Confusing advice from TDS when tenants damage caused to my property exceeds their deposit amount

Tenancy Deposits

Hi Im so confused about what to do in this situation - I had horrendous tenants in my property who have caused £1200 damage which exceeds the amount of their deposit which is held by the letting agents but registered with the TDS . I have listed all the damage and costs to rectify the damage to the tenants who left my property on the 6th April , i notified them that they would not be receiving any of their deposit back . They asked for photographic evidence which i sent to them on the 25th April and had no response from them since , so i called the letting agent and because it was on a let only contract they suggested i call the TDS again for advice .

The TDS suggested i emailed the tenants again and told me " even though the tenants have 3 months to submit a dispute i cannot have the deposit amount until the tenants confirm by email that they are in agreement of this " in the meantime i have paid out the money for all the repairs !!

So i emailed the tenants again last week and offered them a compromise to try to wrap up this situation and move on . i suggested that if i received a response from them within 3 days to confirm they were happy for me to receive the full amount , i would not claim against their guarantor for the deficit in amounts , however they still have not responded and now the TDS have suggested that I lodge a dispute with them , and then they will try to contact the tenants and it might go legal so i should get quotes from a lawyer , so basically elongating the situation and costing me even more money - this is so ridiculous and completely one-sided !!

Does anyone have any advice or had a similar experience?