50 Ffriddoedd Road Bangor Gwynedd LL57 2TW Dear Katrina, As previously noted, whilst we accept responsibility for some

of the deductions from our deposit, we feel aggrieved that we are being charged for problems that were present prior to our tenancy or we believe are not our fault. First of all, could you please clarify the details of our deposits please? As per The Housing (Tenancy Deposits) (Prescribed Information) Order 2007 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2007/797/pdfs/uksi_20070797_en.pdf) you had a legal obligation to provide us with thorough details of our deposit. Additionally, in accordance with section 213(6) of the Housing Act 2004, you had a legal obligation to provide us with these details within 14 days of receiving the deposit (December 2009): (6)The information required by subsection (5) must be given to the tenant and any relevant person (a)in the prescribed form or in a form substantially to the same effect, and (b)within the period of 14 days beginning with the date on which the deposit is received by the landlord. Please correct me if Im wrong, but I believe that we never received any such details, and certainly not within 14 days you received the deposit (December 2009). Section 214 of the Housing Act goes on to state: s214 - Proceedings relating to tenancy deposits (1)Where a tenancy deposit has been paid in connection with a shorthold tenancy, the tenant or any relevant person (as defined by section 213(10)) may make an application to a county court on the grounds (a)that the initial requirements of an authorised scheme (see section 213(4)) have not, or section 213(6)(a) has not, been complied with in relation to the deposit; or (b)that he has been notified by the landlord that a particular authorised scheme applies to the deposit but has been unable to obtain confirmation from the scheme administrator that the deposit is being held in accordance with the scheme. (2)Subsections (3) and (4) apply if on such an application the court (a)is satisfied that those requirements have not, or section 213(6)(a) has not, been complied with in relation to the deposit, or (b)is not satisfied that the deposit is being held in accordance with an authorised scheme,

as the case may be. (3)The court must, as it thinks fit, either (a)order the person who appears to the court to be holding the deposit to repay it to the applicant, or (b)order that person to pay the deposit into the designated account held by the scheme administrator under an authorised custodial scheme, within the period of 14 days beginning with the date of the making of the order. (4)The court must also order the landlord to pay to the applicant a sum of money equal to three times the amount of the deposit within the period of 14 days beginning with the date of the making of the order. Please correct me if Im wrong, but we have not received any details regarding our deposit. Could you clarify what the spot fines are? Are they meant to represent the value of replacing items or are the meant to be a punishment of some sort? Fire Alarm Damage We accept responsibility for this, although we were initially informed that it would be a one off 35 fee back in December 2010. Cleaning May I refer to an e-mail sent on the 30th July 2010 by myself: I would like to share some basic concerns regarding the state of the property at the moment. The main issue is the kitchen/lounge area. It doesn't seem to have been cleaned ad there were items still left in the sink and a lot of non-inventory items (such as cutlery, crockery and glass and mugs, as well as towels in the hallway) left in the cupboards and drawers from previous tenants. The property was in a dirty condition had had evidently not been cleaned between tenancies. Despite there being a month before we were allowed to move in permanently, there was no improvement in the condition or cleanliness of the kitchen, lounge, individual rooms or hallway when we moved in late September. We spent a great amount of time, effort and money in the initial few days cleaning the whole house. We were also left without a working shower room between September 2010 and April 2011 despite notifying yourselves several times. Due to this, the small shower room was rarely used and I cannot see why it cost 70 to clean as it had hardly been used. Could you please inform us of what exactly was cleaned in the bathrooms, as our photos show that the bathroom was reasonably clean (and certainly cleaner than when we first moved in). Also, have you any evidence of the rubbish left in the bins in the bathrooms? We spent a whole three days, and a lot of money, at the end of our tenancy thoroughly cleaning the house and left the house in a far cleaner condition than we received the property. I cant understand why you have insisted on spending 260 on cleaning the property after our tenancy when you clearly didnt bother before we moved in, evident by the crockery and glasses still present in most cupboards (please see attached photos taken on 26th July 2010).

Divan and mattress stains Most of these stains were present when we moved in, consistent with the dirty condition of the rest of the property when we first moved in. Could you please provide us with evidence that these stains were absent before our tenancy. Ground floor front Broken divan We accept responsibility for this. Broken curtain pole The curtain pole was damaged when we first moved in, and the presence of a curtain rail suggests that it had been for some time before hand. Could you please provide us with evidence that the curtain rail was not broken before we moved in? First floor front bedroom Crude graffiti Have you any evidence that this crude graffiti was not there before we moved in? First floor middle Blu tack marks There has been nothing stuck up on the walls in this room with blu tack throughout the tenancy and these marks were present when we moved in. Graffiti marks We accept responsibility for the additional graffiti. First floor rear bedroom Telephone socket hanging off the wall This, as most of the sockets, was in this condition when we moved in to the property. In this particular room, it has been located behind the canvas wardrobe throughout and has certainly not been damaged by us. Could you please provide us with evidence that it was screwed on to the wall before we moved in please? Attic Room Door closer This has never been present on the door in the attic room during our tenancy. Could you please provide us with evidence to prove otherwise, as I fail to see any reason why we would remove this ourselves?

Small tickets mark on bookcase We placed no stickers on the bookcase during our tenancy. Could you please provide evidence that this was not present before our tenancy please? Hatch door to attic room As you may recall, in September 2010 a wasps nest/hive was present in the alcove in the attic room and access was required by external contractors arranged by you to this alcove through the hatch door. They failed to replace this. I fail to see why we should compensate for the fact that contractors, arranged by yourselves, failed to replace it adequately. Stairs / Spindles Whilst we accept some responsibility for this, we struggle to understand how it has cost 80 to replace these? For the ones we have actually replaced it cost us a grand total of 3.99 per spindle. I understand there are labour costs, but not such a sum to justify 80. Therefore, you can clearly see that we feel aggrieved that we are being charged for defects in the property that were present before we moved in to the property. Indeed, we feel that at the end of the tenancy we left the property mostly in a condition that was far cleaner than it was before commencing our tenancy. You also state that we need to provide evidence to support our claims. The law suggest otherwise, and the onus is on you as landlords/letting agency to prove, and provide evidence, otherwise. (http://www.inventoryguardian.co.uk/landlords.htm). Therefore, could you please provide us with evidence that the damage and staining you accuse us of was not present prior to our tenancy. Kind regards,

Tomos Lewis