Berkeley Way

Dear Claire. Thank you for your comments. Please find below our response, as there are some ommissions and inaccuracies that we need to correct. 1. Deposit – we still hold your deposit under the terms of the tenancy agreement as there is a problem that is ongoing to do with damage to the worktop. On Friday I was in touch with Kelly Beech at Berkeley Homes to try and facilitate a solution at her level as my team are finding it hard to get a price for the worktop from the contractor. The matter is very much pending. There is no requirement to repay a deposit with 28 days, the rules are that a tenant must be aware of why there is an issue and if there is likely to be a deduction. The deposit is still protected and held in our client account and has not been passed to the landlord which of course it could have been if we had no intention of repaying you. So your accusation is unfair and unreasonable. 2. We do not charge for wear and tear. No reasonable person can consider that a mark to a granite worktop in the shape of a circle is wear and tear and not damage from a pan or a chemical spill or something similar. We have asked you if you could tell us the circumstances which again might find making good the damage easier, but your insistence that it is wear and tear is unfair and unreasonable. Remember the house is only one year old. 3. Property visits and compensation and issues with Berkeley Homes. We visited the property on many more occasions than the twice you refer to. The £5,500 compensation from Berkeley Homes would not have been achieved without our intervention and management of the landlord. We all know this to be case otherwise you would have not sought our intervention, advice and expressed gratitude at the time. It is unfair and unreasonable of you to now to have such a selective memory of events. 4. Just this week my colleague spoke to Egor at length, so I am not sure what the ‘unreturned calls’ are. We have explained the position that we need the price for the worktop no matter how threatening you are to us on the phone – or the comments of ‘going to involve the media’ and Twitter etc. We are not incompetent and I am not sure that the other companies that you are copying in will confirm that we are professional in our dealings. 5. Exploitation – the circumstances of the landlord and the ability of JLL as a professional agency to value a property I do not think need to be questioned in the context of a delay in returning a deposit. This again shows that you are being unfair and unreasonable with wild accusations and unfounded comments. I would urge caution as many of these firms will have large legal departments that will take defamation seriously. The deposit will be resolved as soon as we can establish the cost of the damage caused. If it was not such a high value item we could have agreed to release the undisputed amount, but none of us are aware how much it will be to have a new piece of granite cut and fitted. As soon as we do know that then we will be able to make progress and resolve this unpleasant and time consuming issue which is affecting us all.

Further to the complaint below, the deposit dispute went to arbitration under the 'MyDeposits' scheme. The arbitrator awarded the landlord over 50% of the deposit in compensation for the damages to the house.