Vacating a property procedures

More problems with my crazy landlady...

We vacated the property last night, handed over the keys and said bye-bye.  She couldn't meet us on the actual date of the end of our tenancy so we met a day early. 

We did a walk through of the house (at our insistence) but she said she won't do a formal inspection of the house until Wednesday "for emotional reasons" - her former husband hung himself in the garage and they're moving back in the house.  She can't walk into the house without breaking into tears.

we sent her this e-mail (on the advice of our lawyer who was in our living room at the time!)

I'm glad that the inspection went to your satisfaction and we were able to get the keys back to you. Please forward the damage deposit to our new mailing address

this was her formal response to us

As explained during the visit i was unable to take in everything due to emotional reasons.  I will be going through the property on Wednesday and will get in touch.

So, we wont' be present for her inspection of the house which will be carried out after we have formally vacated.  I'm trying to get in touch with CAB but can't so does anyone know what the exact procedure is about vacating inspections etc..?

Also, there was no ingoing inspection performed, the house was a mess and she left a ton of stuff in the house, none of which was inventoried and we had to move out/to the loft before we could move in.

The inside of the house was spotless, completely empty and carpets cleaned when we handed the keys over.   

Did you take pictures of the perfect state that you left the house in?

To a large extent it will depend on what your lease says but if they didn't provide an inventory the benefit of any doubt is in your favour. 

I got through to the Shelter advisors and basically they said that an inspection can be done independently by the landlord and then she told me the procedure to appeal.  She said it will come down to who looks more reasonable if it goes to court.

With the new deposit registration scheme, it has to be very, very detailed as to how the deposit is utilised and if there is a dispute, the disputed amount goes into a special account and is arbitrated. 

So if your lease (even renewal of a lease) was signed on or after April 2007, the landlord must register your deposit.  Even if it was paid years ago.

Unfortunately for us, we signed our last contract in february. 

To a large extent it will depend on what your lease says but if they didn't provide an inventory the benefit of any doubt is in your favour. 

That's a great rule - the guy who checked us out of our last house brought the wrong inventory with him and it was so different that he wasn't able to use it and had to give us the benefit of the doubt. You should have painted the walls neon purple or something just for fun!   

edited 'cause I'm a dimwit