FAQs: Student

Our Deposit Return team have been on various deposit courses run by My Deposits adjudicators so that they can fairly apportion cost depending on the damage caused. This includes cigarette burns, iron burns and marked furniture etc.

Like all contractor charges, there is an element of labour involved. Not only to fit the light bulb but to make the trip to buy the bulb needed. To avoid this cost for labour, it is advised that you always replace all non-working bulbs prior to your check-out.

Lightbulbs can stop working at any time. Unfortunately, we do have instances where lightbulbs that were working one day, are not working the next day. The condition of the property is relayed at the official check-out, so any bulbs that are not working at this time will need to be replaced at the tenants cost, provided they were stated as working when the original inventory was constructed.

It would be excessive for the landlord to replace a whole carpet due to a small number of burn marks. Therefore, every time a tenant contributed to the damage of a carpet the landlord should only charge an apportionment charge for that specific damage. Once the carpet is so badly damaged through numerous damages, over various tenancies, he will then pay for the replacement himself, having received various contributions over the years.

Of course! If you wish to see an invoice of works then our Deposit Return team can provide this. In most instances, an invoice will be available. However if the landlord has decided to only charge an apportionment charge for damage, then works will not have been carried out and therefore no invoice will be available.

Grease marks are not classed as fair wear and tear as it is avoidable damage. The landlord is not obliged to provide headboards and it is the responsibility of the tenant to either ensure they are not marking the walls with grease or that they make good any grease marks prior to checkout by repainting the wall.

The inventory clerk will have examined the property at the point of constructing the original inventory. They will at this point have highlighted any areas that already have blu-tac marks, scuffs, nails, etc. If the clerk has highlighted that a wall that was unmarked on the inventory, now has marks at the end of the tenancy then they will highlight it as new damage that needs to be remedied at the tenants cost.

Blu-tac and nails are classed as avoidable damage and so do not class as fair wear and tear. Fair wear and tear is light damage such as scuffs in communal stairwells which accumulate over the period of the tenancy. Fair wear and tear is calculated based on the length of the tenancy and the type of occupant.

It is very difficult to remove marks through cleaning the walls and doing so can often cause more damage. Although some very minor marks can be removed by wiping the wall gently with a damp cloth, the majority will not clean off. Rubbing the wall too hard in an attempt to remove marks will cause damage to the paintwork which often looks worse than the original mark and will need repainting anyway.

Please refer to the explanation of how these charges are worked out above. The apportionment of charges between landlord and tenant should reflect the condition of the walls at the start of the tenancy so the fact that they were not freshly painted has been taken into account already in the amount that you have been charged.

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 will provide a detailed breakdown of any deductions from your deposit on a room-by-room basis so you can easily negotiate any discrepancies with your housemates. There will be separate sections for items such as keys, unpaid rent etc. Each bedroom will also be itemised and there will be a cost per item listed. As the deposit is treated as a whole (due to a joint and severally liable tenancy agreement) this will help you to divide up who is responsible for each deduction, if at all.

We work really hard to get your deposit breakdown across to you within 1 month of your check-out as we know how important that money is in taking your next steps – whether you’re moving into a new place, paying of bills or treating yourself. We process returns in order of move out dates, so please do bear with us as it is an incredibly busy time of year. It helps us to process everyone’s breakdowns more quickly if we can focus on these, so please avoid contacting us within this period. If you have not heard from us within this timeframe, please email deposits@coapt.co.uk and we will let you know when you will receive your breakdown.