A RENTER has won a battle against her landlord over a stained mattress as she was about to move out.

Rebecca D'Andrea, who moved to Oxford to take a campaign coordinator job at non-profit People & Planet, was shocked when she learned her landlord was about to take a chunk of her deposit to buy a new mattress.

He demanded that she paid £100 out of the £565 deposit to replace it as it was stained on both sides.

However, Ms D'andrea argued that the mattress was already dirty when she moved in July last year.

Even more, the 24-year-old said she remembered having to thoroughly clean the room at Bennett Crescent in Cowley because of how messy it was.

Ms D'Andrea, who grew increasingly worried, contacted ACORN Oxford, a local tenants' union she is part of.

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With the help of the community union she had the confidence to threaten further action and the landlord backed down.

Speaking about the process, the renter commented: "I am very grateful for their help.

"I became a member of ACORN several years ago and knew they had recently set up a branch in Oxford, so I contacted them straight away."

While she still has not received her full deposit back, which is currently being held at the Deposit Protection Service (DPS), her landlord promised her to release it soon.

A spokesperson from ACORN Oxford said: "We only recently established the group in the city, so this is one the first of hopefully many wins for us.

"Since setting up this spring our organisation has quickly grown to 80 members and counting.

"We defend each other from unfair treatment, which is often at the hands of landlords and letting agents, and work together to run campaigns to win a fairer deal for our communities."