Conflict with landlord

Questioner

My partner and I recently moved. Now that we have moved out of the old house, we have a conflict with the landlord. He indicates that we have not left the house in the right condition with regard to the front and back garden, damage, final cleaning, painting, etc. We contacted the gentleman before our contract expired about the painting, where he indicated that we only had to whitewash the green painted walls. Furthermore, no final inspection was held in which it would be clear what we had to do. Because the final inspection did not take place, we did what we thought was the right thing to do. We did the final cleaning, but there was no trace of this anymore due to the renovations that were taking place in the house at that time, we whitewashed the green painted walls and we tidied up the garden and neatly removed the rubbish. The landlord himself took on all kinds of jobs without consulting us, such as painting the other walls, sanding a door and re-whitewashing it, and pruning the hedges in the garden. This happened without consulting us and now the gentleman does not want to pay back the remaining deposit because he has lost more money than expected due to this work. We tried to talk to the gentleman about this via WhatsApp messages, but the gentleman reacted hostilely. I then called in a friend of mine who is a lawyer. She sent a polite email to the gentleman and the gentleman reacted hostilely to this as well and threatened to take legal action. We are at our wits' end and find it a great pity that we have to end contact with a good acquaintance in this way. If the gentleman had told us that he would tackle the matters that he himself had tackled, we would of course have done so. Unfortunately, we are not experienced in this area ourselves and, partly due to the lack of correspondence, we did not know what was expected of us. I hope that you may have the right answer for us. Yours sincerely,

Lawyer

If the landlord has made adjustments himself/herself, it will be difficult for him/her to prove that you have not left the property tidy. In addition, you indicate that you have not received any specific points from the landlord to improve and there has been no final inspection. In addition to a final inspection, it is important to have information about the initial situation. Were photos taken or was a report drawn up before you started renting the property? Without such a report, it is often difficult for the landlord to demonstrate that you left the situation in a worse condition. For example, have you taken photos of how the house was left? In principle, in such a case, it is up to the landlord to prove that you have not left the property correctly. He cannot do this without proof. Please feel free to contact me via my profile if you have any questions or would like to see if I can help you further.