Hello there
I have sent my ex tenants a letter/email to state I would like to withhold some of the deposit base on damage to the property and the state of the property at the end of the tenancy. The tenants since have sent me a ‘LETTER BEFORE ACTION’ to claim for compensation due to me registering the deposit late… Do I have any hope in this matter to regain the money spent to rectify the damage if I return all the deposit?
You can claim for the damages but they are also entitled to between 1 and 3 times the deposit if it was protected after 30 days.
My advice would be to try and settle this out of court because they could also claim their costs.
They are guaranteed a minimum of 1 X deposit plus return of the deposit but as I say, you could offset from that penalty the damage they’ve done.
See how negotiations go at settling and come back to us.