Condition To 'leave Property In The Same Condition'

[babnye]

No it makes it much easier, if you try to go to court your failure to sign will be taken as agreement with the LL's view and you will be generally viewed as a bit of a timewaster.

Re the OP after 6 and a half years, anything short of deliberate damage should becovered by wear and tear. This includes carpet stains etc as the residual valueof a six + year old carpet is practically nill.

Just make sure you take lots of photos of the clean and tidy flat as you leave, and let the estate agent know that any attempt to withold the deposit will result in you filing court papers for its return (supported by those nice photos of the flat).

Thanks. That's really helpful advice again. I'll do that and I'm armed with camera for new house tomorrow which I will take photos of and send to my Solicitor pal. I will also ask them for copies of receipts for the professional clean and carpet clean on the new place as the new tenancy has clauses on this and I understand from the previous tenant that she has cleaned herself.

[cybernoid]

how much is the deposit? divide that by the number of months you've lived there, add it to the monthly rental. Would you have been happy with paying the rent at that level instead?

Put up a fight sure, but quite honestly lifes too short. They are scum, of course they are, but which business/industry isn't populated by liars and thieves? It's the way of the world. The pragmatic approach is to ask if the hassle is worth the money you might get back. And if you take the view you won't get anything or what you will get isn't worth fighting for, leave it in a state to save yourself the hassle of cleaning it. May as well smash some of their stuff up too.