This is a question to the blog clinic from Mandy (not her real name), who is a landlord in England.
My tenants have not returned one set of keys and claim they lost it. Can I withhold the cost of changing the locks from their deposit?
Answer
The first thing to do is look at your Tenancy Agreement and see what it says about deductions from the deposit. There should be a special section on deposit issues.
It is essential if you take a deposit that this is referenced in your tenancy agreement which should set out the type of things that you are entitled to claim for.
This is because the deposit is the tenants’ money. So, for you to be entitled to make deductions, they need to authorise this. Which is normally done by signing a tenancy agreement, which includes suitable clauses.
I suspect you will be OK as professionally drafted tenancy agreements will generally include suitable clauses. For example, the clauses in my tenancy agreements are based on draft clauses provided by TDS.
However, if you are using a badly drafted agreement which has no such clause, then you will not be able to make any deductions. One of the main reasons why deposit adjudicators reject claims is that there is either no tenancy agreement at all or that the tenancy agreement does not contain a suitable clause.
You should also check to see what your tenancy agreement says about keys. Most well drafted agreements will require tenants to return all keys at the end of the tenancy.
So, if your deposit clause provides for you to make deductions for damages following on from the tenant’s breach of the terms of your tenancy agreement and if the tenancy agreement provides for tenants to return all keys, then this will justify you making a claim.
When making your claim, you should refer to the clauses in the tenancy agreement and also point out that their failure to return keys potentially breaches the security of the property which could put your insurance at risk.
Tenant Fees
I should also mention that charging for lost keys is specifically mentioned in the Tenant Fees legislation in England which provides that landlords can recover the actual cost of replacement. So if you are bringing a claim you should make sure you have a receipt to evidence the amount you paid. The charge made should be a reasonable one.