mydeposits are totally crazy.

This is the third time now a tenant dispute lodged with mydeposits has gone against us.

I'm aware that there are probably our tenants reading this blog and the last thing we want you to think is that we make a policy of charging tenants unneccessarily.  Not true.  Those of you who are no longer our tenants will be aware that in most cases, we do a pre-checkout inspection when a tenant gives notice.  

mydeposits praised us for doing this, saying that as far as they were aware, no other letting agent ever did this.  Why do we do this?  Simple.  When you give notice, we will arrange a property inspection straight away.  The purpose of this inspection is to give you ample opportunity to put right anything in the property which may need doing (against our inventories) so that on the day we collect your keys there is none of the traditional sucking air through teeth (like a car mechanic about to rip you off) and say, :oooh, this needs attention, that needs attention".

Nothing could be fairer as our intention is to refund tenant deposits in full wherever possible. We know you rely on this money for your next place and quite rightly, its your money!

So, with this in mind why am i totally furious and exhasperated with mydeposits?

Scenario:

Tenants move into a brand new flat.  Brand new I stress - they are the first occupiers so please be correct in assuming everything is clean, tidy and NEW.  18 months or so later I do a checkout.  There was no pre-checkout inspection on this occasion as this was a tenant finder for us and we only did the checkout as a favour for a valued landlord and client who was away at the time.

I noticed things were not as they should be.  The ceramic hob was cracked, the fridge was filthy, the window cills were dirty, marks on the walls, marks on the carpet.  I explained to the tenants there may be deductions but it was up to their landlord to decide.  So doing the right thing, I took photos of the offending articles to email to the landlord.  The landlord agreed with our findings and carried out the repairs/cleaning himself and advised us what to deduct from the deposit.

The tenants lodged a dispute and to cut a long story short we lost the adjudication because the photos we took of the property did not have the digital camera date and time on them!  So in short, we are a bunch of liars...........I'm sorry, what other assumption can one make?

Listen mydeposits, I'm prepared to accept your decision because we agreed to the adjudication process and the decision is final.  Life is a learning curve then from now on all our photos have the camera date. But you are missing one vital thing:

THEY WERE THE FIRST OCCUPIERS OF A BRAND NEW FLAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Who else left the flat dirty and damaged?  Come on guys!