Hi all,
For the first time since I started renting (and this will be my last time as I've finally bought my own home) I have a dispute with the landlord/agency.
I've moved out, the house was 95% perfect, and the move out fees they are trying to take from my deposit are frankly, disgusting.
They propose to give me £56 from £300. That is a low deposit I know.
Still..they are charging almost £250 for doing nothing. I rented for 4 years, never paid late, never caused a fuss, kept it clean and secure and respected the property.
I've raised a dispute with DPS....we are now arguing over about £180. I've allowed them about £60 to cover basics.
Has anyone used the DPS for their dispute system before?
Comments
ingoing and outgoing inventory which will include pics of the interior as a guide to the condition on both the entry and exit from the rental agreement
wear and tear! reasonable wear and tear is allowed , dont let them fob you off with, the walls needed a touch up etc etc..they should expect to have to do something at their expense after a 4 year let
DPS will favour the tenant especially if the paper trail s good
PM me if you want with more specifics
They tried to charge her for leaving too early, even though she gave them 3 potential takers who would have taken over from her immediately.
They then tried to charge her for taking up references for one of these potential takers.
In the end she blinded them with spreadsheets, and they gave her all but about £50 back.
Tried to charge me £500+ for things like removing some rubbish from a drawer, emptying the bins (bins were outside waiting for the next collection), chips on the door frame, stupid stuff like that. I said I'd happy to sort the bins and rubbish etc but they banned me from the house and said the only contractors they'd allow were ones they chose.
Funnily enough the bill for all the work they said they needed to do was almost exactly the amount of my deposit.
Luckily the DPS intervened and they only allowed them to take around £100 for various bits and I had the rest in my bank account a few days later.
It took them three years and three seperate days in court to get a court order to release funds. The DPS literally did nothing except passively sit on the cash until this happened.
I did worry they might be like this!
Assume it is ARLA certified
DPS nearly always lean on the tenant side and are very fair.
Meant the wisdom not the LOL.
I then got an email saying the landlady had been round and done her own final inspection.
Funnily enough she'd found enough things wrong to make the new claim £950, plus she seemed to think id taken her alarm system remote(?!) so there might still be more to add.
Some of the stuff they were saying was ridiculous, and some was just lies.
She said she'd had to pay for someone to come out and do the garden. I DID THAT! My father in law is a landscape gardener so he came and did it all the day before we left. She was literally saying that I left it in a state and that she'd paid someone to tidy it. Complete fantasist.
They also said they had to pay a company £50 to come out and take away a bed frame I'd left in the back garden. I left it there for 1 day and came back the next day and got it. I even took a picture of the empty garden after I did so, but they wouldn't accept it as it wasn't time stamped. They couldn't provide a receipt because it was a lie.
She also put several of the rooms needed a full redecoration.
I challenged it through the deposit scheme and got it all back, apart from the £300 because I'd already agreed to that.
I'm sure that some of them just see the deposit as theirs and they'll say anything to keep it.