Mother of Northampton university student criticises national estate agent and landlord over £300 deposit dispute

A mother of a University of Northampton student has criticised a national estate agent and a landlord after they said they were keeping her daughter's £300 rental deposit.

Student Maya Huntley has moved out of her rented accommodation at Lion Court, Far Cotton this summer and was expecting to receive her full deposit back from estate agents Your Move.

The second year student and her mother, Charlene, say they scrubbed her house from “top to bottom” in a bid to make sure she got the money back.

However, Your Move has told Maya and Charlene that they will still be charged £300 to clean the house despite their domestic efforts.

Charlene said: "The fact that I have seen it with my own eyes, I'm a little bit struck as to why it's costing £300 to clean.

"When we moved her in it was a bit of a state, there was blood on the walls, thick cob webs. I know the property is in a much better condition now than when my daughter first moved in.

"I've asked to go back and view the property to see what £300 worth of cleaning looks like but they said it's not been done yet and that it's just what the cleaning companies have quoted them.

"So I said I would like to go with my cleaner to get a quote based on what the job will cost and I asked to see an invoice. Your Move responded saying it does not have invoices yet.

"How do they know it's going to cost £300 if they haven't got an invoice and that it's not been done yet? I don't understand."

Charlene believes this type of situation could be happening to many more students across the town.

The mother said: I feel like this is quite a common thing. It doesn't feel right what they're doing. There are lots of people that would not challenge this."

Charlene added: "They've showed me how I can dispute it but only after a week of discussions - I would have expected them to share that information straight away.

"They are more on the side of the landlord, absolutely. They want the landlord to be using them in future."

A spokesperson for the independently owned and operated franchise branch of Your Move said they are “disappointed” with Charlene's reaction.

The spokesperson said: “We are disappointed by the reaction of the tenant’s parent.

"The tenancy agreement is between the tenant and landlord. It has been the landlord’s decision to withhold monies from the deposit to pay for necessary cleaning of the property, following the tenant’s departure. Evidence of costs incurred by the landlord can be provided.

"By law the tenant’s deposit is held in a Government authorised tenancy deposit scheme, in this case ‘mydeposits’, who offer a free dispute resolution service should the tenant continue to question the deduction applied.”