Sean, thank you for your comments although I am disappointed that you are not happy with the check-out experience. I will respond to the points you have made as not all are consistent with the facts. I also feel very strongly about your comments that we were looking to steal money from you, not least because the process is covered by an independent checking process but also we act for the landlord so any monies deducted from a tenant's deposit belong to the landlord and not to us. We were certainly not looking to steal money and I resent this claim by you. Firstly, I would like to point out that you did leave the property in a poor condition and it was just that the independent adjudicator disagreed with how much was being proposed for deduction based on quotes because of acclaimed fair wear and tear. To your allegation that we we "had used older photos", we actually had never managed this property before your tenancy so we did not have any older photos, all of the photos we used were ones taken from just before you moved in. You say you cleaned and cleared the house throughout but the adjudicator commented "The photographs from the start and end of the tenancy show a visible deterioration to the cleanliness of the oven" so it was clear that the oven was not clean at the end of the tenancy despite your claims of cleaning and a professional oven cleaning kit. We were awarded deposit monies to get the oven cleaned after the way you had left it. There were also empty beverage cans in a bathroom cupboard and many items left in the kitchen cupboards which we were awarded deposit to clear. And yet you claimed you cleaned and cleared the house. I would not say you were a model tenant as we have many tenants who leave the property completely clean and clear at the end of their tenancy with no damage and no requirement to claim to use monies from their deposit to rectify issues - the vast majority of our tenants get 100% of their deposit back. Also, you should have got permission to keep a cat and you did not (which a model tenant would do) - there is then a pet addendum you would have signed committing to certain actions at the end of the tenancy. Your cat scratched 3 walls with anaglypta wallpaper which is not easy to repair just with paint. This was the biggest disagreement with the adjudicator as they also argued the walls could just be painted. However you had also caused 36 holes in the back bedroom wall due to fittings you affixed and we got a quote from a company to make repairs to the decor given the type of wall covering. We were obviously sorry about your illness. However, we have to act impartially but on behalf of the landlord to assess how you leave the property at the end of the tenancy compared to the start. We were awarded relatively significant monies because of the poor condition you left the property in despite your review implying that you had left it in very good condition. We used contractor quotes to put a value to the poor condition you left the property in but the adjudicator chose to apply different values in some cases. As a final point, you signed all of the photos at the start of the tenancy and you have the opportunity to check them at check-in before you sign them. If you had requested it, we would have sent you a copy of the photos report, it is not a problem. We take fresh photos each time a new tenant moves in and, as I mentioned earlier, we had not managed the property previously so it would not have been possible for us to use "older photos" as we did not have any prior photos. I obviously hope you have settled well into your new home and that you are well. Steve Adams, Director, Northwood (Wigan) Limited