Inventory check in/out problems

[lbr102help]

Hi all,

 

I hope you can help.

 

We are moving out of our rented property. At the time of moving in, an inventory check in company was employed by the letting agent to conduct the check in. He basically went round the property very quickly and told us to mark any changes on it in our own time but within seven days and email him. We did this and heard nothing back. I chased for approximately two months on numerous occasions. The only response I received was one quite early on to say he was sorry and would respond properly the next day. He never did.

 

The final email I sent was to the letting agent explaining that he had not come back to us. The letting agent apologised and said she would check. I heard nothing else and we did not get a signed final copy of the inventory.

 

We are now moving out and the letting agent has asked us to make arrangements to conduct the inventory check with the same man and to arrange to pay him the money for the inventory. I fail to see how we can do this given we did not agree a final copy of the inventory and I am reluctant to pay him money when he will have nothing to mark it against.

 

Any suggestions as to what we should do?

[Conniff]

Not a response to help on this one, but before you move into your next place, take pictures of every room and store them on an external hard drive just in case this should happen again.

 

Someone will respond to your request soon.

[lbr102help]

Thank you. We did take photos of this one but I have a feeling it may only be where we felt things differed on the inventory. My husband needs to dig them out. We will definitely take photos of our new place, although this one is so pristine (the landlord had renovated it for a family member who no longer wanted it) that I think any damage will be our fault! We will check properly first though, just in case there are a few bits of damage that have been done by workmen.

[*RainbowTears*]

From my own experiences with these outside inventory agencies, this is par for the course. They take the money with surprisingly ease yet aren't as quick to get back to you as required.

 

Do you still have all the correspondence you stated in your OP?

 

Is your deposit in a DPS scheme that you can access?

 

If the answers are yes to both Qs, then once the agent turns up & brings up anything you already tried telling them about. Then you can show your proof & state that you already contacted him about it previously.

 

Do take lots of pictures of the property, do include any light switches/fittings/curtains/oven/carpets or anything else that was left in the property. As you may need these just in case they try to say something that isn't as it should be.

 

Your deposit is meant to be given back to you within 10 days of your leaving the property.

Some LA are better than others.

 

If for whatever reason the outgoing inventory states £x damage/cleaning/replacement you can dispute this with your DPS. This is where your pictures & previous letters will help you.

 

Hopefully though you should have no issues & receive your deposit back in full.

 

Good luck!

[*RainbowTears*]

Forgot to say;

 

If the LL workmen have caused any damage, take pictures off it & dispute any claim if one is made, stating X was caused by workmen renovating said property.

[mariner51]

You did agree move in inventory as one was left for you to amend as required and return. Your fault you did not keep a copy.

At least if same guy does the move out report and you are present, you can photo any negative comments Insist on copy of both move in/out reports before you pay him.

Ts rarely get a copy of move in report to keep, esp if LL is paying for it.

[lbr102help]

Thanks for your advice Rainbowtears. Yes, deposit is fully protected luckily so I guess we'll just have to dispute if they get funny about anything. We also have the emails we sent as we thought this would ve back to bite us. I seem to remember that a lot of changes we made were to do with cleanliness (there was no way there had been a professional clean before we moved in) and the state of the garden which had not been maintained for a while, plus marks on walls which had apparently been decorated.

 

Re: our new property, we will check carefully for workman damage but from what we've seen on our trips to it it all looks pretty perfect. This may be the first time we've moved into an undamaged property!

 

Mariner -I'm not sure what you are talking about. We did keep it and had made amends. I think you missed the point of my post. The inventory man never agreed the amended version despite repeated chasing. There wasn't much more we could do about that other than contact the letting agent, which we did and that also got us no where.

[*RainbowTears*]

I'm more than happy to help. Nice one, seems your all set then lbr.

 

My fingers are X for you in the hope this is all settled without any further stress. Do be sure to keep all correspondence & pictures (on old & new) for a while, so nothing can crop up & bite back.

 

Enjoy your new home.

 

Good luck indeed!