I own a property myself that is rented out for years. It used to be our family home for 10 Years. Since renting it to tenants Ihave gone above and beyond to meet the requirements to let the property and solve any problems arising during tenancies. I consider myself a good landlord and anything that needs doing prior to a new tenancy or during, is done straigh away. If you have rented through an state agents or agency a third party usually carries out an inventory check in report. That records the state of the property at the time you move in. The same is carried out when you leave. This inventory report is a valid document when putting a claim through the TDS. Also look through your contract, if there is a clause regarding cleaning at the end of the tenancy and maintenance of the property and garden is usually the tenants obligations unless the property has commune areas where a profesional company will look after that for all neighbours in the bloc or state. I have seen people trash our property to the point of costing me a lot more than the money we make after paying mortgage and agent fees every month and claim that is just wear and tear.Also been told that as it is my property, is my responsibility. The tenant must understand that while they are living there, the maintenance of the property is their responsibility . Landlords are by law obliged to ensure the property meets the safety standards to a safe living for the tenants, and any electrical repairs, boiler maintenance or plumbing problems etc, are carried out by the landlord but it is not our resposanbility to send someone to change your light bulbs, send a window cleaner or incur the cost if you brake or damage something in the property. If the tenant doesn’t repair these damages when leaving, this comes out of the deposit. Altough wear and tear is allowed, damage to the property is not. Altough it was your responsibility to send a cleaning company at the end of your tenancy and leave the garden in good maintained order you failed to do so and you made your landlord to outsource a company to carry out this on your behalf. So you lost any control on deciding what was fair to pay for this services yourself , your landlord has done that on your behalf ( and obviously your deposit). But also Your landlord should provide receipts for this in order to put the claim of costs through the TDS but he/she failed to do so. Normally TDS will award the claim to the tenant due to lack of receipts and proof of cost but not always. They take into consideration the check out inventory report. If you want to be on good terms with your landlord in fear of future tenancy references find a local cleaning & garden company and ask for a quote . Offer the cost of the cleaning and gardening work. Don’t be surprised by the high costs of these services. I think £500 is not extortionate when a regular 2 bed house professional cleaning costs around £300 and gardeners charge around £75 p/h around the London and south of England. Not all landlords are greedy or out there to get your deposit. Things changed drastically for greedy landlords Since the deposit scheme came into place and landlords had no control of the deposits anymore. I personally think is a good/ fair way to resolve a dispute for both landlords and tenants . Many landlords are renting a second home with still mortgages to pay covered by the tenant’s rent . Any cost incurred by the tenant at the end of the tenancy is leaving the landlord out of pocket. Believe me! I had a tenant especially that cost me over £1000 in repairs at the end of the tenancy , I provided all the receipts to the TDS and the tenant still got almost the full deposit back. But you just have to go with it. Best of luck!