FAQs: Deposit breakdowns

Unfortunately, employing contractors to carry out repainting is much more expensive than buying a tin of paint and doing it yourselves. Contractors have overheads to cover and need to charge for their labour to do the work on top of the cost of the materials. The walls often need to be treated before repainting especially when blu-tack has been used as the greasy residue needs to be cleaned off properly before paint can be applied, otherwise it will just seep back through the paint again. This process adds to the amount of time our contractors have to spend repainting. We have sourced reliable and reasonably priced contractors to carry out the work and they have kept their prices the same for several years now despite the rise in the price of materials. These prices have also been accepted as reasonable by deposit dispute adjudicators.

If the check-out report states that marks have been caused to walls in the property that are in excess of normal wear and tear, the landlord is entitled to receive some compensation for this damage. Dependent on the extent of the damage, the landlord may decide to instruct a contractor to repaint the wall/s (although this is not necessary in order to make a charge from the deposit for any marks caused).

Our contractors charge £60 to repaint each wall. We instruct contractors to repaint whole walls rather than touch in marks as this often leaves obvious patches of new paint and can look much worse than the original damage. The apportionment of this cost between landlord and tenant is worked out based on the theory that a landlord is expected to repaint their property on average every 4 years. Therefore, over 4 years, the wall would depreciate at £15 per year (£60 being the cost of repainting divided by the number of years it could be expected to last).

If the check-out report states that a wall has been marked during your tenancy, it is our job to then look at your original inventory and investigate when that wall was last repainted. We can then work out how much should be apportioned to the tenants and to the landlord. For example, if the inventory states that the wall at the beginning of the tenancy was in a ‘good clean condition,’ or ‘appears freshly painted,’ and that same wall is then marked at the end of the tenancy and in need of repainting, the landlord has only had 1 year’s worth of ‘use’ out of the wall. In this instance, the landlord should pay £15 for that year and the tenant would be responsible for the 3 years that the landlord missed out on due to the damage caused, so the tenant would be charged £45. In another scenario, the inventory could list the walls as having some marks present at the start of the tenancy and then the check-out report shows that there are additional marks to these at check-out. If we find that this wall was repainted two years prior to the check-out, the cost of the repainting would be split 50/50 between the landlord and tenant.

Consequently, different walls in the same property may have been repainted at different points in time so varying charges could apply for the same damage from one wall to the next. Please note that walls do not necessarily need to be repainted in order to apply the same apportionment of charges.

Part of the clearance of your garden prior to your check-out should include removing all green waste. Large piles of this left in gardens attracts vermin and can take a long time to break down naturally. New tenants will be moving into the property shortly after you vacate, therefore, the garden needs to be cleared and ready for them to use. If we need to get our gardener to remove any green waste once you have checked out, then unfortunately there will be a charge for this. Our gardener charges for their time to remove this as well as the cost of disposing of it at a commercial green waste disposal site. The amount you could be charged depends on the amount of waste left; the larger the amount, the longer it will take our gardeners to load it onto their truck for removal and the more they will be charged for disposal.

Of course! Please let us know if you would like copies of any invoices for works carried out – just email deposits@coapt.co.uk.

We do ask that all personal items are removed from the property prior to your check-out, no matter how useful you think they might be for the next tenants.This is so we can keep the standards of our properties the same across the board.

It completely depends how much you’ve left. If the amount left is more than one van load, you will be charged for the use of another van. Rubbish removal contractors also have to take waste to a trade waste site which is time consuming and often incurs charges. It is much more cost effective for you to take it to a non-commercial tip.

In accordance with your tenancy agreement, you are responsible for keeping the property clear from rubbish and ensuring that it is regularly collected by the local authority. If there is an excessive amount of rubbish (more than 1 wheelie bin load), the council will not remove it. If you do not remove it at the end of your tenancy, we will be required to hire a rubbish removal company to ensure the property is clear of rubbish for the incoming tenants. If you think you have the wrong bin size, you can also request a new one from the Council during your tenancy – just follow this link. It’s important to know that if you don’t put your rubbish in the correct bin (e.g. soft furnishings, large bulky items etc.) then the council will not collect the rubbish.

The hourly rate is for a general clean that does not require specialist chemicals/equipment. Mattress sanitising is very time consuming and requires specialist equipment. This does not constitute general cleaning and you will therefore be charged separately. Sometimes accidents happen, and if you know that your mattress needs a clean and would like to organise one yourself, then we’d recommend finding a supplier on Checkatrade.

The cleanliness of the carpets are compared to the state they were in when you moved into the property. If the carpets were clean when you moved in but they are dirty when you vacate, you will be charged for the cleaning. In some cases, if carpets were showing stains when you moved in and then were in a worse state when you vacate, the cost of cleaning can be split between Landlord and Tenant. Again, carpet and mattress cleaning requires a large cleaning machine to be brought into the property. This is why carpet cleaning is charged separately, with a set up charge for the initial area cleaned.

The hourly rate is for general cleaning which only requires regular cleaning products (i.e bleach/antibacterial spray/vacuuming), not specialist chemicals/equipment. As specific chemicals must be used to clean an oven or defrost a freezer as well as the additional time this takes, the cost of this will be in excess of the hourly rate and you will therefore be charged separately. To avoid this, we recommend you do a deep clean before you leave the property (there are some excellent, if slightly cheesy videos on how to do this on YouTube like this one).

Before you leave the property, we send through several reminders to clean the property and provide you with information on how to do so. You are welcome to have the clean carried out before the last date of your tenancy by a cleaner of your choice (Checkatrade is a great place to look for someone), which you would need to organise yourselves. Unfortunately, due to the sheer volume of work that comes with cleaning around 500 houses in a 12-week window, the cleaning firms that we use have a number of experienced end-of-tenancy cleaners, office staff, cleaning supervisors, company vehicles, etc. meaning larger overheads than a much smaller cleaning firm. Therefore their rates from £23ph is higher than some smaller firms. They also have additional fixed costs for oven cleaning, freezer defrosts, rubbish removal, carpet and mattress cleaning.

After the check-out, we’ll give the cleaners guidance of how much cleaning is required as documented in the check out report. The cleaner will submit their invoice based on the amount of hours it takes to clean the property. We’ll double check this against the check out report and any additional cleaning will be paid for by the landlord.
We’ve worked with our cleaners for many years and they are all prepped in advance to clean efficiently in order to keep costs down.

We are only able to discuss the breakdown with tenants named on the agreement. Please do speak amongst yourselves as tenants and feel free to drop us an email and we will be happy to liaise with you directly.

We do make every effort to chase tenants for any overdue rent, as well as calling guarantors where applicable. If the tenant continues to ignore our requests and does not pay the rent after they have vacated the property, we will be left with no choice but to deduct the rent from the deposit. Please note that if the rent, along with any other deposit deductions exceeds the deposit amount, we will request any outstanding amount from all tenants.

During your tenancy, you are responsible for carrying out all works of repair that are not the responsibility of the Landlord and taking appropriate care of the property. This includes the replacement of disposable items such as fuses, batteries and lightbulbs and acting as a guardian of the property throughout the tenancy. Tenant invoices often result from an unnecessary call out to the property which the contractor then invoices for wasted time. i.e. if a tenant reports their oven is not working and it turns out one of the tenants has unplugged it at the wall. Or if a sink or toilet is blocked due to excessive food waste or sanitary items blocking it as a result of the tenant’s actions.

If you do not pay these invoices during your tenancy, they will unfortunately be deducted from your deposit so that the contractor is paid for their time. You can contact us and we can help explain why any invoices have been raised and help you avoid any further charges in the future.

When vacating the property, you must leave your keys in the property as instructed. If this does not happen, the keys can get lost in the post or lost meaning a charge will be incurred to cover the cutting of a new key.

The check-out clerk will thoroughly check the property and list any items that appear in different rooms compared to the inventory. A staff member from Coapt will also visit the property the day after you vacate, as well as the day before the next set of tenants are due to move in, and will ensure that you are not charged for items that are recovered.

Charges for any missing or broken items of furniture are assessed fairly on a case-by-case basis and there are many factors to take into consideration. We will be looking at the following items initially:

• Whether the item can be repaired or whether it must be replaced
• How old the item is, and the original quality of the item
• The reasonable expected usage of the item
• What the cost of a replacement item would be
• The length of the tenancy

We would then calculate the apportionment for each item. For example, a item of furniture costing £90 with an expected lifespan of 4 years, which was new at the beginning of a 1 year tenancy has been broken and needs replacing. The item still has a further 3 years life expectancy and the landlord has only had 1 years use of the item. We would therefore calculate £90 divided by 4 years equals £22.50 per year, so the tenants would be charged £67.50 (3 years) and the landlord would pay the remaining £22.50 (1 year).

If the same item of furniture was 2 years old at the start of a 2 year tenancy, the item has reached its life expectancy of 4 years and would be replaced at the landlords cost.

If the item has been broken and the landlord decides they would like to replace it with a more expensive option, the tenant would still only be charged as though the item had been replaced with a ‘like for like’ replacement costing £90, with the landlord covering the additional cost of increased quality.

Sometimes it is not necessary to replace whole items when damage has been caused, particularly if the damage is aesthetic and does not impact on its functionality. For example, if a carpet has an iron burn mark, this has affected how the carpet looks but has not had too much impact on its function as a carpet for the immediate future. Apportionment charges are usually taken when items are not needed to be replaced, the money taken is to compensate the landlord for the loss of value and to go towards eventual replacement when needed. Therefore, apportionment charges should be a portion of the cost of replacement which is dependent on the severity of damage, original condition, life expectancy and type of tenant. To charge the whole amount of replacing the item would be betterment for the landlord as they would be receiving something brand new that was not necessarily new in the first place. In the above example, it would be deemed unfair if a landlord changed the whole carpet because of this burn mark, therefore, to avoid betterment, the landlord would take an apportionment charge for the aesthetic damage that has been caused.

Dependent on the damage, there may be some instances where you could also be charged for the most economical cost of any necessary remedial works. For example, if the marks to the carpet were particularly bad in one area and they could not be covered easily with furniture, the landlord would be entitled to charge not only for the aesthetic damage caused to the carpet but they could also include the cost of a rug to cover the marks. This would be deemed a fair charge as the landlord is not enjoying any betterment from this situation – they would be in a similar situation as before.

You are required to return the garden back to your landlord in the same condition that it was given to you. There is no wear and tear allowance on gardening, therefore, if there are any differences from your inventory at check-out, they will unfortunately be noted as dilapidations by the inventory company and you could be charged. The amount that you are charged depends on the size of the garden, the extent of the difference from your inventory and how much work is involved to return it to its original state. For example, small patios with a couple of flower beds will take the gardener a lot less time to do than a large garden with a lawn and hedge borders. Similarly, if a garden has been cut back to some extent, but some parts missed, this will not take as long to sort out than if the garden has been left to completely overgrow for several months. The gardener factors all of this in when invoicing for the job as well as costs involved in any green waste removal needed. Gardening charges can therefore vary considerably from around £50 up to £300+.

You are expected to return the property and its contents in a clean and good state of repair – as it was at the start of the tenancy. Fair wear and tear only relates to damage, not gardening or cleanliness.