Another withholding deposit thread - your advice appreciated

abrr1000

Hi all,
I recently had a thread about our letting agent trying to withhold some of the deposit because we didn't give notice before leaving at the end of our fixed term lease. After quoting a line from PRTB to her she went quiet.

We had a final inspection with one of the agents, showed him around - the place was sparkling, he said yeah that's great and so we handed him back the keys. He said usually the deposit is returned in 3-5 days.

Here we are a month later - still no deposit.
Recently we got an email from the letting agent that went like this:

Landlord has instructed to return €400, he is witholding €350 for the following reasons:
There was a bolt lock added to the base of the front door
A lock on bedroom window had to be removed
Damp in bathroom not reported, extractor fan not used
Stain on coffee table
Stain on tv cabinet
Stain on wall which looks like red sauce or possibly blood
Blinds damaged in kitchen and front door
Bulbs missing
Can you furnish me with your forwarding address and I will arrange a chq early next week?

To which we replied:

We have communicated with LL that we required a second lock on the door due to a spate of robberies in the area for security. There was only one lock on the door and it was loose. This wasn't added for a month after the request so in the meantime we added our own security to the door. If we were notified of this and given a chance to rectify we would have removed the bolt lock ourselves. The lock was added to the window for the same reason as above and given the notice we would have removed it on request ourselves. The property was not secure.
The damp in bathroom HAS been reported, and his maintenance man came in to inspect and advised that there was nothing he could do about it. In fact the extractor fan is wired to the shower so once the extractor fan comes on - the shower comes on so that claim is not true.
Stain on coffee table/Stain on tv cabinet/Stain on wall which looks like red sauce or possibly blood - We have spent a full working day cleaning the apartment top to bottom and during the final inspection the agent has told us that the apartment is an excellent condition. Any stains that were on the property were there prior to our tenancy.
The blinds were old when we moved in and we did not damage them.
Finally the Tenant had bought 4 new light bulbs for the ceiling light in the sitting room to replace the old bulbs. He had removed the old bulbs and was going to put new ones in while cleaning.
If this was pointed out at the final inspection he would have actually remembered to put them in as he had them with him then.

We told them that we accept responsibility for the locks and the bulbs missing and we would agree to maximum of €50 being deducted from our deposit for this. The landlord apparently said he isn't accepting this and wants us to give him a counter offer? Like this isn't an auction. Is our next step PRTB? We have photos of how we left the place and have kept the communication with them mainly to email so we have a track of all the conversations with them.

Cheers guys

BostonB

They gave it the ok at the final inspection. The stuff about the locks makes no sense. The rest is normal wear and tear. The only conclusion for me that the LL never had any intention of returning the full deposit. That it took them a month to come back with this baloney just lends credence to that. Theres no need to mess tenants around like that.

I would just go to the PRTB.

edellc

Agree with above, also ask for receipts for any work that the LL alleges needs to be done as the LL needs to prove what they are keeping deposit for and you are entitled to the receipts. Ring threshold to see if I am correct on this one but in the real world if anyone withholds money from you or you pay for something then a receipt is issued so I dont see how it can be any different just because your a landlord, there not that special or above the normal way to conduct a transaction

have a read of this also


http://www.landlordsonline.ie/information/problem-tenancies/retaining-a-tenants-deposit-%E2%80%93-what-a-landlord-needs-to-know/

abrr1000

That's a great link thanks edellc - I'm going to apply to prtb for a hearing tomorrow and let the agency know about it.