“Not surprised about the news of the corrupt letting agent. As a builder and now landlord I have varied experiences of letting agents. You can spot the dodgy agents a mile off. Grubby front of shop, agent/ negotiator in dog eared suit often seen chain smoking. Driving around in a sport car thats ready for a scappage upgrade. One springs to mind as I write. False maintenance claims to landlords, Bogus quotes for work, subletting under the landlord's nose. Even the agent sleeping in a house on a regular basis while it lies vacant. Howvever there are good agents out there so if you want a straight service stop choosing the cheap agent. Open your eyes to how they operate. There are as many bad tenants as there are landlords as there are agents. Unfortunately the common denominator is they are all human and many seem to choose to be corrupt lie and cheat. So next time you decide to lay blame, look at what you missed about the way they presented themselves ,use a bit of common sense, and if you still get caught out do your very best to get them back!”

“I have been Ripped off by Mr Masters by £600. I am a midwife, and I have to work bloody hard to earn £600. My previous landlord has also been left seriously out of pocket as I believe his flat was rented to me without his knowledge therefore allowing Mr Masters to pocket at least 10 months of rent. I appreciate I may have to put my experience down to poor judgement, but I am still hoping that the police do eventually find Mr Masters and, how shall we say, sort him out!!”

“JJ, I think you are missing the point. How can the landlord blame the new tenants for the state of the garden if it was a mess when they moved in? He should have sorted it out beforehand.”

“Just what is the point of having a "comments" section here if some jobsworth at the BEP is going to delete them? Paper's not worth buying, website's not reading...sod this, I'm off.....”

“"Or you could take the photos with your mobile phone and e-mail them to yourself. The e-mail is date stamped and would be acceptable in court."

Or take digital photos and the exif data will tel you when they were taken.”

“Phil,

I think that the landlord had a right to do that to your next door neighbour students...

If he wants to re-let his house, it has to look nice. Ask yourself if you would rent a house with a jungle as a rear garden.

Depending on the deposit, the rear garden could cost quite a few hundred pounds to rectify.

As for the Tenancy protection rent scheme, where is the protection for the Landlord..??

The problem with this Country is that all the dogooders help out those that can't afford, won't work and can't be bothered....

As for the ones that actually get out and do something about it and try to make something of thenselves, they are constantly penalised...

The other thing is that the deposits should be kept in a seperate account. What makes me quite mad is that neither the landlord or the tenant get anything for commissions earned on the money..!!!

Too many rules and NOT enough free flow...”

“we got the very large majority back from our pretty good landlord. A bit was deducted - but we had been living in the house 4 years and there were a couple of bleach marks on bathroom carpet. Also there was a bit of damage to stair carpet due to a stairgate. So they deducted a small amount, but we felt it was in general, reasonable. And we eventually got the money back from the first one although not without her putting up a fight.”

“Are there any tenants out there who have got their deposit back?
The house next door to me was rented and when the students left they didn't get their deposit back because the garden was overgrown. The landlord told them it would cost all their deposit to clear it and put a new lawn down.
When the new tenants moved in, the garden had not been touched by the landlord. When they moved out, they were also told they would not get their deposit back because of the garden. The tenants had taken photos of every room and the garden so they could show that they were leaving the property as they found it. However, with no way to verify when the photos were taken they had no case.
If you are a tenant then you should perhaps got to a solicitor with the photos and give them to him in an envelope for safe keeping. It will cost about 15 pounds.
Or you could take the photos with your mobile phone and e-mail them to yourself. The e-mail is date stamped and would be acceptable in court.”

“Lucy, you are partly right. Not all landlords are shysters, our last one was pretty good but our one before was the b***h from hell! Wouldnt pay our deposit back as she had used it to make the crappy flat a lot nicer for 6 months time when she and her boyfriend would be moving in. So took her to court and absolutely thrashed her. Her dad sat there in court with his army tie on, trying not to look embarrassed at the way his daughter behaved. I do feel sorry for the tenants who will not get their money back when there is no justifiable reason why they shouldnt, but I also feel sorry for the landlords who are losing out on money they rightfully should have.”

“Wonders why her previous comment about the tenancy deposit scheme and the landlords being responsible for it hasnt been published.....”