Tenant - Professionally cleaning carpets/Contract?

PJackson_2

We are currently renting (long story, but own a house but renting that out due to work/location). We were fairly desperate to get into current rental accom as we didn't have much time to sort out and so quite hastily signed the tenancy agreement.

Was perusing the other day and notice it states we have to have all carpets professionally cleaned when we leave. We have no pets (two small children but they are not too messy at all and I'm always ultra careful with any spills/mess etc). We are in a fairly large house and I know it will cost us a small fortune to get the carpets cleaned. Also, tbh the carpets bar the lounge and smallest bedroom are fairly ancient and are probably in better condition now than they were before (spent ages getting stains off some of them when I moved in)!

So, is there anything I can do to worm out of cleaning them. I'm so cross with myself for not reading that in the contract as seeing the carpets, I would never have agreed to it unless I had pets or something!!!! :mad:

In addition, it states we should have chimney swept once per year of tenancy. We've been in nearly 2 years and never had it done - reason being we never use the fire or chimney. Again, do you think we could argue the t0ss on that one?

I feel like I'm being stitched up really as the house is in better condition (cleaning wise) than when we moved in plus the LL has been fairly shabby at getting repairs done and the house could do with an overall update i.e. inadequate central heating boiler - yes, it works but costs us the earth to use as it's ancient and we've had that as gospel from the last guy who came to service it!! Leaking bathroom toilet which despite sending 'someone' to look at it, has never been properly fixed - I could go on! :rolleyes:

456789

Ended up in the same situation myself.

We got carpet shampoo and shake n vac and put it on the carpets so they would smell like someone cleaned them and made up an invoice on the computer - and put down a friends number incase the EA decided to check.

In the end the estate agent didn't ask for the invoice and sent our deposit back after 2 days. Though your EA might act differently.

marcg

I wasn't aware there was a professional qualification for cleaning carpets. As such, any person that make their living cleaning (carpets) could satisfy the terms of your tenancy. Get a £6/hour cleaner to do the shake n vac thing, write an invoice and you're above board. Chimney-wise, if you think you're going to be asked for it, get a sweep. In Bristol they cost about £100 a flue. The once a year thing - you lost the first invoice.

There is a lesson though - read the small print and take your own inventory or statement of condition at the start of a tenancy and have the letting agent sign it. Particularly for the usual old carpets scam that landlords seem to think is acceptable.

carolt

I read on here many moons ago that requiring carpets be professionally cleaned (as opposed to just 'clean' or 'cleaned') cannot be enforced by law - don't know who posted that, but it stuck in mind as a useful bit of info.

Hope that helps.

barnaby-bear

carolt wrote: »

I read on here many moons ago that requiring carpets be professionally cleaned (as opposed to just 'clean' or 'cleaned') cannot be enforced by law - don't know who posted that, but it stuck in mind as a useful bit of info.

OFT guidelines....

http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/consumer-regulations/traders/1631/1/

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=10747&highlight=professional&page=2

OFT is not statute though....

Zalkawe

Sorry to bump someone else’s thread but it seemed appropriate enough. We have recently been stung by a letting agent for £260 of our rent deposit. They charged £160 for carpet cleaning as well as a (in some ways) more reasonable £40 for cleaning and a whopping £30 admin fee for organising each contract, they also have invoices for both.

There was nothing wrong with the carpets, we had shake and vacced but we probably should have just gone the whole hog and faked an invoice. The place was absolutely spotless and there was also nothing about the property requiring cleaning apart from for carpets in our move out report, however it did say in our contract that we had to have the flat professionally cleaned and that they might charge an admin fee if we did not.

Is there anything we can do, I was particularly wondering about the admin fees? Surely these at least have to be reasonable and they can’t just pick a number? I was thinking about writing to the company to ask them to provide minuted time to the value of £60 that their staff took to arrange the cleaning contracts?

I am definitely going to use the OFT stuff about the carpets in the letter so thanks for that. Would there be any value in me writing to the OFT as well?

tbs624

PJackson - they can ask you to clean the carpets "to a professional standard" and only if they can adequately show that they had been cleaned to that standard immediately prior to you moving in.What does the inventory say, if there is one?

If the chimney has a living gas fire in the grate, then its down to the LL to get the chimney sorted ( as the flue to a gas appliance).

The only reason for sweeping a chimney annually is of course to prevent a build-up of sooty gunk (a technical term;)) & anything else which may cause a chimney fire. If you haven't used the fireplace there is clearly no real need for the chimney to be swept but how does a T prove that they have not used the fireplace? Can the LA/LL show that they had it cleaned prior to the T moving in? And yes, although the OFT is "guidance" it's worth checking what they say and they have required that the "chimney sweeping clause " be deleted - see P60 bulletin 21.

If I hadn't used a fireplace at all, as a T, then I'd be challenging the LA and quoting from the OFT.

My own view is that these clauses should be removed from tenancy agreements and that *all* chimney sweeping should be the responsibility of the LL, who can of course set the costs down for tax purposes.

tbs624

Zalkawe - why not start a new thread? Replies can get confusing if there are two separate posters asking for help with different queries

Zalkawe

On another forum I post on I would end up banned for such practices :lipsrseal but in this case I will do just that.

PJackson_2

Thanks for the replies At the end of the day I am a LL myself and honestly wouldn't worm out of anything if I felt it was fair. However for eg the stair carpet must be about 15 years old plus I think and I feel like I will be paying to have it cleaned for them to improve it for next tenant/sale which isn't fair.

I know we should have read contract better - v silly and would never do it again but it was all v rushed and we were desperate for house as it was the only decent one around and we had one weekend to find something!! Re the chimney - I'm going to try the fact we haven't used it - think we used it once the first week we moved in and decided it wasn't a good heat provider - rads are better - only just tho!! Also we don't like fires with having young children.

There is no inventory/written state of condition that we are aware of. A local EA did the tenant finding (ie us) but then handed it back to the LL for maintenance etc so no agent per se - we've been in almost 2 yrs and they've never done a check at all - not something I would do with my property (mine is rented thru an agent) but there you go. If there is an inventory we have never seen it and therefore I would not take notice of anything on it! It's not worth the paper it's written on if it's not shown to your tenants and your get their agreement on condition etc before you start!!

Having said that, a contract is a contract and is legally binding so I guess we'll have to 'tread' carefully!

poppysocks1

I was in the same position - hurriedly signed a contract, amended it to the fact we did have a cat, and omitted to notice the carpet cleaning clause - however I have a very good dyson and we also did not wear outdoor shoes inside, so I actually contacted the agency and asked if we had to do a carpet shampoo (also it was a basement flat and to add more moisture to the already very damp flat didnt make sense!) and luckily on check out the carpets were spotless, and the one mark was spot removed. If i ever rent again I will be wary of such a clause. Its a pain if the carpets are not great condition already, seems a waste of effort.