Tenant damage, depreciation allowances and Arbitration?

I apologise now for the length of this article but its a bit complex:

I have a dispute with a tenant who has just left my property after 3.5 years. There are two bright pink tennis ball sized stains in the centre of the living room carpet (quality wool mix 6 years old). Professional cleaning hasn’t removed the stains (child’s paint I believe). The cushion flooring in the kitchen (3.5 years old) was torn (16″ tear) when he removed the washing machine and they left a 6″ permanent indentation in the flooring when entering the kitchen.

I used arla.co.uk calculator to assess depreciation and what he should fairly pay towards replacement, he refuses to accept it needs replacing and says ARLA only counts if the damage is so severe it affects the rentability of the property. He only offers to pay for repair on kitchen flooring (sticking tear £54), but the indentation cannot be erased and the washing machine tear is so significant it will tear further when the next tenant installs an appliance.

Two years ago the garden wooden retaining wall collapsed and the wooden steps rotted out (substandard Wainholmes materials), he didn’t claim a rent reduction when the garden was out of action during replacement. Was winter and he said he wasn’t using it and was ok with it. We had new flight of garden steps built and a new block retaining wall built to replace the wooden one costing almost £1k.

He is now saying he can claim loss of use of garden against the deductions I wish to make and so he wants his full deposit back.

In 3.5 years his rent was raised by £30 only and we were always personally on hand to address any issues in this 9 year old house.

On check out he left black mould on ceilings around perimeters of the bedrooms/bathrooms unaddressed (lack of ventilation and not reported to us) he said he didn’t have time to clean/paint them but would pay for the paint. He gave notice when moved out and so had a whole month when the house was empty at end of his tenancy to correct this issue. We have had to spend many evenings after work cleaning and painting to eradicate this.

Anyone have ideas as to how to otherwise calculate depreciation on carpets, am I within my rights to ask him to pay a proportion to replace flooring due to their damage and can they claim rent reduction for lack of garden use after two years have passed?

Should/how can/to claim man hours for time spent eradicating the mould he caused and also 5 hours cleaning chrome/glass light fittings throughout the house which were covered in 3.5 years of dust.

The deposit is held with DPS and he wishes to go through Arbitration as I won’t return his whole deposit.
Look forward to anyone’s feedback.

Janet

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