Does anyone know the process of claiming funds from tenants who left the property in poor condition? The property is dirty cobwebs everywhere.There were nails inside and outside the property, damaged plants, and the lawn was not properly maintained. Additionally, the decorative shelf is loose and the flush button on the toilet is broken. Fridge is smelly cabinets not cleaned.
Any idea how much I should charge them.
Appreciate your help. I also could not get the contact detail For the deposit team. I want to know when can I start the process.
Assuming you took this deposit via Openrent you need to log into Openrent and view the deposit details on the tennacy details page. I’m sure that will signpost you to the process.
I hope you have a good ‘moving in inventory’, as if you want to claim for removal of a cobweb, or cutting the lawn, you will need to prove that the cobweb wasn’t there when they moved in, and the grass wasn’t long too. I also hope your ‘moving out inventory’, was as thorough, and carried out immediately on move-out, as otherwise how can you prove the cobwebs didn’t appear after they moved out.
These (what I would call silly) examples, show how thorough your moving in & out inventories must be for you to prove any neglect / damage.
You must also prove that the shelf being loose and the toilet flush button being broken, was not just normal wear & tear, or poor quality fixtures / fittings, and hence the responsibility of the Landlord to fix.
If you can prove the tenants negligence damaged the toilet flush button, you might also need to justify how old the toilet flush button is, and based upon its expected lifespan, what percentage of the cost of replacement you believe is fair to charge your tenant, as you cannot automatically charge full ‘new’ price to a tenant for replacing a 10 year old worn part!
Damaged plants - how will you prove the tenant has damaged these. They might argue they have improved the garden?
How will you prove a ‘smelly’ fridge? You could prove it hasn’t been cleaned assuming the cause is visible dirt, and assuming you have good photos of inside the fridge both before they moved in, and immediately after they moved out.
We’ve got a guide outlining how to release the deposit or submit a claim here.
You need to ensure you upload evidence of the condition of the property at the start of the tenancy, as well as any evidence for the condition at the end of the tenancy. The most common way of doing this is an incoming inventory, and a check out report for comparison.
Please note, if the tenant denies responsibility for any damages, it will be up to the tenancy deposit scheme to mediate the outcome of your claim.
Thank you for your response. I appreciate your thoroughness in addressing these matters. I did complete the inventory at the beginning, which contains detailed information. I also conducted the checkout, but I noticed that a few items were overlooked during that process. I have emailed the checkout team with additional pictures for evidence.
I received an email from the council indicating that the tenant added a large shed, which I was not aware of prior to this. Regarding the toilet flush, it is only two years old, so it may not be appropriate to classify it as old.
For the damaged plants, I have photographs from last year that clearly show the flower beddings and a green lawn, which may help clarify the situation.
Additionally, the fridge was noted as being in good condition in last year’s report but listed as bad in this year’s report. While no mention of a smell was included, they did note debris inside the fridge.
Please let me know if there are any further steps we should take to address these issues.
Worth checking the tenancy agreement and exactly what it specifically said in terms of both cleaning and other maintenance- if you did not explicitly make clear that maintaining the plants in their original condition was the tenants’ responsibility it may be hard to claim any deterioration is their fault. And unless you specified exactly how the lawn should be maintained hard to say it wasn’t done well enough. Reality is not all tenants have same maintenance skills as you
And if these various issues not identified and raised during regular inspections a bit hard to justify now claiming costs.
Tenancies are a bit like annual staff appraisals - any performance issues are best addressed informally verbally and also recorded in writing as soon as they happen and so should not be a surprise to anyone at the end of the year if the tenant hasn’t remedied.
Re how much to charge - I would get quotes for costs to bring back to standard of original inventory from a gardener, handyman (to remove and dispose of shed if not wanted) and a cleaner. Then knock off a significant proportion for each part if wasn’t raised in year and explain that to the former tenants when explaining the amount claimed to them.
Point out to leaving tenant, anything that will cost money to fix, as well as items that are wear and tear, so not being charged for ( to demonstrate reasonableness ) and agree any deductions. If broken item was not new, explain that only charging half or 25 % etc.
Explain that O/R will ask tenant to confirm that they agree, before releasing money to us both.
If tenant emails me agreeing to deductions, a photo of tenants email is all needed to upload to O/R
for deposit return. Lots of photos and reports only needed if there is a dispute now or can be later, should tenant change mind, so keep photos in case.
So far I have never had a dispute, but I am fair and a bit generous as I prefer to avoid disputes over minor stuff.