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Deposit Disputes and What You Can Really Expect

Sally Lawson of Concentric Lettings comments.

There is still a constant misunderstanding on how deductions can or should be made from a tenants deposit at the end of a tenancy, with many landlords expecting 'betterment', which in fact means receiving the property back in the condition that it was originally, and in my experience not so many people know that.

The real day-to-day issues in relation to deposits are generally managing the expectations of the tenants and the landlords in relation to what can and cannot be deducted. The rules in relation to deposit deductions are very complex, and if you or any of your team deals with this, then they really should attend a course (ARLA run a very good one) as it's not something you can just 'figure out'.

A few key points to remember with deposit deductions is that the deposit belongs to the tenants, and the burden is on the landlord to 'prove' he/she has a right to claim from it, not the tenant, which is why an inventory is so important. Secondly, an agreement has to be obtained by both parties before a deposit can be dispersed. But an area which causes lots of confusion is that the landlord cannot claim for the time of which he has had use of the item, as it would reasonably have suffered from normal wear and tear during this period and he would have also received write down allowance through his accounts for it too, so to receive 'new for old' like in an insurance policy, would in fact be betterment to where he should be.

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