Reichenbach

A month and a half ago, <3 and I handed back to the keys to our previous house. We wanted to do this much earlier but the landlord refused to let us out of our contract.

We walked around the house and the landlord pointed out numerous points where he felt we had damaged his house or failed to leave it in a fit and clean state. Apart from a couple of points we disagreed with his assessment, but managed to not get too angry with his nitpicking and hectoring. We also kept quiet about his frankly insulting comments -- for instance the comment about how now <3 has a PhD (in physics and electrical engineering) she can get out of the typing pool.

After some discussion it was agreed that we would pay for certain repairs out of our deposit (of nearly £1000) and an additional £100 for time spent to clean everything up (we hoped this would ease the transition). This would leave us with at least half of our deposit to be repaired.

Two weeks ago, <3 phoned the landlord (who was unavailable) and left a message asking if any progress had been made with returning our deposit.

A little over a week ago we received a letter from the landlord in his usual hectoring tone, listing a large number of defects and reasons for keeping the deposit -- all of it. He provided receipts for less than £70.

Two days later we saw a solicitor for legal advice. He suggested that we probably have a good case and that if the landlord cannot produce receipts for money he deducts from the deposit, a court would be likely to side with us if in any doubt. The solicitor also explained the procedure in some detail for seeking a county court judgement in order to reclaim our money.

Yesterday we posted a letter to the landlord, 'without prejudice', disputing some of his comments, inviting him to reconsider his decision to keep the deposit, and threatening legal action.

Interestingly, the house is currently for sale and, according to the estate agent, there has been plenty of interest. I'm wondering if the landlord will have the "necessary" repairs done (I doubt he ever intended this) before it sells. If not, he won't ever have those receipts.