"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Dave Smith
scribeth thus
Someone moving out of rented flat, has cleaned it; but landlord is looking
to charge and take some of the original deposit money because they say it
is
not clean enough.

Friends say take photographs and go to the small claims court to retrieve
money. But it might be difficult to show cleanliness with photographs
unless you are a professional?

Any suggestions as to the best course of action. He still has a few days
access to the flat.



This sadly is all to common a tactic to keep some or all of the rental
deposit which should have been placed, if taken, in a government backed
scheme like the Deposit Protection Service where you can easily dispute
tactics like these.

If he has got it and hasn't placed it in that perhaps a call to the CTB
citizens advice, would be in order AFAIK its now an offence to do
otherwise.

It's a civil offense offering compensation to the "victim".

You have to pursue it yourself, no authority will do it for you.

and because the remedy is compensation it can't be actioned in the small
claims court

And taking as many pix as you like and you keeping copies and giving
them to the agency is also a very good idea....

though they will not be accepted unless they have in vision date stamps -
like that actually proves anything :-(