I've had this situation before and to be honest I was too naive to fight it.

The deposit is such an easy way to make money for an agency. No matter how much you clean it and how much better the property looks it all comes down to their own interpretation, which is something you cannot really argue against. Clearly you can't leave the property in the same condition you arrived as that's impossible. I'm sure it all comes down to the general wear and tear clause.

It is such a typical con and many agencies pull this one.

Their word is effectively final on the cleanliness of the property unless you fight it and I strongly suggest you do.

No doubt they are pulling this trick on the assumption you won't fight it, which means they think they can get the money easily.

Don't take it and I would hazard a guess the more of a fight you put up, the more they will back down. I can't remember the statistic exactly but i heard somewhere that the number of complaints in this country is very low and we all take it on the chin with a typical English stiff upper lip.

Most complaints to banks end up with some sort of result, mainly becuase they never expect you to complain.

You've done all the right things by contacting everyone you can. If you can get through to the CAB then use their advice - it's free!

Why not try contacting people like Watchdog as well? They usually have similar cases on their website which might help.

My one bit of advice would be to get your own file in order. Get the contracts together, get photos of before and after, get everything you can so that when you come to put your case to someone there are no gaps at all.

And any tenancy contract should always just roll onto a month to month after the intial term. There should be no need to sign any new contract at all. However, by the sounds of it you did actually sign it which means you are most likely bound to it.

This link should help and offers you some advice

Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme

There is also some advice here on Notice. It quotes:

"From the date the fixed-term ends a tenant can leave, but should still give a month's notice to the landlord. If the tenant opts not to leave, the tenancy becomes a rolling agreement. Tenants on periodic tenancies or rolling agreements should give one month's notice in writing, ending on the day rent is due."

Good luck and don't take it!

You offer a lot of good advice here but can I say that understanding the agreement that both parties sign up to is crucial and if the curtains, carpets or whatever are clean and unmarked when a new tenant goes in then the landlord has every right to expect the same when the tenant moves out and this is written in the contract. If not then the tenant could wreck the property and walk away with no liability.
It's the Landlord who benifits from the deposit from the tenant, not the managing agency.
The Landlord also has no legal compulsion to offer a rolling month by month tenancy.

You are right. As I said in my post; if the contract includes all those elements and it was signed then it's effectively binding. The carpets were cleaned, as she stated, so that is rather irrelevant in this case. Curtains is a possibility.

Clearly the principle of that clause is to offer the landlord some cover, but I would think it's fair to say that 'some' agencies don't always work hand in hand with the landlord. There can be a lot of wool being pulled over eyes. 18 hours of professional cleaning, forced to sign up to a second 6 month contract - c'mon - that stinks of someone trying it on!

I made my points based on the assumption that she has gone to a lot of trouble to clean the property and despite that she's still being charged. I think it's unfair to take £500 based on the steps already taken:

scrubbed from top to bottom - 3 days
cleaned the carpets professionally
3 month check about three weeks before departure
invitation to a pre-inventory checkout

Quite frankly it's just unreasonable. I think the Tenancy Deposit Protection scheme is the perfect independent party to suggest agreement in this case. And based on the facts listed here then I can't see £500 being treated as reasonable.

Maybe the cleaning that was done was not good enough. We don't know.

Yes, you could be right but if a landlord wants a tenancy longer than one month then he/she is entitled to ask for it and no one force the prospective tenant to accept it. It's their choice.

Yes, I agree that you may be correct but we don't actually know what has really happened.

Maybe the cleaning that was done was not good enough. We don't know.

Yes, you could be right but if a landlord wants a tenancy longer than one month then he/she is entitled to ask for it and no one force the prospective tenant to accept it. It's their choice.

Yes, I agree that you may be correct but we don't actually know what has really happened.

Yes, you could be right but if a landlord wants a tenancy longer than one month then he/she is entitled to ask for it and no one force the prospective tenant to accept it. It's their choice.

Most agents belong to an organisation (such as ARLA) that will take action on tenants behalf if the agent is proved to be acting against their agreed code. My recommendation would be to not use an agency if they don't belong to such an organisation.

We did ask if we could go onto a rolling contract and were told it wasn't allowed. Our only options were:

1) End the tenancy
2) Sign a 6 month agreement
3) Sign a 12 month agreement
4) Speak to a mortgage advisor

Given that we had no where else to live, we opted for the 6 month agreement but said we wanted to renegotiate the terms. However A&K weren't bothered in what we wanted and didn't renegotiate with the landlord.

It would have been nice for them to give us all the available options to choose from - including the rolling contract - rather than the options that they benefit financially from.

I think you will have difficulty getting a rolling monthly tenancy from any agency.

I would completely disagree with that. In the last eight years I have rented 11 properties and A&K is the first agency to not offer a rolling tenancy. Many of my family and friends are in rented accommodation and they too have always had the option of moving straight onto a rolling contract once the initial 6/12 month term has finished. My Dad is a landlord himself and the rolling tenancy is a standard thing in his contracts.

Also, I've spoken to a couple of other agencies in Newbury about it and they said it's standard practice to offer the rolling tenancy. They were even surprised when I said A&K hadn't given us the option.

In that case why didn't you leave A&K and take up a new 6months tenancy with another agent that gave the facility for a rolling contract afterwards.

Come on, Alice, Bloggo's waiting and you better have a bloody good excuse!

Just to expand on this (as we were looking into it yesterday), only sales agents have to belong to an association and are governed by legislation - unfortunately lettings agents aren't covered.

However, if like A&K the agent offers both sales and lettings, they must adhere to the legislation and be a member of an association.

We're currently in the process of investigating the code by which A&K must adhere to so we can put a substantial complaint together to their member association.

Yep, I agree, both sums are far to high for the work involved.

In that case why didn't you leave A&K and take up a new 6months tenancy with another agent that gave the facility for a rolling contract afterwards.

Actually Bloggo rightly or wrongly there is a lot of work for the solicitor to do on house transactions. I recently had some work done on my car and it cost me more, for a lot less hours I might add, than it would have cost for me to get one of our solicitors to work on buying a house for me !! People need to make money it is a fact of life. Obviously I don't know what your job is and I am sure I have never had to do it so don't comment on "the work involved" and I really don't think you can also if you have never done that job yourself. I, from an outsider point of view, can say "well hey why has it cost me £2,000 to have my car repaired for only 6 hours of work - obviously there are a lot of "extras" as well.

But then they did comment I had been an excellent tenant, there in may lay the answer!!!