Hello everybody! I'm here today because my landlady informed me that she wouldn't give me any of my deposit back although I don't feel like she is in her right to do so. Therefore, I would be very greateful to have your advice concerning that issue. General informations (not sure what will be useful sorry...): - I rented a room (with furniture) in her flat, we were the only two people leaving in it. - We didn't use an agency or anything, I found the add for the rent online and dealt exclusively with her. - I stayed there from the 6th of November 2013 until the 6th of June 2014 (as agreed). - When she asked for a security deposit I asked her to draw a Tenancy Agreement, she seemed surprised but agreed immediately and we signed one before I moved in (I have a copy and so does she but it was just with the two of us, no lawyer or anything) - I paid a deposit worth 550 pounds, which was equal to a month's rent. - We didn't do an inventory at the entry or when I left the flat (didn't take pictures either) - We always had a good relationship, up until a couple of months back when I did notice she seemed more cold to me. - the flat was in Barnet (London) - a few weeks before I leave she asked me to pay (and I did) to replace a couple things and repair small damages I was indeed responsible for (for the most part, for some of it honestly I'm not sure but I didn't want to make too much trouble at the time and as long as the money is not too much I'm ok, but the security deposit is different!!) When I sent her the email with my banking informations (naively when I didn't received anything back after a couple of weeks I thought she might not have it) here is the answer she emailed me: "I doubt there will be my deposit to return. Firstly the desk in the room has a number of dents. That's about £250 to replace. Secondly, the room I am not able to rent out until the damp gets sorted, at the moment it is still being dehumidified. I'll need to re paint the room. I can send you the receipt when the builders have sorted it all out. But I don't see the point as you have cost me rent which is the same as the deposit. Sorry." I haven't answered to her yet because it started to scare me a lot and I panicked a little (I'm between jobs at the moment and as my next contract starts in September I was counting on that money!! ) and I wanted to seek advice before I do or say anything. Also, I moved back to France (where I come from) shortly after I left the flat, which doesn't help my situation... My view on the issue is this: I didn't do any dent on the desk, which by the way was already old and damaged when I moved in (the desk is made of a cheap Ikea/Argos type white frame with a big plank of wood put over it) . [ATTACH=CONFIG]51685[/ATTACH] The damp problem I wasn't aware of until a week or two before I left when she did text me that people had come and found a damp problem in the room and said that I had not open the room since I moved in. I answered to her that I had been opening everyday like she asked when I moved in, during at least an hour (which is true, even in winter, and god knows that was painful! And giving the very small size of the room honestly you could not live in there if you didn't anyway!). She texted back that it was getting sorted and put a dehumidifier in my room during the last week I was there. I thought the case was closed.. . But I was obviously wrong. To conclude I must add that I didn't do anything that could have caused the damp problem! My room was the smalest in the flat and the area around one of the window was damaged when I first moved in (paint chipping away and such). Sometime during the couple last months I did notice brown splashes appearing around the window and on the wall nearby after I opened the window to let the air in but the splashes watched away without any effort and I didn't think it was anything more than dirt coming from the outside... They reappeared a second time around the same area shortly before I left (that's when she had people coming over to check) and I just cleared them while cleaning the room on my last day there. So what do you think? Could I be directly and solely responsable for that damp problem even though I did open everyday and didn't do anything out of the ordinary (apart from puting my towel to dry in the room from time to time)? If not who should I talk to? I never had this kind of problems before (this s the third flat I let over the last four years as I had to move a lot when I was finishing my studies) so I'm feeling really lost. .. Thanks in advance for the time you will grant this request!

This is complicated so I will try and make it as simple as possible. My landlady is holding my deposit and every time I answer her questions she changes the reason for withholding it. Firstly I have had confirmation from all 3 schemes that she did not protect my deposit. And my issue may come down to this in the end but I need some advice as I am taking her to small claims court and don't want any surprises once there. She gave me 2 months notice but after 1 week was pressuring me for a date as she wanted to move back into the property. I found somewhere quickly and moved out after 1 month. She claims I owe her that last month's rent as I am contracted to pay it even though she moved in. In effect she expects me to pay for her to live there for a month. Then she changed her reason due to bad cleaning, decoration and damage. Even though she told me not to worry about getting it professionally cleaned, that she was going to decorate throughout any way and all items she claims were damaged are either lies or not on the inventory. I have text evidence for all of this! Now she is saying she needs proof that ALL utilities and loans I had at that address are paid up to date before reconsidering. I told her all utilities are my responsibility and that she cannot withhold my deposit for those reasons and she has now gone back to damage and cleaning/decorating. I have sent her a letter before action for the full amount of my deposit but I dont think she has the money! My next step is to prepare a case to take to court. Do I need to worry about any of this or is the fact she didn't protect it enough? I should also say that we inspected the property together and she raised no issue. She gave me NO opportunity to correct the alleged cleaning issues etc and sent me a fake invoice ( or at least a highly dodgy one) for works she claims she had to carry out. The first I heard of any problem was 11 days after I moved out and after I asked her what scheme my deposit was in. Any advice would be more than welcome.I hope this isn't too complicated there are many many more issues but I condensed it down as much as possible! Thank you!

Hi, Now I and my friend are in trouble. Please help or give us advise. We signed a lodger agreement for a fixed term tenancy (14weeks) for a fully furnished room (all bills included) with 500GBP deposit, all paid before moving in. Unfortunately, we and LL agreed to end our agreement and let her chose the right time for us to move out. We stated in our email notice that we understand that she needs time to find new lodgers. She proposed us to leave 4 weeks later after we gave her an email notice. She gave us the rest of our 5 weeks rent that we already paid (1250 GBP) when we moved out but she didn't return our deposit back directly. After we moved out 24 days, we received a letter about costing damages to her house. (We signed in the inventory before moving in) It costs around 300 GBP for housing damages such as floor scratches. (I will not talk about this part because I don't have any evidence that I didn't make them even some of the damages are surely not my fault). So this means we should get 200GBP from 500 GBP back. But she also calculates about the laundry of towels and linens because of the lodger ending and also for losses concerning re-letting after we moved out till the new lodgers came for 1000 GBP. Totally she wants to charge us around 1300GBP which means even we couldn't get any deposit back, we need to pay more 800GBP. Can anyone help us? We would like to know does LL have the right to do so. (She has the right to keep all of our deposit because we're just lodgers, right?) We are about to leave this country within few weeks, but I just know this charging matters today. What will happen or what she can do if we won't pay her any more than the deposit she takes? Can we have a chance to get some part of our deposit back? Really appreciate for anyone who can give us advise. Thank you so much,

Hi guys, I'll just give a quick overview of my situation. I live on my own with my dog and cat in a park home. It is in a cul-de-sac with two other park homes - one houses my landlady and the other houses my landlady's son, the property I am renting used to be occupied by my landlady's mother. I have been here, under an AST, for 18months. I'm 28, with no children, and am disabled. My friend (we'll call her Jane) had a short term relationship with my landlady's son (we'll call him Dave) which ended badly when my friend discovered just how much of an a***hole he really is. Dave has convinced himself that I am to blame for the relationship ending and that I am spying on him. In truth, I have kept my mouth shut and have refused to be drawn on an opinion of the whole sorry saga. I am a naturally quiet and private person and loath gossip. Dave has made my landlady's life a living hell by constantly going on about it all and pushing her to evict me or push the rent up to get me out. She is 60 and a very nervy lady and is sick to the back teeth of being bullied by her son. Last Monday I received written notice of a rent increase of £25 that will make my staying here that little bit harder and Dave knows it. It has been increased to placate him and give his mother a quiet(er) life. His mother has even been thinking of selling up and moving away just to get rid of him. He rents his park home from his uncle but I'm not sure if he has a tenancy agreement or not. My landlady and I get on really well and she does not want me to go or put the rent up but she was bullied into doing so by her vicious son. I would like to know what legal recourse I have against my neighbour re harassment? Also, he has 12 scrap cars up here all rotting into the ground - can he be made to clear it all up even though it's private land? The land belongs to my landlady and she is fed up of asking him to clear it up. She's now frightened to say anything to him for fear of verbal abuse. In an ideal world I'd stick a lit match through his letterbox (JOKE) but he's put the sword of Damocles over my head so I'd like to return the favour! Sorry to ramble on, as you can appreciate it is a very complicated situation. Any help would be very appreciated. Many thanks Kat x

Hello I was wondering if anyone could help please. My Brother in law has been renting a flat in London and has been paying his rent regularly to his landlady. However today Bailiffs came to his premises saying that he is to be evicted on Friday due to non payment. It turns out that the Lady in question has done a runner with my brother in law's rent and deposit and has fled to Jamaica. So now my brother in law is broke and is going to be homeless. We were just wondering what he could do to be able to one find somewhere to live quick and somewhere to put his things as he has no money now to rent somewhere else as she has taken £1500 deposit and £800 a month as well. He is of course going to the police but other than that we do not know what to do. We unfortunately cannot help as we don't:-x have the space and live to far away for him to travel. If someone could please help then that would be great. Thanks

Hello, This is my first posting on this site. My Landlady and I are not on the best of terms. She was given the house by her mother, my first landlady on the basis that I can continue to live here with the rent based on what Housing Benefit would pay (despite which she has in the past tried to increase it by 150%). She is not happy with me living here (despite making nearly 100% profit) and would prefer if I moved out- which I can't afford to do and do not wish to. She keeps bringing people with her for her Property Inspection who have no legitimate business being here- I find their presense very intrusive- particularly as they wander around unattended (whilst I am with the landlady) practically measuring up for curtains! I've asked her not to bring extraneous persons with her but she thinks she has a right. Several members of her family I do not get on with at all and others of her friends are strangers to me. Can I legally prevent access to these people, and if so, on what grounds? She's due on Wednesday morning. I've a feeling she may be asking me to leave as it is the anniversary of the Shorthold Tenancy- the terms of which she has not adhered to- eg obtaining an annual Gas Certificate. Does anyone know if this is a condition for me to get Housing Benefit? Many thanks if you can help me with these issues.

Hello, We are currently living in HELL. Since we moved in a very ( too expensive!!) one bedroom flat, the landlady started to be obsessed by us. She started to complain constantly about everything and always via email. Then we couldn't sleep because of the noise pollution coming form the ceilings. They are not soundproofed and we ca hear every single annoying noise coming from above. Our guests couldn't believe it. It's really annoying, it's like a bunch of elephants are walking above our heads! As soon as we complain via email and calling her, she accused us of harassing her. We stopped any communication with her, until she started to contact us again via email to complain about the fact we asked to her husband to give us some rubbish bags, because we were new and we didn't know where to find them. Then my family friend needed a temporary address to send receive his new job contract. He gave his HR our home address. Our landlady received the letter and she started to threaten us, accusing us of address fraud and, also, blackmailing us. She wants to charge us for 4 months rent because she is accusing us of having another tenant, without asking her permission. By contract we should pay £300 more per month if we add a tenant to the flat. The funny thing is that my friend lived in another area of Holloway (which can be proved) and he's been sleeping at our place only for 2 days, as a guest for the weekend. Before this blackmail she sent her husband to our place and she spied us from the window of the garden. She saw our friend and her husband entered into the house without any notice, asking for the name of the guest using an excuse. She is keeping the copy of the mail of my friend and she keeps on saying that what we did is fraud and that wehave to pay her. Wht should we do with her? I can't handle this situation anymore!

Hi guys. I put out a message yesterday outlining a part of our predicament with ex flatmates, but thought I'd just tell you the entire issue. It concerns, essentially, getting our deposit back. Below is a little description of our situation. I have been in touch with our landlady for about five weeks about getting our deposit back. Until a few days ago, she had promised to send it over to our new address, after ignoring my emails for about three weeks. However, she didn't put it in writing, she told me by the phone. I then rang her the other day (she carried on ignoring my emails) and she made a number of accusations of us having taken items from the house, including a hoover (which is actually mum's), curtains (which, as of last month, are in the house) and cutlery (also rubbish, we have cutlery already). She also gave me the impression that it was for this reason, and disputes we're having with our ex flatmates about outstanding bills (she took their side), for us having difficulty getting our deposit back, although she didn't say that it appeared fairly obvious. I also have to give her a copy of a key i have for the house, which ill send over tomorrow by post (hopefully this shouldn't be an issue? I haven't been back to the house anyway, and forgot about it as we'd already given a key to the new flatmate). Anyway, according to newish legislation, from 6 April 2007, when a tenant pays a deposit for an assured shorthold tenancy (which is what we had) in England or Wales, the landlord or letting agent must protect the deposit into a Government-backed tenancy deposit scheme. She hasn't done this, nor did she send a letter within the stipulated 14 days to say that she had received our deposit and that it was in a scheme. Because the deposit doesn't appear to have been protected, she's breaking the law. The law says that if she hasn't done this, provided i win the case in a small claims court, she will have to repay 3 times the amount. I'd like to know how much of an issue the claims to the curtains, cutlery and hoover is going to be in terms of settling this dispute over the deposit. I don't imagine that she will admit to being wrong about the items, and will continue lying about it. Also does the dispute about bills with the ex tenants affect anything to do with our potential small claim for return of the deposit? Does it affect anything? Finally, who do I go to to kick off the action against her? We've been told we're earning too much to go to the Private Tenants Advice Service, and CIB don't appear to be much help. On a slightly different note: She claims that we did an inventory when we lived in the house previous to the last one (we lived in two of her houses consecutively). this is simply untrue, we never did one, and certainly never signed off on one. She also said she will be doing a new inventory. This is totally lousy behaviour, she could claim anything is in the house, and there isn't anything we can do about it. Anyway that is basically the ins and outs of the situation. Let me know what you think when you get the time! Cheers guys

hi im hoping someone can help , my landlady has done so many things Because the person i rent with is friends with this woman she is taking (i feel) advantage of the fact , we wanted a property which was cheaper for us so she said she had another one and we said great and are due to move in tomorrow but she wants to : Come into the house we are at now today to rip up carpets because the new tenants want to lay new carpets down The house we are due to move into tomorrow is filthy she said she didnt have time to clean it so said we have to ! there is drawings all over the walls etc the house we are in now she NEVER fixed anything we asked the back door key was stuck in the back door so i have had to jump over a wall to get in if the person i live with has the front door key one day i was in bed and she walked into the bedroom she let herself in ,her excuse was "i thought you had abondoned the house" which is total lies ,it was because we didnt answer the phone to her the night before as we were in bed early yesterday she gave the person i live with black bags and told her to clean out the person living there before us all her belongings and put them in the bag !! its hard because the person i live with is friendly with her and didnt want a bond before we moved in she feels bad for saying something to her any suggestions would really help cos i dont have a clue about all this thanks in advance steve

Hello everyone! I had a problem with my landlady two days ago. I left my flat on 11 of this month because she has afraid about some problems. i changed my stuff to other room and i left the place. She promised me gave me back half deposit (225 Pounds) and she told me that i can keep my stuff there till the end of the month. She changed her mind and also the lock so my stuff was inside the house and i couldn't take it. finally i spoke with her and she let me take all my stuff but she never gave me back the money. she was waiting with some people at the house trying to intimidate me. she was laughing all the time and saying to me that i had never been living there and she is not going to give me back the money. She didnt do contract for me. i didnt know but someone told me that she has a council flat and she can't rent it. What can i do? she's a really bad person and i did a favour to her and she has been laughing to me all the time. i have proofs about i lived there like bank letters and all the transactions ( paying her the rent) im desesperate and i wanna act because she is gonna do it again with more people. many thanks

Hello everybody, Basically when I moved into my flat with my fiancee, we had an independent inventory done, where they documented the state of the flat in photos as well as writing. I have a copy of this inventory, which verifies that the place wasn't in a very good state when we moved in (it basically hadn't been cleaned). Our tenancy contract basically said that we needed to leave the flat as we found it. Instead, we left it in better condition (not spotless, but clean at least). When we moved out, we couldn't find a time to meet with the landlady, so we just left the keys inside for her to collect. we didn't think of taking pictures as we'd had a good relationship with the landlady and were basically just totally confident that she would be happy with the state of the flat given how unclean it was when we moved in. Instead, we received an email saying how disappointing that the flat was not spotless, and that she'd ordered a team of professional cleaners to go wild on the place, making it look like new all over again. She now wants to charge us for that service. Again, we have the original inventory which clearly shows in photographs how bad it was when we got there, but we don't have any evidence of how we left it, since she called the cleaners as soon as she showed up. My question is: would she need evidence of how we left it to withhold our deposit? Basically, it seems to me like it would be impossible for her to produce evidence that we left it in a worse state than we found it, because we didn't, but since nobody took pictures or anything before she started cleaning, it would be our word against hers. So in this situation, could she just say that we left it in a worse state and then withhold our deposit, or would she need to provide evidence (like pictures of how she found it before the cleaners) before making such a claim? thanks so much for reading my post! -starwhal