Tenant smoked in the flat for a year although it was clearly advertised as non-smoking renal. What is your experience with eliminating the smell and can I use the holding deposit to pay for professional cleaning? What is the process using the deposit (or parts of it) with DPS?
Hi
I would defiantly use the deposit to fumigate the flat professionally. Not sure if this is legal but if a tenant wants to have a pet we put into the contract that we will withhold the deposit for 6 months in case of possible flee infestation.
Hi @Ashley3 just wanted to pop up here to say that I think the six month holding period would be illegal.
Deposits must be returned within 10 days of the end of the tenancy, unless an official dispute resolution process has begun.
Sam
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Hi Sam I look on you as the policeman looking over our shoulders, yes as I said, I wasn’t sure whether what we do was legal, but at least its a deterrent whether its legal or not. I wish I could upload the photos of a three bed house that was sub let to a couple that had a dog, consequently all the carpets had to be replaced.
Hi Sam Please do not be offended by my comments, I know that there has to be a control over what is entered, its not a dig at you. The only reason I enter my views is that over the last 40 odd years of renting I have been s–t on so many times that I am trying to safe guide other hard working landlords from making the same mistakes that us old landlords have made. How the hell can any government can call our revenue is unearned beats me.
Hi Ashley, I understand — just wanted to let readers know the facts on your deposit return idea.
Great question and one we don’t talk about enough. As I’m sure you know, it’s just economics jargon. Landlords’ rental income is seen as ‘economic rent’ because it is giving someone access to property they own for a specified time in exchange for money.
As far as economists are concerned, landlords don’t earn their rent by providing services (like repairs) to tenants. Rather, they earn it by selling the rights to use the property in a defined way over a certain time. Clearly landlords are not mechanics who earn their money by fixing their tenants’ boilers. They earn money by letting the property.
‘Unearned’ rental income is contrasted with income earned via work. For work, the income (a wage) is paid in exchange for labour and so is earned. Landlords, by contrast, simply command a market price for access to their property.
Any work a landlord has to do (e.g. ordering an EPC) is not what they are being paid for in the rent. They are being paid for access to their property. The landlord’s regulatory and repair work is simply a condition the government has placed on being allowed to charge a rent to tenants.
Sam