Landlord/Rental Query- Legal Advice

[giveherlong]

Bit of advice required. I rented a house in Belfast from June 2012 and moved out last week. The initial lease was for one year and I never signed anything to extend it but kept up the monthly payments. I paid a deposit of one month's rent at the outset. At the end of February I contacted the landlord to say I was moving out at end of March and to use the deposit to cover the final month's rent. She has rang a few times since I moved out but I haven't answered or returned the calls. There were a couple burns on the carpet where sparks had escaped from the open fire. The email below was sent today. Any advice on what to do would be much appreciated; don't fancy going down the legal route nor do I want to pay out £250. Thanks


I am writing to ask you to contact me regarding the damage to the living room carpet.  I have phoned you and left messages so we could sort out this situation amicably.  As you have gone against the rental agreement drawn up by UPS and used your deposit as the last months' rent I am requesting compensation from you for the replacement of the carpet.  When you moved in you asked could you use the fireplace and you were told you could if you used a proper grate and fire guard.  Clearly these instructions were not followed and subsequently damage to the carpet has occurred.  Replacement and fitting of the carpet will be £250 and I request you send me a cheque for this amount to the address above. 
If I have not received any correspondence from you before 12th April I will be forced to contact my solicitor and take this matter further.
Yours sincerely

[Geoff Tipps]

Ignore it. She's bluffing.

[giveherlong]

I hope so...

[Geoff Tipps]

She's waiting for you to blink first. It's not worth her while to engage a solicitor for that amount.
Don't let her bully you.

[THE MIGHTY QUINN]

In fairness, mind you, she would appear to hold the moral high ground

[T Fearon]

Sounds like a carpet bag,her!

[Minder]

She's waiting for you to blink first. It's not worth her while to engage a solicitor for that amount.
Don't let her bully you.

Yeah no chance she goes to a solicitor for this.

[Windmill abu]

You have rented the property for almost 2 years & have paid rent for it. The landlord has received rent for this time & is presumably happy that the agreement has been honoured. All that is left is that you leave the property in the same condition that you received it.

If you damaged the carpet, you should pay for any replacement/repairs incurred. Your refusal to answer or return the calls is not only bad manners but proof that you cannot justify non payment of said repairs.

It is time to own up to your responsibilities.

[ardtole]

Even if it did go as far as a soliciter, I dont think you would be liable. You could have dropped ashes when cleaning out the fire, there is a general amount of wear and tear allowed, sounds like she is taking the piss. All she needs to do is throw an ole rug over it and if she is renting it out it will be no big deal.

[THE MIGHTY QUINN]

I'm not sure id be holding much sway on legal advice given to me by a person who can't even spell solicitor

[Puckoon]

So you are basically horsing her out of a portion of the last month's rent - or the bill to fix her carpet that you damaged.

Current approach is un-gentlemanly and underhand.

[Tony Baloney]

Don't be a cnut and pay her for her carpet which you promised you wouldn't damage! At the very least agree to pay her half.

[93-DY-SAM]

You need to check your initial lease agreement but after the fixed term (1 year in your case) has expired tenancies generally become periodic. That is they continue to roll on based on the rent period eg month to month, week to week etc under the terms of the initial agreement you signed until either party serves notice on the tenancy. So just because you think you didn't sign anything after the first year doesn't necessarily mean there is no tenancy agreement is place.

Using your despoit as the last months rent is generally not within the terms of a tenancy agreement. I'm surprised they agreed to let you do this in the first place. The deposit is the deposit and nothing else. They might see it that you tried to pull a fly one and avoid losing some/all of your deposit. You need to check the terms of your tenancy agreement to make sure you are not liable for this otherwise you could end up in the small claims court.

[Hereiam]

Pay up. How would you like it if the shoe were on the other foot.

[Maguire01]

Yep, pay up.

I assume you won't be needing a reference for any future tenancy.