ELT Lettings Ltd

I understand your frustration, especially as your guarantor paid the deposit on your behalf. You have been invited on several occasions to send us your photos which you have failed to do, and as explained before on several emails, you are NOT being charged for wear and tear. I have attached copies of the correspondence between us and SOME of the move-out photos. You moved into the property 3 October 2019, prior to your tenancy commencement we completed a fully detailed inventory on 1 October 2019. You were emailed the full inventory listing the description, condition and cleanliness of every single individual item within the property, including several photos of each item, you had 14 days from moving in to check the inventory and disapprove any items you did not agree with, you did not disagree anything and the inventory was signed by you - if you need a copy of the original inventory please log in to your tenant portal to view a copy. You held in your notice on 3 July and we emailed you on 3 July advising the below; (not the full list) Link to cleaning check-list We asked that you clean the property to the same standard before you leave In addition to returning the property to its original state any garden area should also be tidied to reflect its state when you moved in. It is important that you refer to your original inventory and ensure all items are present upon your departure. You vacated the property on 30 July, by a mutually agreed appointment, our 2 staff members attended to meet with you, Leigh & Shauna, they obtained the meter readings and keys from you, which you signed (under a false name which you later have admitted too in emails). You have since emailed advising you still have a property key and you were going to be gaining entry and citing squatters rights, the landlord has had no option but to arrange a locksmith to change the locks. You have sent us emails advising of your personal situation which I do sympathise with but your emails are conflicting as to when you actually moved out (you have suggested this was a few weeks before handing keys back) - I understand your personal circumstances may be the cause of some of the move out findings (the cleaning for example if you have had to leave prior to 30 July, our findings don’t necessarily represent you as a person, just the situation you had to deal with at the time) but this cannot be at the expense of the landlord to rectify, we deal with many people from all walks of life and have various situations we have to deal with and assist in. Most (reputable) letting agents would be treating this scenario with the same claim on deposit, not just us. You requested to remain at the property which Leigh agreed with and advised you it will take a few hours to carry out the visit as we compare every single item against the check in inventory, you decided against staying and left the property - you were not asked to leave. For you to then state repairs 'magically appear' - I'm sorry but there are marks on one bedroom wall which appears to be stab marks, the property is not clean, the grass is not in the condition it was at check in, it was roughly and poorly cut prior to our arrival on 30 July, the kitchen units have your belongings in them and are not clean, there is items left in the storage cupboards/wardrobes, there is one badly marked area on the living room wall which needs repaired and repainted (this is not wear and tear), there is wear and tear on most walls within the property but these are not listed on the check out report as your liability, there is also stains on both bedroom carpets, hairs left on the bath, sink etc. We would not cause damage or magically create issues within any of our properties as it does not benefit us (time wise or financially) and there would be no reason to do so. There are items within the property which are down to wear and tear, YOU ARE NOT BEING HELD LIABLE FOR THIS. The full check out report , which is approx 120 pages long, clearly shows the check in inventory photos and conditions against the check out inventory photos and conditions, they are listed side by side for comparison. You are only being charged for items not returned to the same condition at check out as to what they were at move in - wear and tear has been considered which the report also states. I'm sorry but the photos show the difference in conditions, again you agreed the condition of everything at check in. The property is not in a condition that we would be happy to carry out viewings in, nor move another tenant into. Your deposit is held with our government deposit scheme, which you have the details of and your deposit certificate which was emailed to you on 10 October 2019. We have made a claim on the deposit which they will email you to advise of, on this email from them it will give you the option to disagree. You can disagree the release which will put the deposit into dispute, we will both be permitted to submit our evidence of the claim and an independent adjudicator will decide on how the deposit is to be allocated, if you need the details of the above please let us know. I agree, you reported a tree had fell over at the back of the rear garden on 26 May, this was reported during lockdown when our office was closed and we were only dealing with emergency repairs, I hope this clarifies as this was also explained to you in email at the time so believe this is unjustified to say there was no reply or action by us. What other repairs did you report that were not addressed? We re-opened on 1 July after being closed since 24 March due to the pandemic, we were dealing with only emergency repairs during this time, at end of June we unfortunately lost all our inbox emails, we had non-emergency emails waiting to be dealt with on our reopening but lost all these. We sent a newsletter to all tenants and landlords at end of June advising we lost all emails and if anyone had sent an email during this time to please resend, we did not receive any correspondence from you until your written notice to vacate the property. If you reported any other non emergency issues during the time period above then the emails were lost but we did ask you to resend anything that needed our attention. I will admit that there was a broken gate on our check out report, you then sent us a copy of the email yesterday of you reporting this originally on 12 June - this was when the office was closed as explained above and was one of the emails we lost, the gate has been removed from your liability which we have explained to you. We are not in the business to scam families, we only claim on a deposit when it is necessary to do so, as stated above it benefits us in no way to claim on a deposit. I feel your review has been made in frustration, which I understand, but your review is not factually correct, the house was not left in excellent condition. We are only doing our job, which we are doing properly and thoroughly and for that I cannot apologise but will apologise that we have caused you any upset in our findings when you moved out. I think from emails you have sent the office from yesterday you may not be understanding the check out report properly, as you have stated you are being charged for putting curtains up and door handles being off, this is not mentioned anywhere under the check out findings in the report. I am happy to go through the report with you point by point over the phone, however we would politely request that verbal abuse on any future phone calls be refrained from as we have tried to assist and advise you on previous phone calls you have made to our office, but you do not let us answer your points and hang up the phone. I hope this clarifies this situation and you understand that we are not scamming or thieving as you have suggested but simply doing our job correctly with the evidence to back this. I apologise for the length of the reply but cannot allow a negative review (our first ever) to go unanswered when it is not true and is available to the public. Please email the office when you will be available and we can have a chat and discuss the findings within the report, if easier we would be happy to make an appointment with you in the office. In the interim, I will email you a summary/simplified version of the check out report, please allow me time to compile this and I will get this to you ASAP.

Still not being handled professional and that is not £825 worth of damages. It’s sickening how you treat and try belittle someone to steal money I was told by legal advice not to send the photos until I have a full list of prices for repairs because it’s genuinely not bad damage atall so you cannot justify this! Also o said I think I may have a key it’s a silver key I know it’s not for my new house so posted it through anyway could be a family members or anything the word MAY said it all! the energy is still in my name and will be running up debt so I want it changed over I called British Gas who said it’s left in my name which isn’t right. a gate falling on a toddler isn’t an emergency repair? You then said I didn’t report it when I did along side all other garden issues? You can argue all you like but I am only happy to pay for the damages left not having family member £825 down the fact you keep blabbing on about how my guarantor paid it shows u think it’s fine to steal it. I offered to clean it professionally but u refused To meet and give us access Too because yous are robbing people blind and I’ve contacted news papers while awaiting this expenditure form ELT so I can see exactly what next steps I have to take. Now do not bother speaking down to me again because I’ve had this all shown to several people and everyone agrees that isn’t how much it will cost to repair the court case will cost more which is why I’m trying mutually sort it and get the correct costs before moving forward.

Dear Pauline, Following on from your review, would it be possible to now remove this as the deposit dispute is now resolved and settled in our favour? Thanks