How much cleaning do I have to do before I move out??

Gambit

If the gardnen is communal, surely the upkeep is down to the managing agent?

~moneysavingnovice~

Gambit wrote: »

If the gardnen is communal, surely the upkeep is down to the managing agent?

It's shared with the upstairs flat- no managing agents, my LL and LL of upstairs both rent out privately.

StudentMoneySaver

If the contract is silent on your duties re the garden, then its not really down to you and the LL cannot charge you for any work. You could sort it out but it would be out of your own good will rather than a contractual duty. As the garden is shared, it should be up to both LLs (or the Freeholder) to bear the cost of its upkeep.

G_M

Whatever it says in the contract, you are not expected by law to leave the property in a better condition than when you moved in. Nor a worse condition.

How you get it back to its original state of cleanliness is irrelevant. Pay for professional cleaners or do it yourself. Your choice, provided it is as it was at the start.

So how clean was it when you moved in? Is there an inventory, with photographs, agreed/signed by yourself, detailing its state at the start? If not, how can the LL prove it is now dirtier than at the start? (the onus is on him to prove it's dirtier, not you to prove it's cleaner). And have you got photos of how you left it, just in case?

~moneysavingnovice~

G_M wrote: »

Whatever it says in the contract, you are not expected by law to leave the property in a better condition than when you moved in. Nor a worse condition.

How you get it back to its original state of cleanliness is irrelevant. Pay for professional cleaners or do it yourself. Your choice, provided it is as it was at the start.

So how clean was it when you moved in? Is there an inventory, with photographs, agreed/signed by yourself, detailing its state at the start? If not, how can the LL prove it is now dirtier than at the start? (the onus is on him to prove it's dirtier, not you to prove it's cleaner). And have you got photos of how you left it, just in case?

Thanks, that's good to know.

I foolishly didn't take any photos when I moved in, but I will take some just before we move out.

I'm not intending on leaving it in a state, I just don't want to spend days getting it back to a better standard than it was when we moved in. I guess if I leave it as I was, he's unlikely to pursue us for cleaning bills.. touch wood..

The gumtree ad he's just put up is worrying though, as it keeps mentioning how 'immaculate' the flat is...

sp1987

Our last property we got in a state (professionally cleaned apparently, as if, lol). When we moved in there was a blocked toilet and 5 bags of rubbish around, (in addition to nothing actually being what I'd describe as clean, lol).

When we left they tried to claim for the oven (they'd have tried to claim for the rest but it was so spotless they could not possibly have claimed anything needed cleaning, regardless of who did it). They lost their dispute claim as they had only given us an old independant inventory conducted 9 months previous to our occupation which even then stated everything was dirty. I could have 'cleaned' to the standard of 'dirty bathroom' according to that, and thrown some mould, limescale and mildew around, lol. Shame I didn't dirty it back down to the standard it was received to be honest. The oven looked like a dirty oven in a clean flat, whereas what I had to contractually hand back was a dirty oven in a dirty flat.

I always think 'professional cleaning' is a foolish term regardless, as cleaning is not a profession. Anybody can set up as a cleaner, so there is never a guarantee it will be done reasonably, let alone as well as I'd be prepared to do it.

I'd never make a point of doing an a'hole of a landlord or agent a favour again by leaving their property as I choose to live in it when it is cleaner than they provided it to me. Luckily the current ones seem nice so I won't have to distribute the contents of the vacuum bag back to the areas it was taken from when I moved in

G_M

Ah. Gumtree! That tells you a lot about the landlord!

He might try to withold your deposit but as SP1987 so eloquently says, he'll be relying on you accepting his decision cos he'll have no chance in court or in arbitration.

the deposit IS protected in a recognised scheme isn't it?

twirlypinky

I would just do it very thoroughly myself - i always have when i've moved out of somewhere (and fairly typically the place i move into is flithy. I couldn't unpack any boxes for a whole day when i moved into one place, in particular the kitchen and bathroom were gross).

I cleaned the last flat so well the landlord asked which company I'd used so he could put them on his list, he was surprised to discover it was me!

claireac

Do the cleaning yourself, it'll save you money in the long run!

For the oven I recommend this stuff: http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/household-products/oven-pride-kitchen-cleaner/1019388/

It's fabulous stuff!! I think I paid about £3.00 in Tesco, and my oven is sparkling, cleaner than when I moved in. Give it a good long time to soak in.