Alyson Macdonald: Deposits and repairs often at root of disputes

THE two main causes of disputes between tenants and landlords are deposits and repairs.

Too many landlords withhold deposits when there hasn’t been any damage to the property. The new tenancy deposit scheme should hopefully help address this by taking the decision out of the landlord’s hands and placing it with a neutral third party. That means landlords will only keep the deposit money if they can provide a good reason for doing so.

There will be landlords who find ways of getting around this, particularly those already breaking the law in other ways (such as by failing to register with their local authority or obtain an HMO licence if necessary).

However, this isn’t just a problem with rogue landlords, as some of the city’s more mainstream letting agents employ dubious practices. One major letting agent is now charging tenants a compulsory, non-refundable “cleaning fee” when they move in, instead of a deposit.

The other major cause of disputes is repairs, mainly because so many landlords and agencies will avoid carrying them out.

This is probably the most common complaint that private sector tenants have and some people can be left in flats that aren’t wind- and water-tight, that have mould, or where the heating has broken down and isn’t fixed for months.

Tenants can take repair problems to the Private Rented Housing Panel. However, it isn’t well known and it can be frustrating because by the time tenants realise they need to do something other than simply ask their landlord to carry out repairs, the problem will have been going on for months. Invariably they only then discover that they have to provide proof that they’ve been using letters sent by recorded delivery to report the problem, otherwise the all the time spent trying to resolve the problem is wasted.

There are organisations that can help tenants who are having problems. Citizens Advice Scotland and Letwise (run by the City of Edinburgh Council) are both very helpful, but they can’t always meet the demand.

As the number of private sector tenants increases and the funding for advice services is cut, it’s likely that more people will end up struggling to resolve disputes with their landlord.

• Alyson Macdonald, Edinburgh Private Tenants Action Group