Getting tenancy deposit back from TDS

Cloak · Apr 1, 2021

I’ve recently moved out of a flat and my old landlord is being quite unreasonable about the deposit. The flat was in excellent condition and I think he’s chancing it. We can’t come to an agreement and its
going to have to be mediated via the TDS.

Has anyone ever successfully got their deposit back using this avenue? Would love to hear tips or stories!

Greencatfysh · Apr 1, 2021

Cloak said:
I’ve recently moved out of a flat and my old landlord is being quite unreasonable about the deposit. The flat was in excellent condition and I think he’s chancing it. We can’t come to an agreement and its
going to have to be mediated via the TDS.

Has anyone ever successfully got their deposit back using this avenue? Would love to hear tips or stories!

Yep I have! Super easy to do. They have a pretty strict set of criteria and he’d have to prove that you’d done something terrible or at least get a price for what he wants to take from the deposit (I.e deep carpet clean - £300) and provide evidence of that. Go for it, it’s what they’re there for!

WhippetGood · Apr 1, 2021

Yep the deposit protection service were fab! Managed to get most of our deposit back from an unscrupulous landlord who was trying to blame the horrendous mould in the house on us hanging washing out to dry! He wanted new carpets, walls painted etc think he got about 100 quid in the end if that

Cloak · Apr 2, 2021

Thank you both! Sounds promising!

Do you remember if you were able to see their evidence before submitting yours or do both parties go in blind? I’ve just submitted the claim and now the next step is for the landlord to submit his evidence. I then get to submit mine so I am hoping I have the upper hand by him going first!

WhippetGood · Apr 2, 2021

Cloak said:
Thank you both! Sounds promising!

Do you remember if you were able to see their evidence before submitting yours or do both parties go in blind? I’ve just submitted the claim and now the next step is for the landlord to submit his evidence. I then get to submit mine so I am hoping I have the upper hand by him going first!

As far as I can remember you don’t see the landlord’s evidence and they don’t see yours. Evidence from both sides just gets seen by the DPS and they can make a judgement based on that. Good luck!

Greencatfysh · Apr 2, 2021

Yep it’s just mediation so you don’t see anything he says or submits, it’s all through the third party.

VomitCulture · Apr 3, 2021

Yes, I’ve just finished up a dispute last week. You do get to see what your landlord says and all the evidence they attach. It’s a long process but definitely worth doing.

Provide as much evidence as you can and dispute everything! We won £574 out of a £734 dispute. I wish we disputed more though as I think we would have won. The pictures that the landlord submitted to the dispute didn’t have any dates on so they said that it wasn’t good enough evidence.

Cloak · Apr 3, 2021

VomitCulture said:
Yes, I’ve just finished up a dispute last week. You do get to see what your landlord says and all the evidence they attach. It’s a long process but definitely worth doing.

Provide as much evidence as you can and dispute everything! We won £574 out of a £734 dispute. I wish we disputed more though as I think we would have won. The pictures that the landlord submitted to the dispute didn’t have any dates on so they said that it wasn’t good enough evidence.

Oh thank you! What kind of evidence did you submit, e.g evidence of being a good tenant and paying rent on time, or is it all just related to the exact things that the landlord wants to charge for?

And how long did the process take?

VomitCulture · Apr 3, 2021

Cloak said:
Oh thank you! What kind of evidence did you submit, e.g evidence of being a good tenant and paying rent on time, or is it all just related to the exact things that the landlord wants to charge for?

Only the things related to what we were disputing as that is all that they’ll consider & will ignore the rest.

We were trying to be charged to regrout the whole bathroom as she claimed we hadn’t cleaned it properly so we submitted an email from a contractor stating it was wear and tear and cleaner receipts. We were charged for some damages but we submitted a copy of the check in report that stated these things weren’t working when we moved in and there were a few costs that we thought were excessive so we disputed that they were unreasonable.

If you have a check in and check out report submit those, plus any photos you have when you moved in and out (make sure they’re dated).

Cloak · Apr 3, 2021

VomitCulture said:
Only the things related to what we were disputing as that is all that they’ll consider & will ignore the rest.

We were trying to be charged to regrout the whole bathroom as she claimed we hadn’t cleaned it properly so we submitted an email from a contractor stating it was wear and tear and cleaner receipts. We were charged for some damages but we submitted a copy of the check in report that stated these things weren’t working when we moved in and there were a few costs that we thought were excessive so we disputed that they were unreasonable.

If you have a check in and check out report submit those, plus any photos you have when you moved in and out (make sure they’re dated).

This might be a silly question but how are photos dated, as in stamped on top? Or is there a way of them checking the file info to see when it was taken?

VomitCulture · Apr 3, 2021

Cloak said:
This might be a silly question but how are photos dated, as in stamped on top? Or is there a way of them checking the file info to see when it was taken?

just stamped on top or if you take a screenshot of the photo from your phone camera roll it shows the date and time it was taken. I raised a different dispute in the past and I just photoshopped time stamps in tbh & it was accepted.

Alexaj · Apr 3, 2021

Article in the Mail today says that tenants are more likely to succeed in deposit disputes than landlords...

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Getting tenancy deposit back from TDS

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