Keeping Tenancy Deposit For Petty Reasons

First place I rented in the Halifax area, the agent kept the whole deposit because it wasn't clean enough even though I had spent days cleaning the place out. Wish I had had a party and trashed the place instead. This was pre deposit scheme days, it seems to have got a little better with the scheme. There's bad tenants and bad landlords but a lot of the letting agents are awful. Just my opinion and experience.
 


Lived in a flat with my lass and bairn where we had damp for a year and the landlord was refusing to do anything about it. Eventually got a new place and we left the flat in not the best state. Grass overgrown, left a few bits in each rooms, drew a veiny knob on the wall.

Landlord wanted us to pay £1000’s in damage. Emailed back telling him to fuck off and never heard from him again.

He should have given us some money. That year my lass had pneumonia and me and the bairn had chest infections cos of the twat.
 
Me and a mate rented a flat in Brighton and had numerous issues with the water and heating. Tried everything to get him to put it right but the slimy bastard never did. When we moved out we withheld the last two month's rent, and let him keep the month deposit. We also threw a huge party and invited people to draw all over the walls, handing out permanent markers to people when they came in. The walls and doors were covered floor to ceiling. We also left all the rubbish from the party, bottles, cans , tab ends ground into the floor and all the taps left running. Sounds a bit harsh, but he deserved it. The bloke was a Grade A kernt. He's probably still looking for us and it was 20 years ago now. I would do the same again and I hope the stress killed him.
 
Challenge it. Unless they have photos of before and after they might not win. The costs also have to be in line with the costs to rectify the issue. If it some dusting, the most they can claim is an hour at £15.
The mediator (or whatever they’re called) that handle the process seemed very fair when I had contact with them and are definitely not always on the side of the landlord.
Edit - AndrewP has put it much more eloquently than me. Definitely make sure the bastards don’t rip you off. One of my pet hates is scumbag landlords.
Solicitor eh?

@Charmless Man
 
Former landlord sent her mother round with the letting agent to do the inspection, like a bulldog chewing a wasp she was.

She wanted the carpets professionally cleaned, walls repainted throughout, minor scuffs on the skirting boards painted over, tears in the lino in the kitchen behind the washing machine repaired etc. I produced a receipt to show I'd had the carpets cleaned 3 days before the inspection, and the inventory from when I moved in showing the tears in the lino. Even the letting agent had to intervene and tell her that what she was demanding would be considered reasonable wear and tear. Horrible twat.

I'm in the process of moving out of my current rented home. I tried to buy the property but the landlord wanted £36k more than he paid for it 4 years ago despite doing nowt to it :rolleyes:. Needless to say our relationship soured. I'm considering withholding the last months rent this time and letting him keep the deposit.
You point out one Arsehole in the first paragraph then make yourself look an even bigger one in the second paragraph.
 
Past caring at this point as I'm glad we are rid of our negligent landlords who refuse to fix mould, damp and mushrooms growing out of our ceiling.

However as an extra kick in the balls they've kept £150 of our deposit to pay for a cleaner to clean the house after sending us pictures of some dust on top of the cooker's hood and on top of the cupboards. It's pretty laughable to be honest and I'm genuinely just glad to be away from the twats tbh.

What other petty reasons have people on here been screwed out of deposits for?
They don’t just get to keep it, was it held in a deposit protection scheme?
 
Me and a mate rented a flat in Brighton and had numerous issues with the water and heating. Tried everything to get him to put it right but the slimy bastard never did. When we moved out we withheld the last two month's rent, and let him keep the month deposit. We also threw a huge party and invited people to draw all over the walls, handing out permanent markers to people when they came in. The walls and doors were covered floor to ceiling. We also left all the rubbish from the party, bottles, cans , tab ends ground into the floor and all the taps left running. Sounds a bit harsh, but he deserved it. The bloke was a Grade A kernt. He's probably still looking for us and it was 20 years ago now. I would do the same again and I hope the stress killed him.
“Me and a mate rented a flat in Brighton “:lol:


Do your wear a thumb ring by anychance?
 
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we got accused of changing one of the mattresses. So we got charged for removal of the mattress and to replace the one that we ‘chucked out’. I stupidly took a while to reply to it so missed the deadline to appeal.

Letting agents were awful mind. Took us 6 months to get our freezer fixed and when we moved out landlord gave me a ring asking if we had changed the locks. Letting agency didn’t tell him that we got broken into and that we were responsible for paying for the new ones
 
When I used to rent I regularly used to get charged a cleaning fee by agents when I moved in, and then again when I moved out. Crafty bastards. They must have clocked thousands that way.

Keep us up to date with your landlord’s arse dropping @Kenna. We’re enjoying this.
 
When I used to rent I regularly used to get charged a cleaning fee by agents when I moved in, and then again when I moved out. Crafty bastards. They must have clocked thousands that way.

Keep us up to date with your landlord’s arse dropping @Kenna. We’re enjoying this.
We had this pulled on us. We cleaned the place top to bottom including crap like cooker hood etc. Took photos. They still demanded a cleaning fee so I set a trap. Several sponges dotted on floors and sinks. Asked to have access to check a deep clean had been done. They agreed to that so in I went. Guess how many sponges had moved.

Threatened them with legal action if they withheld the cleaning fee as it sure as shit had not been cleaned.
 
Excellent mate, he obviously knows he's fucked by offering you the £150.
When I've thought again I'm sure all the deposit schemes require the landlord to give some tenant contact information so you would have automatically heard if he had registered it properly.
If you can be bothered then take it as far as you can just for him being a dick.

Just as side note I know there's plenty of shit landlords and equally as many shit tenants.
The deposit scheme is actually one of the good systems that has been setup that is generally very fair and doesn't allow landlords to be rip off but also does give protection against scruffs.
Main problem for genuine landlords is that normally the damage proper scruffs do isn't covered by a £500 bond.

There's no excuse for any landlord not to have things setup properly. Sites like OpenRent do pretty much everything for you including advertising and contracts for about £40
For me the problem stems from people wanting to become landlords who can’t really afford it, so have to buy cheap shitty houses in cheap shitty areas, where you have to charge cheap shitty rent. And one just has to look at the state of gardens/properties in those areas to know tenants may well leave it in a state. So landlords with good intentions get annoyed by rough tenants and then there are the landlords who see these types of people as easy targets to rip off.

Someone talks about a tenant taking a crowbar to the window in this thread. Why any landlord would want to enter a level of the market where that is the customer demographic I do not know. It’s better for everyone if that segment of the market is left to social providers and housing associations as then they can help crowbar man and those types of families get whatever social support they need for their obviously chaotic lives. I don’t understand why anyone would want to buy and rent in that type of market segment and I would say if you can’t afford more expensive areas then maybe don’t become a landlord!
 
Just because he wouldn’t sell his house to you for the price you wanted to pay you come the kernt?
You've interpreted it wrong. The landlord took the hump with me, not the other way around. I told him his price was too expensive and I bought somewhere else instead. He thinks he's given me a good offer and I've wasted his time.

The point I'm making is that that the goodwill stops when the money stops, same as the previous landlord. So the way he's going on, I'm expecting things to get petty when I leave.
 
£400 not a lot in the grand scheme though. Considering the income made, £400 is easily absorbed as a cost of sale and is not worth the hassle worrying about.
Went in as an allowable expense so saved on tax
I was a reluctant landlord between 2012 and 2014.

There were 2 different tenants, the 1st kept a dog in the house which was against the agreement.

I deducted some of the deposit to cover:

- Shrubs removed from the garden.
- knackered/dirty carpets.
- scratches on doors.
Etc.

It works both ways, but I’m glad that I’m out of it.
Funnily enough I've just sold it so yes it's a relief for me to be out of it now and have banked the sale proceeds.
Pretty much how I've been able to semi retire
 
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For me the problem stems from people wanting to become landlords who can’t really afford it, so have to buy cheap shitty houses in cheap shitty areas, where you have to charge cheap shitty rent. And one just has to look at the state of gardens/properties in those areas to know tenants may well leave it in a state. So landlords with good intentions get annoyed by rough tenants and then there are the landlords who see these types of people as easy targets to rip off.

Someone talks about a tenant taking a crowbar to the window in this thread. Why any landlord would want to enter a level of the market where that is the customer demographic I do not know. It’s better for everyone if that segment of the market is left to social providers and housing associations as then they can help crowbar man and those types of families get whatever social support they need for their obviously chaotic lives. I don’t understand why anyone would want to buy and rent in that type of market segment and I would say if you can’t afford more expensive areas then maybe don’t become a landlord!
Yeah totally get what you are saying.
I only became a reluctant landlord after got with my Mrs and we bought house together and I had negative equity in my house so decided to rent out (about 15 year ago now).
I've had all kinds in mine and could wrote stories for days about them.
What I did in the start was try to do everything cheap a possible, including advertising on the likes of Facebook and Gumtree. Basically doing that I was manly getting scratters applying for it.
Since then paid more and changed to OpenRent who advertise on Rightmove and the level of clientele was totally different.

I'm not saying I don't have issues with tenants still but no where near as bad.

Also I took out boiler cover for £7 a month which has paid for itself and have maintenance people lined up for work if and when needed.

Not really hard to get sorted any landlord who can't do those types of basics is just lazy.

All that being said if I could get out of it now with the right some of money I'd be gone from it.
Mortgage only has 4 years left on it now so think when this tenant goes I'll be selling up as I'll have a bit of profit.
 

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