While not pretending that this column is anything like Claire Rayner’s, I did receive something akin to a mailbag a couple of weeks ago. It’s not due to my behaviour at last week’s property auction (although one correspondent is betting a tenner I will go hugely over budget, cheers very much), but about a much hotter subject. Deposits.

I heard, via e-mail, from one Mr G, who works for a big investment bank. He rented a swanky town house in Islington, north London, for him, his wife and the four small Gs. He was paying something like £700 a week and had put down a deposit of more than £4,000. When he came to leave, he assumed his deposit would be returned to him. This was not, however, the case. According to Foxtons (which was not managing the property, but had arranged his tenancy), the place was a trifle messy.

“I saw the property myself and it was a bit tattered,” says Ed Phillips, head of lettings at Foxtons’s Islington branch. The landlord sent his men in to do the work, and charged Mr G £2,000.

The tenant was not too impressed. In fact, he was furious. “The landlord would not allow me to inspect the premises and would not allow me to have the proposed work valued. He would not allow my contractor access. He says the quote is not the keenest, but does not care,” he writes. Furthermore, he says damage that he is now paying to have rectified (such as regrouting) was already a problem when he moved in. Grumbling at Foxtons did no good. It had received a bill, and £2,000 was being removed from Mr G’s pot.

“It’s difficult,” agrees Phillips. “First, the inventory was done by the landlord, not us, so I can’t tell whether the tenant is paying for things that were broken prior to his moving in. If he has proof certain things were already broken, I am sure the landlord will say ‘fair enough’. But I doubt it, because the house had been totally refurbished.”

What about these pricey builders, then? “The landlord doesn’t have to allow the tenant access once he has moved out, nor is the landlord required to find the cheapest quote in London,” says Phillips. But you were holding the tenant’s money; don’t you feel something of a duty of care to the tenant? “Agents hold deposits primarily to stop landlords running off with them. But as our tenancy contract states, we hold the deposit in favour of the landlord to cover unpaid bills and dilapidation, which must be costed within 28 days of the tenancy ending. In this case, the landlord got back to us with the bill within 10 days. He said to me that he didn’t want to get into a war of words with the tenant, but that he was taking off what was necessary.”

Bring in an independent body to hold the deposits, says Marc von Grundherr of Benham & Reeves lettings agency. “The government piloted one such scheme for two years, but then just dropped it,” he groans. “But it was ideal. If there was any row, there was an independent adjudicating body that could step in.”

As far as von Grundherr is concerned, the biggest issue with deposits is cleaning. “Our contract states tenants must have the flat professionally cleaned when they vacate it. Some people think it’s enough to just go around with a J-Cloth. But it’s not. Plus, the tenants often claim a professional has been in when this is clearly not the case. We can tell, you know.” Oh, do tell. “Bin bags!” he says triumphantly. “They always leave them, three usually, in the kitchen. Two full ones by the door and one full one in the bin. Professionals never do that.”

I hear there are some landlords who charge upfront for a non-refundable deposit. Von Grundherr squeaks with horror. “Charging? Upfront? For wear and tear? But they aren’t allowed to do that. All that does is give the landlord money to improve their property, and that’s completely unreasonable.”

I speak to Harry Johnston, who has more than 40 properties in Manchester and has calmly been doing this for years. “When a tenant takes up the tenancy, we keep 15% of his deposit towards redecorating costs,” he says. “I redecorate the flats about every three or four tenancies, and it works out very well. It’s in my contract, and I have never had one single encounter with a tenant over it.”

Can landlords do this sort of thing with their deposits? “They can do anything they like,” says Barry Manners, the charmingly ironic head of Chard lettings agency in west London. “They can put in the contract that the tenant must wear pink fluffy socks on Tuesday mornings,” he says. “The only trouble if you charge upfront is that it sort of invites the tenants to trash the place anyway.”

How about this idea of an independent deposit service run by the government? “Ha ha,” says Manners. “The government can’t even run a health service. It would be another cones hotline.”

His advice? If tenants are nervous about giving six weeks’ rent to the landlord, then hand it over to a solicitor. “So a third party is holding the money. But it’s also vital to get a properly completed, independent inventory alongside the deposit, prepared by an inventory clerk and signed by the tenant.” Something that I very much hope Mr G has done this time around.

Rosie Millard is the BBC arts correspondent

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