f-this shit... LL problems

[FunkyLeprechaun]

I should be posting in the UK forum as they know the UK law better than me but I'm ranting and raving here with the aid of Heineken. I'm so angry with my landlord at the moment that I can't really think of anything else (my friend thankfully helped me complete a job application). My LL has decided to withhold our security deposit and listed a number of excuses (but no receipt) for withholding our deposit.

thanks for letting me rant. Coming up is my head banging on the keyboard IY)*R)#*WY*RYIHNFOHDIHFIOSHIFHSODF.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

1. Come on...

talk to me... I'm so angry!!! What should I do to abate this hostility?

[mzteris]

2. is it a company

or just renting from a person? If a company, tell them you're going to THEIR boss. If not, tell them your calling the local (whoever it is that's in charge of such things - I dunno who that would be in England. Something like small claims court?)

Ask for a receipt delineating the "causes".

Do you have a copy of the original lease - that states reasons for withholding the deposit?

Does the lease allow for you a chance to FIX any problems?

Pursue it. Bug the shit out of them. They may give it back just to shut you up and get you off their back. Don't take NO for an answer.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

3. We rented from a Private Landlord

And we dealt directly to him. People have said that my partner and I should go to the local Citizen's Advice Bureau.

1) We will ask for a receipt or receipts. That's what a number of people suggested we do. The LL said that all the repairs plus putting in a new carpeting cost 400 pounds (nearly $820) plus additional materials such as paint and labour costs. So it's a general comment about costs and not the exact change. A lot of people said, "400 pounds?? For carpeting and lino????? Did he get a really expensive guy in??" Dai and I could have done all the charges my LL claimed in the letter for less than 100 pounds. (We purchased carpeting to replace the carpet in the living room for 50 pounds).

2) We have all the copies of our lease. I'll have to pull them out again and check again. We had moved out of our property the first of this month and our tenancy ending 3 days later. We had returned to the property to clean up and make good on any repairs and the LL (without our permission) had removed the carpeting and entered our house to clean.

So that's your third point answered, we were going to clean up and paint but the LL didn't let us do that. I'm certain that there's something in the lease about this.

We will bug the shit out of them... I'm looking forward to my partner coming home and working with him to figure out what to do. We did purchase our own house (with the help of my parents) but we don't have a lot of money and 350 pounds is alot of money. We were hoping to use it to pay off a little bit of our mortgage.

[Kali]

8. tough call

was the carpet ruined by you guys or was it just normal wear and tear replacemnent time? If so that is not your responsibility, same with painting and any other building maintenance. Usually unless you have actually damaged something you are only responsible for leaving it in clean condition.

Pictures can help, as can good legal advice and clear contracts. My one actual going-to-court experience in this area left me a little jaded as the the judge ruled against me. I later found out he was a landlord so think about that as well.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

9. We only ruined the kitchen carpet

And we agreed to replace it and we actually bought the carpet for that already, but the LL said, "No carpeting, we'd like lino." The bedroom and living room carpets got dirty over time and we had intended to rent an industrial carpet cleaner for that. We also brought our vacuum cleaner along with us as well.

The LL said that we should replace the bedroom carpeting and the living room carpeting (even though we had already replaced it!) plus the underlay of the living room carpeting.

We disagreed with him over that. Although the last time we were there, no carpeting was to be seen!

It's just another thing on our list... they've repeatedly harassed us over our dog (denied us use of our garden, even though we rented the house WITH the garden and as soon as my dog did a poo they would put notes through our mail slot demanding that we pick it up ASAP). One time my partner and I were in the US on holiday for two weeks, they entered our house without prior notice as well.

So I damn well want our sd back!

[Kali]

11. well, it sounds like it is going to be a fight that will have to be judged

by a third party. My advice is to remain as calm as possible, document everything that you can as well as you can, hope the "decider" is fair, don't spend more money or time than it may be worth, and go for it!

Good luck!
:toast:

[FunkyLeprechaun]

12. I've got every piece of notes they've sent me

And even blogged and took pictures so I can remember the exact day they sent these things.

It's just so frustrating.... I work at the pub next to them and all I can do is to glare at their general direction. I'm going to ask their next door neighbour (and my friend) to write a statement for us. One time we left our dog outside so we could go to work, and the landlady stopped our friend and asked her if the dog was bothering her (he was barking and howling, lonely for us, and it's the only day we are both gone as well). My friend told her, "No, but if I was bothered by the dog I'll tell Mr.Zen and Zen, not you."

So there's evidence that my ll tried every avenue possible. We got a letter last December saying that people had been complaining to them about the dog's noise and the poo's smell as well (I had a routine where I picked it up at the beginning of the day everyday). No one had complained to US.... so it was an absolute lie.

[Fran Kubelik]

4. I thought this was a drunken sniffa post.

:rofl:

[porphyrian]

5. There's nothing that can't be said angrier with a bag of poop. - n/t

[Orrex]

6. Landlord? I thought you meant Live-in Lover

I confess that that's why I clicked on the thread in the first place.

Sadly, I wound up developing the habit of assuming that I wouldn't get back any of my security deposits, so whenever I got some or all of one returned, it was like a super-duper bonus.

[Kali]

10. "developing the habit of assuming that I wouldn't get back any of my security deposits,

so whenever I got some or all of one returned, it was like a super-duper bonus"

same here

[meegbear]

7. Contact sniffa ...

he has a thing with Ls.