Yet more legal advice (English)

[Provost Harrison]

Now as you are all aware I have recently moved property, and on handover the previous property was checked over by the landlord and no problem, the cheque will be on it's way for the deposit. I received the deposit yesterday minus £40, a supposed checking out fee which referred me to a particular part of the contract:

The Landlord to pay the cost of the Check In Inventory at the commencement of this Agreement and the Tenant for the cost of the Check Out Inventory at the termination of the Agreement

Now as it was the landlord who set up the inventory they could hardly pay themselves could they? Note there is no mention of any kind of rate of charge, and this strikes me as a spurious charge and the contract was completely ambiguous in this respect. What is my status on this one?

[Dauphin]

What exactly is abnormal about this?

[Provost Harrison]

Never mentioned, no figure stated in the contract, well buried in the contract...

[reds4ever]

Right or wrong who gives a flying f&*k about £40? I suppose you could always hire a solictor at £200 an hour to sort it out for you.

[Provost Harrison]

Oh Christ, I am not going to sue or anything, it is the principle and I will just write if so. But this is the problem, they may be doing it because they know they can get away from it, and if they have a lot of tenants, it soon adds up!

[reds4ever]

It happens a lot when renting, I'd pass it off as one of those things. It might be worth writing a 'blustering' type letter on the off chance though....

[Provost Harrison]

Yeah, that is the plan. I don't have the inclination to do anything just for the sake of £40 though...

[Japher]

send him a bill for £20 for "cost of the Check in Inventory"

[Provost Harrison]

I was thinking of doing that Japher...that is what it says in the contract and if they are playing it like that, well, why not?

[MOBIUS]

How about charging them £40 to pay you to not firebomb their house/office/cat...?

[reds4ever]

You think you've got problems? Korns mate in another thread is trying (and will also be failing) to get back $10,000 from an African woman he's never even met.

[Provost Harrison]

Well that'll teach him to be a f**kwit!

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Well that'll teach him to be a f**kwit!

Thats pretty much the concencus of the thread

Your own contribution was very helpfull:

"Hmmm, problematic..."

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by reds4ever
Right or wrong who gives a flying f&*k about £40? I suppose you could always hire a solictor at £200 an hour to sort it out for you.

Aye, there's the rub. Landlords know you've moved away, so they hit you with ridiculous charges and take it out of your deposit, knowing you have almost no practical remedy.

About the only legal things I can think of is to (a) report them to the Better Business Bureau (or the appropriate equivalent) or (b) a class action lawsuit.

[Flubber]

Do you have a LandLOrd tenant Board-- In Canada every province has one and its pretty simple procedure wise to get in front of them.

I don't believe that Canadian leases have any such clause but it might be the cost of having an employee do an inventory. If they sent someone by for a couple of hours and paid them 20 pounds an hour, it would be legitimate and reasonable. ( but I doubt that is what happened)

it just seems a dinky charge they just hope to get away with since most people won't bother to complain