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Tip 15: Allow for Wear and Tear
We have already looked at what counts as wear and tear in Tip 12. This is how to allow for wear and tear in a dispute over damage to the property or its contents.
If part of your property is damaged and you wish to have it replaced, the tenant will not necessarily be found liable for the full replacement cost, but rather for a proportion of the cost of replacement equal to the reasonable life of the item minus the use you have already had from it.
As an example, lets assume that you want to replace a carpet that has become damaged during the tenancy. The carpet is of a good quality and was in a low traffic area, such as a bedroom. In such circumstances you might expect the carpet to have a useful life of around ten years. The carpet was three years old when the tenant moved in and the tenancy lasted a further two years. The deposit protection schemes’ dispute resolution departments will calculate that the tenant has hastened the need to replace the carpet by five years, or fifty percent of its useful life, and consequently will award you half of the reasonable cost of replacement.
It is interesting to note that in this scenario you need the following evidence:
- Evidence that the carpet was damaged during the tenancy,
- Evidence to show that the carpet required replacement,
- Confirmation of the quality of the carpet,
- Proof of where the carpet was situated in the property,
- Documentation showing the age of the carpet.
Tom Derrett is the Principal of Deposit Claim, an ex-adjudicator and an expert on the Deposit Protection Schemes.
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3 comments:
A good quality inventory would take care of 1,2 and 4 but for the remaining two bits of evidence you would need to keep the original receipt - that is unlikely as most Landlords take a wear and tear allowance against their tax bill rather than claiming for individual items so they would have no incentive to keep the receipt.
What about people that live in their property and later rent it out? Perhaps they could cut a piece out of the carpet and send it in to the adjudicator to show the quality!
Ideally an inventory and proof of purchase would be available, but it is always interesting to break down exactly what you have to prove ... to me anyway!
People do send in samples of carpet (and worse) all the time. It tends to be returned, as it isn't of much evidential value, and is difficult to store. The rules usually state that only documentary evidence, as opposed to physical evidence, is admissible.
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