Me and a group of friends recently moved out of a property (begining of June). The house was managed by an estate agent. On the 27th June we were told by phone there were no problems with the house and inventory checked out, so we would be recieving the full deposit back. Since then poeple moved into the house and caled the estate agent saying the handle to the tumble dryer was broken, they are now trying to take that out of our deposit. The Handle was broken even before we went in, but it worked so when didn't report it.
Can they claim on our deposit after new tennants moved in and may have been the ones that broke it, especially as we were informewd everything was fine.
Answer:
Unfortunately, since the handle to the dryer was admittedly broken prior to your tenancy, you should have pointed that fact out to the estate agent during your initial walk-through; or at the least, your exit walk-through (if applicable).
If the broken handle was only discovered after you moved in, you should have stated the problem, in writing, to the estate gent. That way, he would have been put on notice of the problem, and compelled to fix the problem.
At the very least, you would have had a writing you could place into evidence, in the event the matter was litigated.
Suffice to say, if you went before a judge, you would have a hard time proving that the handle was broken prior to your tenancy.
I would attempt to negotiate a middle amount to settle the issue out-of-court.
Good luck.
Before you moved in, you should have taken inventory and reported any deficiencies.
It looks like they have you since they have your deposit. Its probably not worth pursuing in court.
You should have done what the new tenants didd, repoted it when you moved in , you are responsible to check all is as it should be on taking over the tenancy , your loss.
The CORRECT answer to your question depends on a lot of things, the most important is in what state (if in the u.s.) was this apartment located and how long ago did the last tenant move out?
You should have reported it, I think they can take the money out of your deposit, if you are not happy with that you will have to take them to the small claims court.
As you have nothing in writing saying they are giving back your full deposit, unfortunately, it's your word against yours, but they still have your money. Not worth the hassle of making a small claim.
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