Updating post from Reddit.
I'm officially moving out of my room tonight and have shown my landlord the storage areas that were mine which include some cupboard areas and a fridge, all cleaned out and disinfected by me.
However, I showed her a video of the whole kitchen which was kept untidy and unclean by my roommates (bear in mind I haven't used the space in almost a month), and she wants to revoke giving back my deposit because of it.
I have complained about unhygienic roommates who didn't want to do their part before, but she essentially told me that it's my responsibility to keep my roommates' mess in line which I have been doing since I've been here. The last time I tried to ask one particular roommate politely to look clean the communal areas they were extremely rude to me and lied to me that they are always looking after the areas despite hard evidence of the opposite (4 weeks of living in my new place and coming back, the house has clearly not been cleaned in a while, there's debris around the house and they only look after their rooms).
Can I take legal action against my landlord for charging me on the mess I didn't leave behind?
Your deposit should be held in a accredited deposit scheme. You can raise a dispute with them if you feel that you shouldn't pay. However if your name was on the tenancy it's difficult to argue.
Firstly
On what basis is she holding you as responsible for the other tenants?
Are you the only name on the lease?
Or
Is it a joint lease all the others are named?
If you are the only one named on the contract & only one with a deposit, then she can’t take deposit money from the others!
If however it is a joint lease ‘everyone named’ & with deposit paid by everyone - the most she can come after you for is a percentage of your deposit as your part of the cleanup/repair & take a piece from everyone else too
She isn’t mum, doesn’t have to work out who did what!
Can just punish everyone & indeed can’t punish one, if she doesn’t punish everyone
Your deposit should have been protected, so dispute the deduction via the protection scheme, but bear in mind that if you are joint & severally liable then you're all equally responsible for the entire space and so your LL may well be entitled to take some of the deposit for cleaning fees. That's something you need to check in your contract but is very common in an HMO, and your only recourse assuming the cleaning charge is reasonable is to take it up with your roomates.
If your deposit wasn't protected, take it to small claims and you'll win.
I'll try and take this route and see how it goes. Thanks!
My advice, roll up your sleeves, box up as much of the mess as you can and leave it outside your housemates rooms. Give the place a scrub for the next 2 hours, get your deposit back and move on with your life. If the housemates complain, tough. You are moving out anyway. Go apeshit for the next 2 hours. Their actions are literally costing you money and they shouldn’t leave their shit lying around in future.
Might be worth popping this over in r/legalAdviceUK too, it's quite an active sub
I'll consider that if things get worse, thank you