Updating post from Reddit.
Hi all,
LL going through the TDS process with prior tenants (it was furnished and much of that has now disappeared, and the state of the kitchen my partner was almost sick).
They are disputing the whole deduction (of course).
Has anyone been through this process and can advise on timescales? Their website says 28 days once evidence submitted - does anyone know if this is about right or quicker/slower?
Decent chunk of money so would be good to know when to expect a decision!
You have your answer: 28 days once evidence has been submitted.
They could be quicker, if it's slow day at TDS. It might be slower, if they're inundated with requests.
If you have your evidence to justify the claim then fine. Just wait. If your inventory says a chair is in the property and now it's not there, then you'll get the approximate value of the chair, with deductions for any noted damage and age of the item.
Be sure to enjoy taking a dead loss on all the damage, don't waste too much time with TDS and stop taking deposits in future
Why stop taking deposits? Surely having a chance at getting some money back is better than definitely not getting anything?
If you don't take a deposit at all, you can sue the tenant in small claims court for the value of any losses. Typically you'll get paid far more there than you would get through the TDS scheme.
You can sue either way, but mediation before court is expected. Judges don't like it when your first step is court action.
Taking a deposit is better than none at all, atleast you have something if the tenant was too disappear, such as international students that never return to the UK
But the small claims court is not much use if you don’t know where the tenant has gone and/or they don’t have any money. Even if you get an order the chances of you actually seeing the money are not good.
Suppose it depends how much the deposit is but I found the mediation by TDS to be tenant biased and that the deposit would rarely cover the extent of damage left