Agency wants payment for cleaning services FOUR months after we left the property!

amz223

Hi

Wondering if anyonce can give me some advice...

My boyfriend and I had a bit of an odd tenancy agreement in last property, where they didn't hold our deposit in a safety account (or whatever it's called) but did the following when we left:

• Took our last months rent from the deposit when we gave our months notice
• Gave us the majority of what was left in a cheque
• Then gave us back the £200 'key holing deposit' after we left and they carried out a final inspection

They did say they might have to charge us for cleaning the windows but we never got a bill at our new address.

I have now recieved a letter demading payment for two enclosed invoices; one for general cleaning for £45 and the other for window cleaning for £45. One is dated in August and the other the beginning of September.

Can the agency charge me for cleaning four months after we left the property?

Any advice or help would be really helpful!

Thanks

Amy

honeyD

Must have been a lot of windows :eek:

QTPie

honeyD wrote: »

Must have been a lot of windows :eek:

Yes, I live in a 3 storey, four bedroom townhouse (13 windows and 4 pairs of french doors) and it costs us £25 a time to have them all cleaned...

Unless maybe you live in a bigger house, in London and/or they charged for cleaning the inside of the windows too...

QT

Cannon_Fodder

Ask them if they'd like you to re-visit their failure to protect the deposit and seek 3x its value, as laid down in law.

BitterAndTwisted

Four months does seem a tad dilatory but as you've had your deposit and your key-holding monies back £90 doesn't seem that unreasonable. Having read some of the no-deposit-back disasters some tenants have posted about on here I think you've got off very lightly. I'd pay up and thank my lucky stars they've charged so little

adg1

I would, quite simply, tell them to leave you alone and state that you will treat any other phonecalls/letters as harrassment.

It is far to late for them to chase you for any money you may or may not owe.

There are two ways to look at this:

1 - The agent demand the money from you, send you all sorts of letter and solicitors get involved and it goes to court. This will cost them WAY more than £90 and my educated guess (I'm an EA) is that they will write it off to bad debt and cut thrie losses.

2 - They didn't protect your deposit, which by law they (landlord really though most EAs take charge of it as part of their service) have to. Tell them you have reported them to ARLA/Ombudsman/NAEA and any other professional bodies they may happen to be linked to. As soon as they understand that 3x your deposit is more than £90 (which I guess it will be) they should leave you alone.

Strangely, I have just had my old EA on the phone (I left back in April) demanding an instant payment on credit/debit card for the cleaning that they didn't charge me for before they released my deposit. The only way to release a deposit from the protected schemes is with the landlords written permission and hence admission that the house was fine on inspection. As far as I'm concerned, I have my deposit back, the landlord was happy with the way in which I returned his house and I had moved on in the last 6 months.

Quite strong admittedly, but do you really think they will persue you for £90?