What constitutes reasonable wear and tear?

barnaby-bear

sandraroffey wrote: »

my private tenancy expects carpets to be cleaned and curtains dry cleaned (large curtains) before leaving.

That really annoyed me - dry cleaning curtains is SO expensive, LL had cheap QD neutral unlined curtains £15 a pair to buy - dry cleaning £50 !!!! a pair.

sooz

barnaby-bear wrote: »

That really annoyed me - dry cleaning curtains is SO expensive, LL had cheap QD neutral unlined curtains £15 a pair to buy - dry cleaning £50 !!!! a pair.

Never ever dry clean curtains at full price :eek: . Atleast one dry cleaners near you will be offering all curtains at half price.

barnaby-bear

sooz wrote: »

Never ever dry clean curtains at full price :eek: . Atleast one dry cleaners near you will be offering all curtains at half price.

I didn't I just found the photos from when we moved in showing grubby curtains and said grubby before so all you get is grubby back.... But dry cleaning is ridiculous on cheap QD style curtains after 6 months - what home owner does this....

sooz

barnaby-bear wrote: »

I didn't I just found the photos from when we moved in showing grubby curtains and said grubby before so all you get is grubby back.... But dry cleaning is ridiculous on cheap QD style curtains after 6 months - what home owner does this....

Not me, I have brown, machine washable, curtains at home, and wipe clean matt paint (...in some places still with orange tiger stripes ...and that reminds me I'll be writing to the paint manufaturer complaining that it's not quite as wipe clean as they say it is!)

However, in rentals I have, on occasion, bought some dry clean only curtains - usually when the windows are too bl**dy big & I've had to have them made to measure.. In which case, the tenants are shown the dry cleaning receipt (& I leave the dry cleaners tag on) when they move in, to prove they have been dry cleaned before they move in.

paintpot

I (stupidly) bought some dry clean only curtains for a rental property (and they were cream :eek: ) but I got them cheap as they were slightly soiled. It was only once I got them home that I realised they were dry clean only :rolleyes: but I was rushing to get the house ready for a tenant. I decided I couldn't be bothered with dry cleaning and stuck them in the washer at 30 degrees and they came up as good as new and they didn't shrink either. So, said curtains are always washed now. I've just washed a pair of dry clean only curtains at home and they washed fine too. So, most of the time I think "dry clean only" is a load of rubbish.

m0j0pin

Honest advice please. Have read all the other posts but not sure which aplies to me. Just left rented house and LL wants to take £200 out of our deposit to replace carpets.
We lived there 2 years, carpet is cream and was stained when we moved in. The LL took pictures and noted the stain when we moved in. We arranged for a carpet cleaner the day before we were due to hand over keys, and they didn't show up. So, when handing the keys back we acknowledged that there were marks on the carpet and said we were willing to pay for professional cleaning of the carpets (living room, stairs and landing - all same carpet). She said it smelt of cat and cigarette smoke (we have a cat, and hubby smokes but never indoors because I hate it). I think she said that because she knows he smokes and we have a cat. Actually, it smelt of damp because I'd attempted to clean it and the carpet cleaner wasn't drying properly. Ok, so that still isn't a nice smell, but it's one a professional cleaner would easily move.
We've had a letter now saying that LL "has been advised" the carpets may not come clean after one attempt. So she's replaced the carpets and is taking the £200 for "part costs of the replacement & cleaning". Now, I don't know what the cleaning is, as this wasn't previously mentionned, and everything was thoroughly cleaned with the exception of the afore mentionned carpet.
Given that the carpet was stained before we moved in, and we'd been there two years, are we liable for the cost of replacing a carpet, when LL hasn't even attempted to have it professionally cleaned despite us agreeing to foot the bill?

clairehi

to the OP, if you are on good terms with the landlord, why not ask them directly what they expect when you leave. to be honest if they are the type to try and do you out of a few hundred quid they probably will whatever you do, but if they are decent types and you show that you are trying your best o leave the place presentable they will appreciate it.

by the way its amazing what a professional carpet cleaner can get out of a carpet, you should have seen the state of the carpets in my house when I moved in!

we had some damage to wallpaper and a grease stain on a bedroom wall when we left our last rental place but we got our deposit back as as we had done everything they asked us to (professional carpet clean, wash all curtains, windows cleaned inside and out kitchen & bathrooms immaculate, garden weeded & mowed).

robin_banks

It would of course have helped if a such a term was defined in the T&C's of the lease, it never gets clarified and yet leads to more hassle than anything else when it come to moving out.

Sue-UU

m0j0pin wrote: »

Honest advice please. Have read all the other posts but not sure which aplies to me. Just left rented house and LL wants to take £200 out of our deposit to replace carpets.
We lived there 2 years, carpet is cream and was stained when we moved in. The LL took pictures and noted the stain when we moved in. We arranged for a carpet cleaner the day before we were due to hand over keys, and they didn't show up. So, when handing the keys back we acknowledged that there were marks on the carpet and said we were willing to pay for professional cleaning of the carpets (living room, stairs and landing - all same carpet). She said it smelt of cat and cigarette smoke (we have a cat, and hubby smokes but never indoors because I hate it). I think she said that because she knows he smokes and we have a cat. Actually, it smelt of damp because I'd attempted to clean it and the carpet cleaner wasn't drying properly. Ok, so that still isn't a nice smell, but it's one a professional cleaner would easily move.
We've had a letter now saying that LL "has been advised" the carpets may not come clean after one attempt. So she's replaced the carpets and is taking the £200 for "part costs of the replacement & cleaning". Now, I don't know what the cleaning is, as this wasn't previously mentionned, and everything was thoroughly cleaned with the exception of the afore mentionned carpet.
Given that the carpet was stained before we moved in, and we'd been there two years, are we liable for the cost of replacing a carpet, when LL hasn't even attempted to have it professionally cleaned despite us agreeing to foot the bill?

Hi and welcome to MSE.

Do you have copies of the photographs taken when you took over occupancy? I think, to be honest, I'd have tried getting it cleaned before the day before moving out. You could then have asked her to come and see the before & after appearances. A difficult one, but 2 years is a fair time and though she's possibly being a little crafty here, I think I'd be inclined to put it down to being 'one of those things' and move on to the new life started.

Good luck, but don't fret about it too much,life is never always fair.

Sue

m0j0pin

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

Sue - Bone of contention between myself and husband. He refused to pay for cleaning and I only managed to convince him the week before we moved.

I just begrudge having to pay to replace carpet when it wasn't new when we moved in and it was actually stained then! Also, as far as before and after, we do have our own carpet cleaner, and we have used that. LL saw the house before and after that, and when handing the keys over kept referring to "what it was like two weeks ago" (as in "comparing these pictures to what it was like two weeks ago...") and not what it was like when we handed the keys over.

If it was a cleaning company who advised her it may not come clean, they may simply have been covering their backs. Also, how do I know that it wasn't the old stain they were referring to rather than the marks since we moved in?

Anyhow, assuming the cleaners wouldn't be able to remove the marks I wouldn't mind making a contribution towards replacements. However, carpets need replacing now and then, that's a fact of life. I haven't caused that need, I can only have brought it forward a year or so. LL has just said "£200 for part costs of the replacement & cleaning" - how does she know how much it'll cost before it's done, and what cleaning needs doing? Surely this should be more detailed? Especially since she saw the house two weeks before we handed over keys, and other than this carpet issue, simply said of the state of the rest of the house "hoover the carpets and clean the windows" (which, incidentally we'd already done before she viewed the house and said that, and did again before handing keys over).

I think I'll ask for more clarification of what we're going to be paying for, and offer to pay, say, 30% of the carpet replacement cost providing I am given a copy of the receipt for the replacement.

Sound about right?