If you rent a property, you will be asked to put down a deposit. Usually this is a fairly hefty sum of money – probably 5 weeks’ rent. This deposit is kept in a secure deposit scheme during your tenancy, and is given back to you when you move out. But sometimes, if the landlord believes there has been damage done to the property that needs repairing, they may dispute the deposit return, and look to keep some of that money back to pay for the repairs. But what sort of things do landlords dispute deposits for, and why? After all, you can’t avoid a dispute unless you know the reason. Deposit scheme mydeposits did some research, and today we wanted to share their findings with you.
Cleaning
Surprisingly, the single biggest cause of disputes between tenants and landlords across the board was cleaning. This crossed regions and price brackets – and was the top reason for disputes in all but 3 areas across the UK. Overall, landlords decided that the state tenants left their properties in did not match up to the state it was handed over in. This ranged from not having been cleaned at all, to things like having to pay for professional carpet cleaning or even brand-new carpets as a result of staining during the tenancy. 26% of deposit disputes in 2020 were over cleaning.
Damage
Of course, damage came in a close second for disputes, with 20% of deposit disputes down to damage done to a property. This is a tricky one, because there is a fine line between damage and wear and tear, and often tenants and landlords disagree on which side something falls on. For example, a tenant might see a scuff on a wall in a high traffic area as fair wear and tear, while a landlord may see it as damage they have to repair before they can rent the property again. For reference, wall scuffs usually do fall under fair wear and tear, unless they are severe.
Redecoration
This one is interesting, because redecoration, which took up 17% of dispute reasons, can be taken two ways. The first way is that the tenant redecorated the property without the consent of the landlord – anything from changing the colour of the walls to painting murals in the living room. This would mean that the landlord has to redecorate the property before they could rent it out again, and wanted to keep the deposit, or a portion of it, to cover the costs. The second is that there was damage done to the property that would cause the landlord to need to redecorate – think nail holes, marker pen on walls or staining in the bathroom from makeup or hair dye. In short, if the landlord feels they need to redecorate the property when the tenant moves out (and they believe that’s because of the tenant), then they will likely dispute the deposit.
‘Other’
Mydeposits also stated that there were other, less common reasons for disputes, which they categorised as ‘other’. This included things like missing items (4%), rent arrears (2%), and even just issues listed as ‘other’ (9%). Now, not all of these disputes will have been successful. In fact, many of them weren’t – but the main point is that the dispute happened. And that meant the tenants didn’t get their deposits back right away, and had to fight their case to get them back, or not.
At Northwood, we ensure all of our tenant deposits are kept secure in a government backed deposit scheme. We will also do our utmost to foster good relationships and open communication between our landlords and tenants, so that if there are any disputes, they can be handled before the deposit needs to be involved. But if you do have any questions about deposits, disputes, or what your landlord can and can’t do, we would love to help. Just get in touch today to book your free consultation with one of our team.
