One of the most frustrating parts of renting, is the almost certain deposit dispute that comes at the end of the tenancy. Out of my previous 6 tenancies, I’ve had issues with getting the deposit back in 4 of them. If you have rented before, chances are you’ve been through this process as well.
In the past I’ve had to deal with landlords charging for non-existent damage, landlords holding onto my deposit for months after I’ve moved out and landlords trying to charge me thousands of pounds to replace old carpets. It’s frustrating and honestly a very stressful experience. Especially since resolving the issue can take months.
You really do have to look out for yourself because the landlord is going to take whatever they can get. As someone who has experienced many deposit disputes, here are my top lessons learnt for ensuring you get treated fairly when negotiating the return of your deposit.
1. Before you move in
Read your contract
So you’ve been flat hunting for a while, you’re tired but finally you’ve found somewhere suitable. It’s tempting to rush into signing the contract to ensure the place is secured. However, it is really important that you read the contract first, IN DETAIL.
In particular, read the sections relating to the deposit. Where will the deposit be held and what are fair reasons something can be deducted from the deposit. It may be in the contract that the property has to be cleaned to a “professional standard”. It may also have clauses about what parts of the property the tenant has a responsibility to clean regularly (e.g. the oven, outside windows etc.). Make sure you are aware of all of this before you enter into the contract.
Any deductions that are made to the deposit will be through terms in the contract so you need to make sure you are aware of these in advance.
Know the law for deposits
There is a limit on the amount of deposit that a landlord can request (up to 5 weeks rent for properties where total annual rent is less than £50,000 – see here for more details). This means, if your rent is £700 a month for example, then your deposit cannot be more than £808. Make sure you are not paying more than is legally allowed.
Landlords may give you an option between a cash deposit which is returned at the end of the tenancy or a one off payment into a zero-deposit insurance scheme.
The schemes are a new offer to the renting market which avoids renters having to part with a big amount of cash when moving in. However you do not get this payment back so in the long run it will cost you more. If you are offered the insurance scheme, make sure you do your research first to ensure it is the right option for you.
Ensure your deposit is protected
If you have agreed a standard cash deposit, your landlord must put your deposit into a government backed tenancy deposit scheme. In England there are three schemes: Deposit protection service, My Deposit and Tenancy Deposit scheme.
There is a deadline for when they must have registered your deposit. When they do, you should get an email from the scheme that has been used. If you have not heard from any of these schemes in the month after moving in, get in contact with your landlord to make sure your deposit has been protected as this is a legal requirement. See the official governance guidance on deposit protection here.
2. When you move in
Document the flat/house when your move in
This is the single most important step to getting your deposit back.
It is vital that you have good evidence of what the flat was like when you moved in as you do not want to get charged for damage the previous tenant made. Many landlords pay external companies to do check-in reports. These are generally extensive and include a lot of detailed photos. However do not rely on this. These companies can easily miss things and their comments on cleanliness are subjective.
You need to go through the house taking your own photos and videos of everything you find that is not clean or damaged. Yes this is time consuming and the last thing you feel like doing after the stress of moving house. But it needs to be a top priority after you move in. Summarise your findings in an email to your landlord in the first week along with your photos as evidence.
I usually like to create a new folder in my google drive for each flat when I move. I’ve found this is useful because I don’t lose anything and I can share the folder with those I’m living with and the landlord.
Ensure your check-in evidence is reflected on any check-in report
If a check-in has been done by an external company, you should have this report shared with you so you can comment on it. Document in words to your landlord any places where you think the report is inaccurate along with your photos as evidence.
Over email, request that the check-in report is changed to reflect your evidence. For example, if the report claims the flat is cleaned to a professional standard but you find areas that are not clean, ensure the landlord agrees to change that on the report.
If there is not a professional check-in report, ensure the landlord has agreed in writing to your evidence. Don’t worry about seeming pushy in these interactions as I promise the landlord will take as much as they possibly can when you move out and you need to protect yourself.
3. While living there
Report damage as it occurs
While living in the flat, keep an eye out for any damage that occurs. In particular damage that was not caused by you. For example breaking of worn out furniture, leeks/water damage and any animal infestations. If this damage is not reported, it could get worse over time and cause more damage than if it was reported straight away.
Make sure you report damage over email so that you have written evidence of your complaint and the date you sent it.
I’ve been in a few properties that had leaks which caused extensive mould. By reporting it straight away, we ensured that we would not get charged for something that was not our fault. I also lived in one property with a very bad clothes moth problem. We reported this as soon as we noticed after moving in which saved us from having to pay for damage to the carpets when we moved out.
4. When moving out
Cleaning the property
Generally, you will have to ensure the property is cleaned to the same standard as it was when you moved in. My experience is that usually landlords expect a professional level of cleaning. This is a vague term but generally means everything is spotless. It is very difficult to achieve! After moving out I’ve had complaints about dust on door frames, the bin (although clean) still smelling and even regarding fingerprints on door handles.
A professional clean costs a lot of money. Therefore it is natural that many of us want to clean ourselves to save money. My experience of this has been hit and miss but generally I think it is better to suck it up and pay someone to do it, if only to save yourself the heartache of spending HOURS cleaning just to be charged £350 because you left fingerprints on a door. (still bitter about this!)
Before paying for someone though, check that they are going to do an approved end of tenancy clean with a guarantee of no deductions. This way if the landlord still complains that the flat is not clean, you can provide the receipts of the clean you paid for and they can take it up with the cleaners. The worst thing is paying for a professional clean only to be charged again because the cleaner didn’t do a good enough job.
Removal of Items
Usually your tenancy agreement will state that you need to remove all your items when you move out. And if not, they can deduct from your deposit for this removal cost. Do not be tempted to leave items assuming the landlord won’t notice or that it’s easier to pay that than sort out the removal yourself.
Generally the landlord will notice if you leave items and they will charge a lot more money to get rid of them than it would cost you. I’ve had a landlord try to charge over £100 to remove additional cutlery and a couple of rugs.
If there are things that you don’t want to take to your next home, plan in advance how to get rid of them. I’ve had a lot of luck selling furniture on short notice on gumtree. You can get rid of items that need to be binned though a few trips to recycling or a tip. Plus for bulky items you can pay for someone to come and pick them up.
Document the state of the flat when you moved out
This step is also very important, especially if there is not a formal check-out process.
In one of my flats, I took a video of one of the rooms before I moved out. This proved to be incredibly helpful as my landlord tried to charge me for a broken door on one of the wardrobes. I was extremely confused by this as there was no damage when I moved out and my video proved it.
Unfortunately this experience showed me you can’t trust landlords to properly document damage once you move out. It is always best to have your own evidence in case of a deposit dispute.
5. After moving out
Review Deductions
After you move out of a property, the landlord has 10 days to return your deposit or let you know what deductions they want to make (see here for more details). If you do not hear anything after 10 days, you can demand that they return it or raise a formal deposit dispute.
In my experience they almost always want to take deductions from your deposit so within 10 days you will get the dreaded email detailing everything that they are deducting for and the cost.
The most important thing to do after receiving this email is to remain calm and try not to get angry. Do not reply straight away as you will need to take a bit of time to reflect on the deductions that have been given.
The landlord must evidence any deductions that they are making. This includes the damage itself and the cost of repairing that damage. The deductions must be proportional to the damage and they cannot charge for betterment.
Betterment is where the landlord gets an update to their property through charging you for the full cost of replacing an item. For example, imagine when you moved into a property the carpets were 10 years old and worn out. Even if you spilled red wine on the carpets while living there, the landlord cannot charge you the full price of replacement carpets as this would be an upgrade on the state of the carpets before you spilled red wine.
Do not assume that the landlord knows the rules about what they can and can’t deduct for.
Trust me, they will try and get as much as possible by assuming you don’t know the rules. Do not let them do this and make sure you do your research before agreeing to any deductions.
One of my landlords tried to charge me over £1000 in deductions, all of which I disagreed with. After a formal deposit dispute, an independent adjudicator agreed the landlord was only entitled to £100. If I hadn’t disagreed with the landlord, I would have overpaid by over 900%.
Negotiate deductions
After spending some time reviewing the deductions you now need to make your case to the landlord.
As a first step, if they have not provided clear evidence as to why these deductions are fair and the cost is proportionate, ask them to provide this information. There are templates online that you can request that they fill out.
While filling out these forms is best practice, I am yet to have a landlord who has sent me a filled in form or the right level of detail when making their deductions proposal. Remember it is the landlord’s responsibility to prove why they are making deductions. They need to have good evidence to back up their proposed deductions.
If there are areas of damage that you know that you are responsible for, then of course it is only fair for you to pay for the damage, providing the charge is reasonable.
If there are any areas that you believe are unfair and you disagree with, even if you are not completely sure, it is worth negotiating as the worst that can happen is that you lose the money which you would have done anyway by agreeing.
Set out to your landlord why you disagree and the evidence that you have that supports your view. It can also be helpful to quote anything from the tenancy agreement or renting laws that support your claim and show that you know what you are talking about. Landlords are likely to back down once they see that they are unlikely to win a deposit dispute.
At this stage, also ask for any of the deposit ,which is not being disputed, to be returned. As the landlord has not made a claim for that amount, you are entitled to it back straight away.
Raising a deposit dispute
While some landlords back down when they realise they are not likely to win a deposit dispute, sometimes they are just unwilling to negotiate. In this case, you will have to move to a formal dispute. This is where an independent adjudicator reviews the evidence and decides how much money each individual gets. The adjudicator’s decision is final and there are no further negotiations after this point.
While it can take a long time, it really is the fairest way to come to an agreement. Unless you think your case is weak, I would recommend always going to this step if the landlord refuses to accept your counter offer. Note that while it takes a long time, this process will not cost you any money as the service is included as part of the deposit protection.
The deposit dispute will be raised by the landlord who will get a few weeks to submit their evidence. After this, you will be asked to upload your evidence. Make sure you upload as much as possible in order to strengthen your case, this includes any email correspondence, all your photos, your tenancy agreement and any relevant receipts. You only get one chance to upload documents so make sure you spend a few hours getting everything sorted.
Then you will have to wait to hear the outcome. I have only had to go through the formal deposit dispute route once. For my case it took around 3 months to get the outcome. I moved out of my flat at the end of October and the formal deposit dispute was raised in November. I was invited to submit my evidence in December and the final result was given at the end of February.
Final Thoughts
Deposit disputes are very common and are one of the main frustrations with renting a property. While they are stressful, make sure you do everything you can to ensure your landlord is not unjustly taking your hard earned money.
I’ve been through a lot of stress with deposits over the years. I know what an awful situation it is to be in. Especially when your deposit is a lot of money that you can’t afford to lose. Make sure throughout the tenancy you are saving to cover the costs of any deductions and other emergencies just in case you can’t get the money back.
If you are struggling with your deposit dispute, there is a lot of useful advice on the tenancy deposit scheme website, including past case studies of deposit disputes and who won and why.
Some other useful website are: The tenants voice, Citizens Advice
