Need some advice about reference/ lost deposit

turnsoutIwas

Hi I have two issues I'd love some advice on:

I moved out of my last house last week. The place was badly in need of renovations when we moved in. We were promised all we asked for would be fixed but about half of it was. We lived there for the full 12 months on our lease and left the house in a much better state than we found it. Rent was paid direct to the landlord's account and no payment was ever late. There were no complaints about us or from us.

All our dealings were through a management company. I only had her first name and mobile number. I started trying to contact her in the middle or March to find out the procedure about moving out. She literally avoided my calls from then until the 20th April when she finally answered. I told her I'd been trying to contact her and she waffled something about her phone being forwarded to a wrong number sometimes. I told her we would not renew and asked was there any issues with that. She said thats all fine and would let the landlord know and call me back in the next few days.

I didnt hear from her again until I finally got through to her on the very last day-in spite of many attempts to contact her. She said she would not be able to make it out to inspect until the next day and asked me to leave the keys and a note in the fridge. She said it would be ok if we needed the morning to get completely finished.

Now the landlord has met us and done an inspection and is hitting us with all manner of issues which were there before we moved in. He says we didnt give notice so if we go to the PRTB he will withhold all of the deposit but as it stands he will get estimates for what he has to do and deduct this-he will not give me a figure.

So now I have two issues:
One is the deposit. I will wait a couple of days to see what he offers us back and then lodge a dispute with the PRTB. I have found a good few disputes in his name including one where the tennant could not contact the agent to give notice and another for the last tenants in the house I just moved out of.

The other, more pressing issue, is that I now need to live somewhere else and a reference is going to be a problem from this guy. I am so annoyed at this as I have rented for years and lost portions of deposits due to damaged chairs and slight problems but never had a problem with a reference.
Should I tell the agent that I have a dispute with the old LL or lie and give someone else as a ref?

Advice welcomed-sorry for the long post.

RentDayBlues

I can only help on the deposit issue - if your lease was expiring on the day you left you are under no legal obligation to give notice to the LL or the agent, the contract between you has ended. I would get ready to fight this one out

As for the reference, not sure how to deal with that one, sorry,.

Cathmandooo

Has anyone asked you for a reference yet? Can you get a work reference and a bank reference?

To be honest with the state of the rental market at the moment landlords arent being very picky about tenants. If you're asked I'd say that your landlord was never very contactable and that you have a work and bank reference. I doubt there would be any problem.

turnsoutIwas

Thanks for the reply.
How sure of that are you? He seemed pretty certain that there is a clause in the lease saying we needed to give notice even if it was after the 12 months.
We never even got a copy of the lease from them...stupid I know but hindsight is 20/20....