Tenants leave dirty flat

tufnellhome

Hi,
My tenant's moved out on Saturday evening, there is a clause in the contract saying that they must clean the property or get a cleaner in to do it and when they gave notice I reminded them about this specifically. When I went it the flat was filthy. Not just general wear and tear but clearly no cleaning at all in the 6 months of the tenancy. I spoke to them about this and they said they were not going to clean it so if we got a professional cleaner in they would reimburse us - which is fine.

But we were unable to get a cleaner to come in before the next tenant moved in (only 2 days between as we had agreed to extend the tenancy by a couple of days as previous tenant had not found a new place) so had to spend all sunday cleaning. I had expected to have to do some cleaning but not this level of filth. The hob is so dirty that it will just not come clean at all, the bath was actually black with dirt, just nothing had been touched while they were there. Anyway me and my husband spent 10 hours cleaning and need to go back and finish tonight (prob max 3 hours).

This level of filth was so much that I still want to charge them the £180 that we were quoted by the professional cleaner for doing the work (plus £20 on cleaning materials as bog standard cleaner was not sufficient to deal with the dirt!) - can I charge them for this or even take it out of the deposit?

The flat was spotless when they moved in but the inventory doesnt mention the condition of the flat, but when I spoke to the tenant they agreed that there was some cleaning required but that this was due to the 'dust from moving out'

sorry for the long rant but it was quite a state!

before_hollywood

personally if anything cant be used again due to their dirt wrecking it i would charge for its replacement

no_fat_chicks

You can't charge for your own labour.

BitterAndTwisted

This just proves how important the inventory is and really should have contained clear and accurate descriptions of the condition of the property not just its contents. Now, you have no proof whatsoever that the property was not returned in the same condition at the end of the tenancy as at the beginning unless dated photographs were taken on check-in.

If you are holding a deposit from your tenants I would still decline to return it in full, or send them a bill for the cleaning if you haven't. They might pay it but they also might come on here and discover what a weak position you are in.

To protect yourselves in future you MUST address the issue of the condition of the property in your check-in inventory and take photographs if you don't want to have to spend the same amount of time and money every time you have new tenants moving in

tufnellhome

Thanks - in particular to B.A.T - I am definitely going to sort the inventory differently in future, but you have hit on something as I did take photos of the property (loads) as part of the check in and attached them to the inventory of property so I may be able to use some of these to back me up....? I also took photos of the filth before I started cleaning

Fire_Fox

The photos are good evidence, but you still cannot change for commercial cleaning when you have cleaned the place yourself, you need a proper invoice. I assume the tenants deposit is lodged in one of the three schemes? If so haven't you read and understood the scheme's guidance on what you can legitimately withhold money for and what you cannot? Are you a member of a landlord's association?

It is not good practice to have signed an AST with a new tenant before the old one has moved out - if you hadn't signed you could have postponed the move until you could get a cleaner and charged the old tenant for the lost rent. If your tenant had not moved out on the designated day you would be in breach of contract with the new tenant.

clutton_2

i have sent you a private message