Rental Deposit - £740 withheld for cleaning

sarah_elton

This one's on behalf of a friend. She lived in a 4 bed house in London with friends. They moved out a few weeks ago.

The landlord (through an agency) wants to withhold from the deposit:

£200 - general clean
£480 - cleaning carpets
£60 - removing rubbish (claims there were some black bags left outside - there weren't)

Are these costs reasonable?

Also, when the girls moved in the house wasn't clean, and they had to give it a very thorough clean themselves. In addition, the agency have implied the above work is yet to be done, but they have walked past and seen that new tenants are already living in the house.

Any thoughts on their rights or if they can argue it? The total deposit was around £3k.

sooz

sarah_elton wrote: »

This one's on behalf of a friend. She lived in a 4 bed house in London with friends. They moved out a few weeks ago.

The landlord (through an agency) wants to withhold from the deposit:

£200 - general clean
£480 - cleaning carpets How much??
£60 - removing rubbish (claims there were some black bags left outside - there weren't)

Are these costs reasonable?

Also, when the girls moved in the house wasn't clean, and they had to give it a very thorough clean themselves. In addition, the agency have implied the above work is yet to be done, but they have walked past and seen that new tenants are already living in the house.

Any thoughts on their rights or if they can argue it? The total deposit was around £3k.

TBH, the other two quotes aren't that unreasonable, but the carpet one is :eek:

When did they move in?
Is their deposit protected?
Did they sign an inventory?

stevetodd

sarah_elton wrote: »

This one's on behalf of a friend. She lived in a 4 bed house in London with friends. They moved out a few weeks ago.

The landlord (through an agency) wants to withhold from the deposit:

£200 - general clean
£480 - cleaning carpets
£60 - removing rubbish (claims there were some black bags left outside - there weren't)

Are these costs reasonable?

Also, when the girls moved in the house wasn't clean, and they had to give it a very thorough clean themselves. In addition, the agency have implied the above work is yet to be done, but they have walked past and seen that new tenants are already living in the house.

Any thoughts on their rights or if they can argue it? The total deposit was around £3k.

Was your deposit protected in a scheme, if not when did your tenancy start, more importantly when did you pay your deposit?

I paid £125 for a 2 bed flat to be cleaned so for a 4 bed that is reasonable, the carpet cleaning seems very high though I seem to remember it works out at about £20-25/room

chewmylegoff

sarah_elton wrote: »

Also, when the girls moved in the house wasn't clean, and they had to give it a very thorough clean themselves.

is that evidenced in any way. is there a check in report which confirmed that the property had not been cleaned? is it stated on the inventory?

the exiting tenants are only obliged to put the property back to the same condition that it was in when they moved in. if there is evidence that the property was not cleaned before they moved in then in my view they should just refuse all of the cleaning costs on that basis.

on the black bin bags i would have thought that the landlord will need to come up with some evidence of this.

sooz

stevetodd wrote: »

Was your deposit protected in a scheme, if not when did your tenancy start, more importantly when did you pay your deposit?

I paid £125 for a 2 bed flat to be cleaned so for a 4 bed that is reasonable, the carpet cleaning seems very high though I seem to remember it works out at about £20-25/room

I very much doubt the OP had 19-24 carpeted rooms

stevetodd

sooz wrote: »

I very much doubt the OP had 19-24 carpeted rooms

Exactly my point, I suspect also that there was no mention of how clean (or not) the flat was at the begining of the tenancy, we are still waiting to hear if the deposit was protected. I suspect a refund at least in part will be coming her way.

sarah_elton

Not my tenancy so I only have the info from my friend.

To answer some questions. They only lived there for six months - so from approx March to September. The deposit was protected and yes, they signed an inventory.

As I said, they've walked past and new people are already living there but the agent implied the work was yet to be done. Now, I find it a little hard to believe the landlord would have carpet cleaners in once new tenants have moved in... Can they insist on seeing receipts to prove work has ever happened or happens?

Though I guess anyone with a computer can fake a receipt.

I don't know the exact number of rooms but obviously 4 beds, I'm guessing two receptions plus upstairs/downstairs hall. Kitchen and bathroom if they happened to be carpeted.... So max 10 rooms roughly at a guess.

scousethife

Jesus christ !

For 740 quid I reckon you get clean half of boeing's fleet of 747's jetwashed!

sooz

sarah_elton wrote: »

Not my tenancy so I only have the info from my friend.

To answer some questions. They only lived there for six months - so from approx March to September. The deposit was protected and yes, they signed an inventory. good

As I said, they've walked past and new people are already living there but the agent implied the work was yet to be done. Now, I find it a little hard to believe the landlord would have carpet cleaners in once new tenants have moved in... Can they insist on seeing receipts to prove work has ever happened or happens? Yes. However, seeing receipts after the event is rather irrelevant. They should have been provided with quotes before any work was done.

Though I guess anyone with a computer can fake a receipt.

I don't know the exact number of rooms but obviously 4 beds, I'm guessing two receptions plus upstairs/downstairs hall. Kitchen and bathroom if they happened to be carpeted.... So max 10 rooms roughly at a guess.

Get your friends to check which deposit their scheme was held in - the custodial or one of 2 insurance based ones. They should have had all the info about which scheme & their T & C's within 14 days of paying their deposit.

They should raise a dispute with whichever scheme it's in.

tbs624

Sarah - you say that they signed an inventory and that the house "wasn't clean" at the start of the tenancy. Did your friends fully note the condition of the property on the inventory before they signed it, and did they keep a copy?

They can only be asked to leave the property in the same condition as at the start of the tenancy, fair wear & tear excepted so did they do that or did they leave it in a worse state?

Was there a "check out inspection" and did they attend too?

Have these proposed deductions been notified in writing?

What should happen is that the LA/LL writes to says that x,t or z have been noted and they have obtained quotes for this rectifying work to be done. They can't simply do it and present a bill, and they do actually have to do what they are trying to charge for.

One of the tenants will be classed as "lead tenant" and should contact the scheme - they should check for themselves via the links here, if they haven't been given the necessary "prescribed info" on how the scheme actually works. Both parties have to agree to repayment of all/part of the deposit - it is not a unilateral decision made by the LA or LL and you can either agree to be bound by the decision of the adjudication process at the scheme or go via the smalll claims court, if necessary.

HxBro

sarah_elton wrote: »

Also, when the girls moved in the house wasn't clean, and they had to give it a very thorough clean themselves. In addition, the agency have implied the above work is yet to be done, but they have walked past and seen that new tenants are already living in the house.

Most contracts state the place needs to be professionally cleaned, doing it yourself usually doesn't do it good enough (this is from experience).

If I was them, I'd ring round the area looking for "End of tenancy cleaning companies" and get quotes themselves, and say they will organise the cleaning.