We have had no end of trouble with our landlady. Every month she demanded double the utility amount agreed in the contract (70) and one month demanded 240. When we questioned this she admitted she had never received a bill, we made her go and get one and it turned out she had over charged us and owed us money.
We woke up one day and had no water, we called her and were told she'd get someone out within the next few days. Only when we pushed this did she get someone round.
But despite all this she always said we were her favorite tenants and always seemed quite sorry.
Until we moved out.
She's taken meter readings but wont give us the deposit until she receives a bill(despite claiming before that she doesn't receive any bills). She is accusing us of things such as;
* leaving all pots pans burnt (they were burnt when we moved in and we only ever used our own)
* scratching the kitchen surface by never using a chopping board- not true, we always used one when chopping and surely minor scratches would be normal wear and tear?
* glue stuck to cupboards from decorations that she 'cant get off'. We stuck a few plastic snowflakes with BLUE TACK and wash the cupboards down every other day they were SPOTLESS. And blue tack is pretty easy to get off!
* apparently broke the tv screen, however we moved out on Monday @ 6pm. She came over at 5pm for a preliminary look around and we were WATCHING the tv, she even commented on the film.
* dust behind furniture- true enough I only cleaned behind the sofa about once a month so it was probably a bit dusty but surel no reason to withold a deposit?
* 'never cleaned the kitchen in six months'- we are not animals. We cleaned the kitchen everyday. She came round monthly to collect rent- wouldn't she have mentioned something? She came round the day we moved out!
We have pictures of some of these things from the day we moved in, however not sure how effective that'd be.
We NEVER received an itinerary, so surely if we never signed anything saying 'this works, this is in good condition' then she has nothing to contest about?
When we moved in the kettle was broken and we were kind enough to buy our own and leave it for her when moving out.
The spare room had no bedding and we bought a duvet and pillows, again which we left when moving out.
Plug socket was hanging off and dangerous when we moved in, we fixed it.
Bath was blocked when we moved in, never drained, we fixed this.
We did ruin some placemats (the black paint came off when cleaning) so I bought new ones.
There was netting around the living room lights which was YELLOW with dirt- I took them off to wash them and they were so old the elastic had perished. I offered to buy new elastic myself and fix it up (would have taken 5 minutes) but she refused and demanded that she had to take them to a professional. I agreed at her taking 20 for that out of goodwill.
No idea what are rights are or if its going to cost us more to fight this than to just swallow it. I'm absolutely fuming, we were relying on a decent deposit back to put towards our new, nicer, bigger, more expensive place.
Any advice??