How to keep your deposit

How to keep your deposit.....

There may be unscrupulous landlords about who can’t wait to get their hands on a tenant’s deposit, but contrary to popular myth, this is not in anyone’s best interests, including the landlord’s.

Negotiations and disputes over such costs with outgoing tenants are a time-consuming distraction from the all-important job of making sure a property is in good order for the incoming tenant.

What we want, as property managers, is to reimburse 100% of the cautionary deposit, in return for receiving back from you a clean, presentable property, ready to let, and with no nasty surprises.

And for the outgoing tenant, there is enough to worry about, moving and settling into a new place, without being held up in disputes about money.

Luckily, we find that we’re returning all,

or virtually all, of our tenants’ deposits,

and to date, we’ve never had a dispute

IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR

DEPOSIT PLEASE PAY ATTENTION

TO ALL THE ADVICE FOR

CLEANING ON THIS PAGE

So, if you want to keep your deposit, here are a few simple rules and pointers...

INVENTORY: Check the Inventory and raise queries over contents or condition at the start of the tenancy, not at the end.

CONTENTS: Check everything is working properly and let us know if it isn’t. Never force anything or misuse anything, attempt to repair anything, or try to remove a stain, or put up with a defect; we expect to respond to such things.

BINS/RUBBISH: Find out the correct day for bins (weekly) and recycled collection (fortnightly) - these are available on the Brighton Council website - and only put rubbish out on those days. When you leave, do NOT have a massive clear-out and leave it on the pavement in the hope the Council will take it away – they won’t – and we’ll have to charge you for commercial removal to the tip.

REPLACEMENT ITEMS: At the start of a tenancy, we will always supply all lights with bulbs, vacuum cleaners with bags, fire alarms with batteries, etc. We expect you to replace these as necessary during the tenancy and hand back the premises with all such consumables kept up at your expense. You will be charged for any such items which haven’t been replaced as a matter of course.

APPLIANCES: The servicing or replacement of appliances is our responsibility and carried out at our expense except where the breakdown is due to misuse. Please ensure that you’ve read the instructions and use only in accordance with them. Never tolerate poor working, report any fault immediately as the appliance may be under guarantee and is unlikely to get better.

BINS/RUBBISH: Find out the correct day for bins (weekly) and recycled collection (fortnightly) - these are available on the Brighton Council website - and only put rubbish out on those days

We often find that tenants are routinely producing far too much rubbish, or recycling boxes are incorrectly filled and being rejected by the binmen. Help to minimise landfill and comply with Council guidelines, by ensuring that EVERYTHING which can be recycled is put in the recycling box. Food containers should be cleaned and cardboard cut up and flattened. Do not mix glass with other materials

During 2012-14, we’ve taken steps to improve insulation in nearly all properties, and replaced a number of older boilers with more efficient, modern condensing ones. But, you need to play your part with day-to-day recycling......

How to be greener...

If you have a garden, order a composting bin from the Council website (where we’ve not already provided one) and compost suitable waste, such as vegetable peelings..

What about CLEANING?

This is the big one – the single most common cause for dispute within a shared household (we’ve all been there!) – and the most common failing of outgoing tenants, which is therefore most likely to lead to a deduction from your deposit. And under-estimating the time and effort the clear-up will take – and the high costs of commercial cleaning – usually leads to a shock bill for the messier tenant. (A full end-of-tenancy commercial clean can easily be well in excess of £300). And yet adhering to a few simple guidelines could avoid this....

1. If you don’t clean regularly, you will never bring the premises back to the necessary standard which must be achieved for the next tenants by a final cleaning binge at the end of the year. It simply can’t be done: by then, difficult areas like bathroom grout, venetian blinds, shower screens, ovens and window woodwork will all be beyond redemption – especially in group households, where they’ve had a lot of use.

2. If, as a group, you can’t agree on an effective cleaning rota and routine, talk to us about cleaners: we can find you someone who’ll do common areas like bathrooms and kitchens, once a fortnight, for as little as £3 per week each.

3. We are frequently told that vacuum cleaners have broken, when they just need emptying or unblocking, or find that brushes and mops are dirty and damaged by being left outside. Please ensure that you have all the right equipment to keep your property clean and tidy at the start, use it properly, and maintain it throughout your tenancy.

4. Don't forget outside areas: clear drains with caustic soda solution and keep them sweet on a regular basis with diluted Jeyes Fluid. Don’t put food waste down the plughole, the most common cause of blocked drains is fat.

5. Whether it’s your regular clean, or when it comes to the final clean, don’t forget all those ‘difficult’ areas which we will be cleaning, if you don’t: defrosting the freezer, window woodwork and skirtings, behind the toilet, inside the oven, underneath and behind appliances – and, of course, outside steps and pathways.