Damage to property

[kerbut]

I am new on this forum ,but have been on Landlord zone for a couple of years but didnt know they had a forum ,but am active on a couple of other Landlord forums and have been active in property letting for about 30 years and have 13 letting units.
Right, my question is this , I had a tenant leave a property earlier this month and the checkout inventory (professionally independent inventory clerk, photographic inventory )showed several damaged things , damage to carpets ,kitchen floor coverings (3 years old vinyl, stained by news print putting it down for the dog and ripped in another place ) , the tenant agreed this could be deducted from her deposit after I emailed her about it as she did not attend to check out despite 2 emails to her stating we would be on site at 11am on the allotted day . the inventory stated the property was in a dirty condition , mould in the main bedroom and bathroom and hallway (I have emails from me to the tenant asking her not to dry clothes in the property after seeing a cloths airer in the kitchen and to open the bathroom window after taking a shower ) I sent the ex tenant an email saying the living room smelt of dogs urine and I would have to change the living room carpet (£20 per meter 4 years ago in a room 5mx5m )We lifted the carpet last weekend and it is stained through to the underlay in several places, when told she returned an abusive email to me and said her dog never urinated in the property or on the carpet , on a subsequent email she got more abusive so I let her have her deposit back (yes, it was protected with my deposits ) less the cost of the replacement vinyl as I have been down the arbitration route before and it was a waste of time (ie,I lost on what was a rock solid case ). So I am now going to persue her through the Small claims court for the painters bill (£500) , materials £50 ,cleaning (tba) and replacement carpet (£650). Has any one else had experience taking this route ,as I understand the CC will be more for the Landlord than the Arbitration Service are

[JK0]

I did sue a tenant about ten years ago who moved home to Warrington from her flat in Bournemouth. It took about a year, and I even paid for the suite covers she damaged to be sent to the court.

It was a complete waste of time and money. I was awarded the cost of the schedule of condition, but none of the damage costs.

Part of the problem was that the case was transferred to T's new home because she defended it. I did not have the resources to stay the night in Warrington, so put everything in writing.

I surmise that T turned up at court, and told friendly Northern judge that it was a B*****d Southerner suing her, and got away with it.