Our landlord is trying to deduct £40 from our deposit over a missing toilet seat bolt which we are disputing with the scheme

In the meantime none of our deposit has been returned

Yesterday I was getting ready to go for a flat viewing in London N15. The ad showed a flat which I thought was big enough for me, instead of all the small flats which used to be called “bedsits” I’ve been viewing, that are only about 12-14 m². The rent was advertised as £1,700PCM. I eventually noticed that there was a video online giving a virtual tour so then I didn’t actually need to go and view it at all. I’m on UC with the limited availability for work component. I’ve been completely rejected by the employers and would need false ID as well as false references to get a job. I’m originally from London. I didn’t know if I could claim enough money from UC to pay for the rent, but when I originally replied to the ad, I thought I had to take drastic action to avoid ending up living in a 12 m² cupboard! Suddenly I had a call from the estate agent. He asked me what I did for a living. I decided to tell the truth, because I already had all the information I wanted about the flat, except whether or not UC would pay for it. I replied “Noting atm”. He then asked my income which I said was £855PCM. I said I thought that I could claim from UC to cover the rent. He replied that was no good and the landlord wouldn’t accept it. Is this now counted an illegal discrimination under the RRA? I didn’t record the phone call but since then I’ve managed to find a way of recording it on my phone which doesn’t tell the other person that they’re being recorded.

Hi,

I’m currently looking at renting a room in a house (in Wales) and the estate agent has set everything up via goodlord. Having logged into the platform it seems goodlord wants me to sign a draft contract before I’ve paid the holding deposit or completed referencing.

I’m really worried about signing the contract because it’s a fixed term contract that I can’t easily cancel (not in England so Renter’s Rights Act doesn’t apply). I’m hesitant to sign as I’m still waiting for my employment contract, I’ve accepted the offer letters but still waiting on the contract.

I’m particularly worried because of the wording in the tenancy guide that it wants me to sign.

“You have been provided with a draft copy of the Occupation Contract. It is our policy to execute the Occupation Contract and any Renewal Memorandum Contract by dating the document promptly once it is signed by all parties. This may be prior to the actual Contract start date. Once executed by us, both parties are legally bound to the Contract. When you sign this Contract Guide you are confirming you are happy with the Occupation Contract and any Renewal Contract and that we can execute it without further reference to you.”

Thank you for any advice and guidance.

I have just checked my bank account and my landlord has sent back my rent payment that I made for the month of July. Should I just return the money back to the their account or what should I do ? I have no options so for the council to help I will need to wait until the bailiffs comes I have grounds to believe that the section 21 was invalid. I am not sure why they are doing this I still have not got a letter from court yet ( but I know this can take ages)

Hi, I’d booked an Airbnb in Edinburgh last week and upon checking in yesterday, I realised this is a council house. Just based on my basic searches, looks like it’s illegal to let out council houses to Airbnb and it is classed as tenancy fraud. I plan to raise the issue with Airbnb but I have a couple of other questions.

1. Is there anyone else I need to report this to or should I just let airbnb deal with it.
2. Is there anyone else sort of compensation I can get through Airbnb or through the landlord ?

Edit : to the people making fun of me for seeking compensation, I’m not paying £200 a night for a very dirty, mouldy council apartment. Pictures looked totally different and after a very long day, it was very disappointing to go into a council house and pay £200 for it.

Me and my partner are looking to move in together. He currently lives with a flatmate who is planning to move out and has somewhere else to stay. We are hoping to just swap effectively. Their rent was increased in May when the renters rights act was put in place. This should mean it can’t increase for another year. Can the landlord increase rent again before this due to the swap? Will it be an entirely new tenancy agreement?

What information should we tell the landlord and how can we ask this? Any advice would be helpful! (flat in London if that helps)

I'm awaiting confirmation from the estate agent who is fully managing the property I am moving into at the beginning of August. They don't answer the phone. I'm sick to death of them before I've even moved into the property. Would I be in the wrong if I went to the property and spoke directly to the landlord with regards to the freshening up of the house and the garden being cleared? I don't want to turn up on moving day and it's not been done. The agent is about 12 and a complete air head....how do the get away with it?!

Hi everyone,

My wife and I have just moved into an apartment in the South East of England. It is part of a block owed by a management company, but the flat is owned by an individual landlord.

When setting up the bills for the property, Thames Water have billed us £91 a month for our water bill, which seems insane to me. The property has no bath, and there is no private garden. The main items of water use will be the dishwasher and a shower.

I approached the landlord (through the estate agent) yesterday, and they got back to me saying that the landlord doesn't want a water meter fitted internally in the flat as it may cause damage and would not be able to be removed in the future. They also think that the management company wouldn't agree with installing one of the external part of the property, which is understandable.

Where do I stand with this? Should I ask Thames Water to carry out a survey regardless and then see if they can move us to an assessed household charge? Do I have a case to install one inside the property, even if it is not the landlord's preferred choice? I have just done a brief calculation with the CCW (obviously an estimate), and it suggests that a water meter could half our water bill.

Any advice is welcome, thank you!

Going back and forth with estate agency on this. I had an AST contract with agency from 10th October 2025 which was supposed to end on 9th May 2026 but obviously Renters Rights Act came into life on the 1st May so my understanding is that all the ASTs became periodic tenancies on that day. The new legislation says that 2 months notice needs to be given which is what I’ve done. I gave my notice on the 1st June. So am I correct to assume that despite me paying rent by 9th of each month I am only liable to pay until 1st August? I don’t know why the agency claims that apparently the new legislation states that the notice needs to end in line with rent due date. I only found information about 2 months.

I have to say the agency has been really hard to deal with. They make an issue out of everything and I’m pretty sure they are just trying to squeeze every penny they can out of me.

The other question I’ve got is regarding the deposit. I didn’t pay them the very last month’s rent and I’ve asked them to take it out of the deposit and send me the remaining amount. I have since then moved out of the UK and had a lot of fees to pay so couldn’t pay the last month’s rent. Is this ok? They are threatening legal action if I don’t pay them within the next 7 days but what can they realistically do if I no longer live in the uk and they don’t know where I even moved to? Plus it’s not like I’m trying to avoid the payment, I clearly said in an email that I’m happy for them to deduct the last month’s rent from my deposit.

Hi there, this is just a very brief question, since I wanted to confirm and I'm someone that suffers from major OCD, so being told what the proper answer might be instead of differing google results would just be helpful. I'm not from the UK, I'm from the US so I'm used to renting over there. I'm a incoming postgraduate student so I was finding places on Spareroom and found a place I liked at first, but only got a virtual tour (which I've done in the past in the US...lived many different places) all the way back in June. I said I would like to become a flatmate, and the landlords took a while to reach out, only till July 13th did a get an email. But it was asking for a deposit before giving me the contract. I'm not really used to this in the US, as I get the contract, sign, then pay the deposit. So I felt it odd and asked to see, but then as I started thinking about the place for a while and finally saw the address itself, I decided it was not a right fit. The landlord also took over a week to get back to me (just today) and still didn't send me the contract. I was a bit put off since it was a direct deposit to the landlord's bank account, which also felt rather unsafe.

I never sent any deposit, nor did I sign a contract for the place, all I had done was text the girl who was looking for flatmates that I would like to join. Would there be anything legally binding for me in this situation that says I have to pay for this place? I want to know if whether or not I should be prepared for something.

I know it sounds silly to ask something so simple, but when I say I suffer from OCD, I mean it, where I spend forever going over legalities and contracts and the way things are worded. But I am not as aware of the UK rules compared to the US rules.

I’ve lived in a flat above a shop for 3 years and have never been given a bin, usually I go to the tip however I have no way of getting there this week.
It’s hot I have 4 kids and a small kitchen, rang the council they said put the bags next to the commercial bins and whoever takes those will also take my bins…so I did yesterday morning.
Had a knock at the door not long ago to say I’ve caused rats and that they’re reporting me for fly tipping. I can’t go and clean it up as I’m on my own with 4 children, one of them additional needs. I can’t afford a fine and have nobody to help me right now I’ve contacted my landlord and will contact the council in the morning.
But does anyone have any advice or know where I may stand with a fine?

Hi guys just looking for advice here, me and my partner are desperate to move out (bad home situations/parent abuse) we both have great jobs for our age (22/23), a combined income of £70k, no credit issues also, however when going for viewings (only 2 as i am quite picky) the landlords on both got back to us advising they won’t be proceeding as we have never rented before, and it is starting to dishearten me and make me think we are going to be stuck at home forever.

We are both able to provide professional references just of course not from a prior landlord, is this a common problem? but where are we supposed to start if no one will rent us a property?

uk based, TIA

Hi,

I joined a joint tenancy starting from 1 July 2025 and (previously) ending on the 30th of June 2026. It was a group of 5 people. We had a total rent of 2600, but it was laid out in the tenancy agreement as each tenant would pay £520 - the total is not stated. Once the RRA came in, we were aware that our tenancy had switched over to a rolling one. One member of the group apparently gave notice after the 1st of May - he agreed with the landlord to end it early (June 30th). There is nothing in writing that any of us other tenants have about this, especially no written messages agreeing to a shorter dissolution date than two months. There may theoretically be messages between him and the landlord agreeing to it, but he has not provided us with any of them. I do not know when this agreement to dissolve the tenancy was made.

After he told us this, the landlord informed us he would be transferring the property to his sister who would be partnering with an estate agent (Stirling Ackroyd) who would be taking over managing the property, and that we should expect them to contact us in June. Stirling Ackroyd contacted the remaining 4 of us tenants on the 20th of June and informed us that they intended to offer us individual room tenancy agreements at an increased rate of 550 (for my room, others might vary due to size). They would be finding a fifth tenant and intended her to move in from the 1st of July. There was no communication prior to this. They sent us a link to their online platform Goodlord and asked us to go through a draft rental contract and complete some referencing, subsequent to which we would receive our formal rental agreements.

There was some confusion with the contracts - previously, we had been on a joint tenancy, and so had been liable for Council Tax as a group. The new draft rental contracts (which had my details, the landlord's details and the room I was renting all correctly filled) said the landlord would now be liable. We wanted to confirm this with the estate agents, but it took several days to get a response.

I completed all my referencing information by Friday the 26th of June, and was prepared to sign my final tenancy agreement. I received a notification on the 29th of June that my referencing was complete and had been sent to the estate agent.

On the 30th of June we received a call from the estate agent who told us that because they were missing some documents from the previous landlord (which we think are the EPC/EICR) they were unable to offer us the individual tenancies yet and intended to push the start dates back to the 1st of August. They verbally instructed us to pay the current rent (520) to our previous landlord's bank account for the month of July.

As of today, we received a letter stating that we had the entire outstanding balance of the year's council tax due (addressed to the 5 people) because we had not paid our installments in time. The letter is dated the 17th. I forgot to pay my council tax at the start of the month as I had canceled my direct debit in advance of the landlord taking it over, and only realised this on the 16th, when I have a receipt paying my portion. The housemate who dissolved the tenancy agreement and moved out did NOT pay for this month, but we should theoretically have had surplus payments from previous months to cover that.

My questions are:
What exactly is our living situation? I have a "draft rental contract" with my name, my landlord's name and my room on it. This contains explicit confirmation that my landlord will be paying the council tax / it is included in my rent. I also have written confirmation from the estate agent confirming the section about landlord covering council tax is accurate. If our joint tenancy was correctly dissolved, are we now in individual tenancies? Do the terms of this 'draft contract' apply if it was presented to me and I paid rent? It has a field for me to sign it and I have a signed copy on my computer, but I never signed it through their Goodlord platform.

Who is liable for council tax? The letter is addressed to the 5 of us. Our previous rental agreement says the landlord is to inform the council when the agreement dissolves. Our housemate also did not inform the council he had moved out. Our current 'draft' agreements state that the landlord should be paying them.

Did offering me the draft agreement and telling me to pay the rent confirm it? Are we operating under some sort of frankensteined-together gray zone? Should we have received the EPC and EICR by now? Should we have had our deposits returned yet?

As you can imagine, this is kind of an insane situation for a bunch of fresh graduates to find ourselves in, so we'd appreciate any advice you can offer. I intend to call Shelter tomorrow and ask for advice.

In London. Rented a 2br flat for £3,000 with a back garden (no grass but with a nice big rose bush, ivy on the walls. Couple other plants etc.) that gave nice privacy from the neighbors as well. Put an offer down in large part because of the garden itself, and were told it would be trimmed back a bit before move in as previous tenant had let it get a bit overgrown. Collected keys and showed up to find all the green removed, bushes ripped out, ivy gone etc. just dead stumps and dirt left behind. After nearly 2 weeks of chasing our property management for an explanation were told the landlord and contractor decided to pull it all out because the overgrowth was threatening external pipes (I’m not really buying this explanation for what that’s worth) and there are no plans to replant anything, and no appetite to consider lowering rent to reflect the changes. I’m wondering what if any recourse there might be here. We paid a premium that reflected the fully established garden we were shown, and it seems absurd that they could just make such a big change to the property between signing a lease and move-in and we are just expected to pay the same price. Is there anything we can do here beyond just complaining/moving out?

Buying our rental from a landlord who has made this difficult every step of the way.

Our tenancy agreement states the letting agent will deduct a cleaning fee, fee for conducting a check out report and ‘general administration’ fee from our deposit. As such they state they will be making a claim to the deposit protection scheme for a deduction for their ‘relevant costs’. They have refused to explain what costs they have incurred as we are in no rent arrears.

Will the DPS allow them to deduct admin fees if its a term in a tenancy agreement or will showing DPS i’m the legal owner/have responsibility for repairs/they haven’t done anything, suffice for a full deposit returned?

Hi all!

We (group of 5) are at the end of a student tenancy via an estate agent and are currently engaged in a dispute over proposed deductions to our deposit. I've gone back through my emails to ensure all my communications with the estate agent are organised, but have found that – unless I'm looking in the wrong place – we were never provided with a DPC.

I've checked on the DPS website and our deposit is apparently protected, but we never received any notification of protection or a certificate. I have a pre-existing DPS account for a previous tenancy, which holds no record of this current tenancy (even though it's with the same estate agent).

What are our next steps here? I've emailed asking them to provide a copy of the DPC and reference number ASAP, but if they really never provided one within 30 days of the tenancy beginning, is this grounds to take them to SCC?

If any of you have any suggestions for orgs to reach out to that could provide some advice, I'd be really grateful. Thanks in advance!

If I move out of a property before the end of my tenancy (including handover of keys) and the landlord finds someone new to move in before mine ends, am I entitled to receive a pro-rata sum of rent back for the period between them moving in and mine officially ending?

For example, I moved out on 16 June, with my tenancy officially ending on 17 August. I have paid August’s rent on 17 July, but the landlord has found someone to move in on 01 August. Am I *legally* entitled to be reimbursed for days between 01 to 16 August?

England

Basically what the title says. Me and my 3 flatmates were all living together in our flat in London until our landlord decided to sell it. We were basically told they expected a professional standard clean when we moved out but they didn’t require us to pay for a professional cleaner, so we didn’t but cleaned it to the best of our ability when we moved out. Now the agent has come back to us and said they wanna deduct £350 from our deposit to pay for professional cleaners. Thing is, we all moved into this flat at different times, so a professional clean was never done for any of us at the beginning of our tenancy, so can they still deduct from our deposit to pay for it? I’ve looked at our contract and have added what I could find out about it below, would love some insight from anyone who knows more about this.
Thank you!

Edit:
Just remembered something else that might be relevant, we never actually transferred our deposits to a deposit company/the agency or anything like that. When we moved in we literally just transferred our deposits to the previous tenant whose room we were moving into, I felt like this seemed quite sketchy but the previous tenant and the tenants already living there assured me that that’s what they all had done. Not sure if that weakens or strengthens our case

Can my flatmates sue me for rent in England?

I was on a one-year joint and several contract until August 2026.

I moved out in March and paid a quarter of the rent from March to June, so the tenancy was in arrears. I offered a replacement, but they refused on the basis of gender, student status, and that couples were not appropriate to replace one tenant. They also told me it was my job to do viewings as I was moving out. I could see at the beginning of May this wouldn't go anywhere, so I gave notice, leaving the contract early, and the others also moved out in July when the contract ended. Mine and their deposit was used to cover arrears when theh left in July.

In all my emails, I have emphasized that the arrears are not solely mine but all of ours as they refused tenants. They said that they will meet anyone if they like the house and are female students because they need to try them to sign rent as they will be signing a tenancy variation. They are now threatening to sue me, legally pulling out an email where I committed to paying rent when vacating and questioning how I am paying for alternative accommodation despite having no money? I live with my boyfriend but did not mention this and said I was paying for alternative accommodation. I told them my guarantor and I have no money as there is a war in my parents' home country. When I told them this, they sent an email to the university financial welfare asking if they were unaware and that not paying rent is putting all of us in arrears.

If they go to court, can they get the full amount? I don't want to pay as my boyfriend has a house, so a CCJ does not matter. Can I claim that since they sent a letter to the address on the tenancy agreement and not my current address, their claim is invalid? If I don't pay, can bailiffs come to my home?

Edit: I did suggest female applicants which they said seemed okay but they told me that I have to do viewings as they have commitments and as the leaving tenant it was in my best interest.

England

Me and my housemates' fixed-term tenancy ends on the 31st of July. Our landlord wants to do the check-out inventory report on the 4th of August, four days after we've moved out and after a new tenancy has already started on the 1st of August.

I'm trying to work out:

a) If the property changes hands to new tenants before the inventory is even done, how can any damage or condition issues be reliably attributed to us versus the incoming tenants?

b) Does this delay affect my landlord's ability to make deductions from our deposit at all, given there's no clean chain of custody for the property's condition?

c) Should we be pushing back and insisting on a joint check-out inventory on the 31st, or just taking photos that day regardless of what the landlord has arranged?

Has anyone dealt with something like this before, either as a tenant or landlord? Want to know what leverage we actually have if they try to deduct anything based on an inspection done days after we've handed back the keys and someone else has moved in. Especially cautious as we're university students and don't want our landlord to try and take the mickey with our deposit.

Hi all!

I'm still in an argument with my letting agents over my notice period. I have spoken to citizens advice about it and they said I only have to give one months notice as the RRA doesn't overwrite any previous agreement. (An email from April stating I can give one months notice from the letting agents).

My letting agent is INSISTING the RRA overwrites any agreements from before May. Is this true? What are my next steps?

I have also been told they want access to my property for viewings. I don't want them to as I'm still in the process of cleaning and moving my things to my new house. I am aware I have the right to quiet enjoyment but they aren't accepting that either. Apparently, as my contract states they can access for viewings (I don't think it does but they're insisting!), I don't have the right to that!?

I'm not rushing cleaning for the sake of them finding a new tenant, considering how difficult they are being with me. If I have until September, I am using that. But I'm worried they'll try and access the house regardless.

What are my rights here? What are my options? 😭😭

Hi guys
Does anyone know if goodlord see defaults on your credit file? We are applying to rent a property and I’ve got defaults from over 4 years ago. I’ve had a good repayments since then.
I’m just worried I’ll fail the checks but I’ve seen a mix of people on the forum saying they don’t check for defaults only ccjs Iva’s and bankruptcy’s but on good lords website they say they can see them.
I’ve also thought they can only see public info not a full credit profile.
Thanks

I’m looking for real examples - where you have exercised your right to quiet enjoyment.

Hello! England based and looking for some advice please.

My partner and I have recently moved out of our rental flat and are dealing with deposit returns. We rented through Foxtons (I know)! Our deposit is held in the MyDeposits protection scheme.

The timeline is as follows:

- The final day of our tenancy was 11th July

- We sent a written request to Foxtons for our deposit on the 11th

- Foxtons responded with some proposed deductions on the 15th.

- We are contesting these deductions, and formally gave our evidence via their portal yesterday (19th).

My question is- when do Foxtons legally have to release the undisputed amount to us? I know there's a 10 day window around deposit returns, but it's unclear as to whether that's 10 days from us requesting (11th), Foxtons responding (15th), us contesting their response (19th), or something else.

Conscious that tomorrow is 10 days from the date we requested, and I'm keen to know when we can open a dispute with MyDeposits if we've heard nothing back.

Thank you!

.

I am a first time renter and really confused on whether to pay a full 5 weeks rent deposit or join the 0 deposit guarantee scheme my property is offering. I’ve done some research and the main thing I’m hearing is that its way less protection in terms off if I’m held liable for any damage at the end and the payment I make will be non-refundable. However the one off payment is around £200 and the deposits nearly a grand which would leave a serious dent in the wallet. Any advice or experiences people can share? Thanks.