FAQs: Student

No problem! Just reply to let us know, we will then put this on hold until we hear from you and we’ll look after your deposit until the issue is resolved.

Unfortunately, we are not able to get involved in internal disputes such as issues with bills, nor are we able to deduct these from the deposit. We do suggest that tenants take our bills-included package to avoid any issues with bills at the end of the tenancy.

Most tenancy agreements are joint and severally liable. This means the deposit is classed as one joint deposit. Although we allowed you to pay your shares of this individually, we are unable to send individual portions of deposits back. Any communal damage is down to you as tenants to resolve and to allocate costs depending on who caused that damage. The full breakdown will be provided for you to discuss amongst yourselves and the full cost of repairs deducted from your joint deposit. The only exceptions to this are if only one tenant is moving out or if you are on your own separate tenancy agreement. Then of course, the one tenant will have their share of the deposit returned to them.

The inventories were checked by yourselves to confirm that everything listed in them is correct. You had 7 days at the start of the tenancy to notify us of any discrepancies in the document otherwise it is deemed to be an accurate representation of how you received the property. Unfortunately, if there is no evidence that the damage existed at the start of your tenancy, it will be chargeable to yourselves. If you have any queries, do let us know and we will be happy to discuss this with you.

If a minority of tenants return their keys at the end of their tenancy, we will normally need to change the locks to ensure the next tenants’ safety. Whilst we do understand that it is normal for tenants to lose their keys, we can only be sure that no third party has unauthorised access to the property if we change the lock.

If an item is listed in the inventory but missing from the check-out report, the landlord has every right to charge the cost towards replacing the item although they do not actually have to replace it, as it is an asset they have lost.

Unfortunately not. You are allowed access to the property (either yourself or via a third-party) during the dates of your tenancy. After you have vacated the property, any access or works need to be arranged by the Landlord or Coapt.

We always look for the most economical option when remedying any dilapidations. As cleaning is cheaper than replacing a mattress, we will try this in the first instance. Unfortunately, sometimes stains won’t come out and the mattress may need to be replaced after it has been cleaned. If it is excessively stained and beyond cleaning, we will arrange for a replacement and not attempt to clean it.

We recommend at the start of tenancies that mattress protectors are used to avoid these issues.

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.