Dispute with Landlord regarding deposit
Hello, would appreciate some advice please.
After a 6 month tenancy the landlords have charged us £427 for repairs and damages. 90% of this is absolutely unreasonable such as cleaning the curtains and the carpets themselves us having a cleaner in teh day before checkout to do an immaculate job- They had 48 hours to do the inventory check yet took over 3 days and came back a huge bill for work they had already done themselves. We were expecting them to come back with a list and then we would agree what had and hadnt been done, they way this has happened means that we are beign double charged fro work already done, we paid £150 for a cleaner teh day before checkout and have receipts to prove this.
The other point is that they have doen all teh work themselves and are charging £15 per hour- None of t his has been mentioned in the contract. Also they are 65+ so with all respect soem of the time they have listed, i.e simple weeding for one paved side of a 30ft garden (moderate weed growth) they are claiming 5 hours for this at a charge of £75. I have checked and for basic gardening such as this rates start form around £8 and would be doen in half the time.
The last point i would liek to raise is that from day 1 of our tenancy, the new fridge was not working- The landlords took our frozen food to keep from spoiling. 4 days later they brought in a small replacement fridge until the new fridge was to be delivered. The small fridge had a small ice box big enough to fit a pack of peas and teh rest was enough for basic breakfast goods but not for lunch or dinner- This was the situation for a minimum of 10 days howvere the LL's will have the exact date as to when the new fridge was delivered. We were very accomodating with this all as it was teh start of our tenancy but now that teh LL's have picked up on teh tiniest little point sin teh inventory check and generally charging totally unresonable costs i would liek to know if we can counteract with claiming for food expenses incurred?
Apologies for the lenght of this email but any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Regards
What do you actually want?
What do you actually want? To challenge the deductions from your deposit?
If yes, then contact the scheme holding your deposit and raise a dispute. It can then be mediated.
If, on the other hand, your deposit was not protected, ask the landlord to return your deposit or you will issue proceedings against them for the return of your deposit plus 3X that amount as a penalty - and that you will also be asking for statutory interest of 8%.