Excessive tenacy deposit charge and admin fees

Zalkawe

Hi all

I recently left rented accommodation and have been stung by a letting agent for £260 of my rent deposit. They charged £160 for carpet cleaning as well as a (in some ways) more reasonable £50 for cleaning and a whopping £25 admin fee for organising each contract. They have invoices from both professional cleaning companies saying how much it cost.

There was nothing wrong with the carpets or the state of the flat, the place was spotless and we had shake and vacced but we probably should have just gone the whole hog and faked invoices. Our move out report had a picture of a hair on a carpet in it and said they would have to be cleaned, however it did not say anything about other cleaning apart from the insides of windows which shouldn’t cost £50 surely! The lease said that we had to have the flat professionally cleaned on move out, that they would do it if we did not and that they might charge an admin fee, but a professional cleaning company would not come out for less than £100 so we thought we would risk it, figuring that the flat was so clean the worst they could do was charge us about £100 plus maybe £25. £260 was a kick in the teeth.

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 £50 that their staff took to arrange the cleaning contracts?

I found out from another thread that carpet cleaning is not necessarily legally enforceable so I’m definitely going to put that in a letter. Does anyone think there would there be any value in me writing to the OFT as well?

Finally I was under the impression that if there is one busted clause in a contract the contract is invalid? I’m probably not going to take the time or money to attempt to prove their contract is invalid in court over £260 (although I feel like doing it, letting agents just seem to get away with continually ripping people off without consequences, can’t wait until the protection scheme comes in up here), but is it worth mentioning as a threat?

Alex_LS

They cannot insist that the property be professionally cleaned, no. This would be unenforceable. However, only unenforceable terms would be unenforceable. The remainder of the contract would stand.

I was about to ask whether the deposit was protected, then saw your almost throwaway comment about "up here" so, presuming "up here" is Scotland, I'm now not sure even whether the above applies. It's certainly correct for E&W though.

Fire_Fox

Was there a full signed inventory detailing the initial condition of the flat? Did you attend the checkout, if not why not? £25 is not that much if letting agency staff had to visit the flat more than once, either to let the cleaners into the flat or to check the work on completion. BTW Shake and Vac removes smells, not stains or hair.