I think that as a student the most reasonable excuse I heard from a landlord for keeping our collective £1,000 deposit was
"Well the oven hadn't been cleaned."
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 29 Mar 2010, 12:13, 10 replies)

One of my friends was doing last minute cleaning in her flat
she found a bottle cap and put it into the (cleaned, emptied) recycle bin, figuring that it was clean and wouldn't rot or anything, and it was better than leaving it on the floor.

Her flat was collectively fined £25.
(Sivvus trolley collision in the fruit aisle led to a jam, Mon 29 Mar 2010, 12:30, closed)

I just cancelled my last months' rent payment
then let them keep the deposit. fuck em, had heard far too many horror stories, wasn't going to take the risk.
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Mon 29 Mar 2010, 13:05, closed)

No no no!
It's people like you that make me have to shell out 6 weeks deposit on every flat I rent, just in case I decide to do the same!
(sabre-tooth monkey, Mon 29 Mar 2010, 16:40, closed)

When I moved out of one place
I was away for summer, and the landlord told my friend that I was not getting any of my deposit back because I had burned the carpet with a heater.

My friend's response was to tell him that if that was the case, we would get environmental health to check the room out, as it always had wet walls due to damp, and mold, and I had got a couple of chest infections over the year.

I got my deposit back.

Also, not sure if environmental health would even have done anything, but the threat worked. Is that what they do?
(The Kwyjibo A big, dumb, balding North American ape., Mon 29 Mar 2010, 15:56, closed)

£25
for a dusty lampshade
(lolwhites, Mon 29 Mar 2010, 20:30, closed)

4 of us got about 50 percent of bonds back
Someone from outside had thrown something at the window in the living room. Our landlady reckoned that it was our fault because the poster of 'free deidre rashid' we were proudly displaying was 'inviting vandalism'.

We left the place cleaner than when we moved in too. Cow

I take photos now, when moving in somewhere
(maggotriddendirtbox fast, feral and sharp as a tack since, Tue 30 Mar 2010, 10:27, closed)

My last college landlord kept my deposit for six months
until after he'd done the flat up for his daughter to live in.

Given it was so damp that at night the lino in the bathroom and kitchen (you went through the kitchen to get to the bathroom) had a carpet of woodlice so you crunched across the floor making a sound like walking up a gravel drive, and the fridge/freezer was so fucked up that I regularly got food poisoning from the freezing/thawing of stuff that happened without any warning, I thought that was just a tad cuntish.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Wed 31 Mar 2010, 17:40, closed)