Unreasonable cleaning cost at end of tenancy

Doshwaster

Wow. Some expensive prices here.

I had my 2 bed house professionally cleaned at the end of tennancy - it came to about £125, they provided all of the cleaning equipment and did a much better job than if I had spent a week on my hands and knees scrubbing (I hardly recognised the kitchen afterwards!). Mind you, this was an unfurnished house so there was no upholstery/curtains to clean and I rented a Rug Doctor to do the carpets myself (so, say, another £30)

I think it's important to use a profesional cleaning service who are familiar with end of tenancy jobs as they will know the standards that the agencies expect. The cash-in-hand kind of domestic cleaner probably isn't up to the job.

cavework

Leedor, can you give us a breakdown of the charge for cleaning?

Leedor

Thanks to everyone for your answers! I also sent an email request to Shine for a quote for a two bed flat with carpets and they said £250+VAT ie £300. So with curtains added, I guess that's just their standard. No doubt they do a bang-up job, just seems a lot still! At £20/hr for 2 people it's still nearly 10 hours solid cleaning! Can't believe it took that much.

I will ask for a breakdown, that seems the consensus for the way forward.

BitterAndTwisted:
No it was not the same state, so some additional cleaning was required. We had to hand in our keys at inventory which was the first time we realised our cleaner didn't do a good enough job to pass inspection. So after that we couldn't do any more cleaning o even hire anyone else. We don't dispute an extra charge for cleaning, just though £380 was ridiculous. We'd been there 4 years.

HappyMJ: No it certainly wasn't a tip. It looked good, but to be fair, there was deeper cleaning required like vacuum under sofas (that yes our cleaner by herself couldn't do and we didn't think of in the madness of moving flat). We never get invoices from our cleaner, but don't think that would matter, fact is it needed added cleaning. Just a matter of how much!

Princeofpounds: Thanks, that sounds about right, just don't think its worth us taking any significant time off work for a reduction of I guess max £200 between two people.

SeriousSaver: Thanks, good advice, will ask for breakdown and if they can't provide that it will at least give us a good negotiation point and hopefully avoid arbitration/court

Prudryden: Thanks for the breakdown, I guess ours could be similar, will request it.

Doshwaster: You're exactly right, our cash in hand cleaner didn't do enough, we knew that was a risk but thought we'd hope for the best. My worry is that if we went professional that it still might not be enough and then we'd have wasted so much more, but reading these posts I see we could then ask for a refund or dispute the extra charge. Will know for next time!

Thanks again everyone!

may_fair

If it's Shine in London, I've used them. They send in a team of about four or five cleaners and blitz it in 2-3 hours. They bring all the kit as well; all products and equipment. They are a bit pricier than some other cleaning companies but you tend to get what you pay for. I used one company where a solitary guy showed up who couldn't speak English and I had to supervise, point to things he hadn't cleaned properly and communicate with him via phone calls to the agency. It took nearly all day and I ended up helping him to clean just to get it over with.

Tenants are sometimes surprised at how many man hours it takes to professionally clean a property. It's not the same as 'clean to a domestic standard'.

auroan

A lot of people are missing the point here. A deposit is there to cover damages to the landlords property which can't be covered by fair wear etc. A letting agent can not just deduct money from a deposit for services at the end of a tenancy. They can invoice you... but they cannot deduct it automatically from your deposit.

may_fair

auroan wrote: »

A lot of people are missing the point here. A deposit is there to cover damages to the landlords property which can't be covered by fair wear etc. A letting agent can not just deduct money from a deposit for services at the end of a tenancy. They can invoice you... but they cannot deduct it automatically from your deposit.

No-one has said they can. OP says in post #14 that it's at the negotiation stage and he wants to avoid adjucation/court, so clearly he has not yet accepted the charge or had it 'automatically' deducted.

twistedmoosie

auroan wrote: »

A lot of people are missing the point here. A deposit is there to cover damages to the landlords property which can't be covered by fair wear etc. A letting agent can not just deduct money from a deposit for services at the end of a tenancy. They can invoice you... but they cannot deduct it automatically from your deposit.

Actually, some can. It depends on your contract. I've rented in London for the past 5 years and typically agents pop in a clause about leaving the place as clean as you found it (which is never true, they really mean spotless regardless of how you found it!) and payment to be taken from your deposit by them if they have to hire in cleaners to make it up to standard when you leave. Friends who have rented in other parts of the country haven't had the same so perhaps it's a London thing.

To be honest, if it's an established estate agent like Alex Neil, then I'm not surprised that's the price, they tend to have a relationship with a decent professional cleaning company. In fairness to Shine they are good and I've dealt with some real cowboy companies in the past where I've ended up doing half of it myself.

The points you need to go back with to the agents are that you were not given the opportunity to rectify the situation yourself with your own professional cleaner (which could have been cheaper - I had to send back a cleaner once as they had not done a suitable job, but at least I was told in time), and also that it did not need an entirely new clean to rectify the situation. If it had, then £380 in London is unfortunately justifiable. It sounds like it needed less, in which case I'd expect half.

You may have to accept you won't win on this one - agents are darn good at tying up your money! We did win on a similar thing against Hamptons last summer though who are also very established, I just kept calling three times a day until they got sick of dealing with me and settled on a compromise.

may_fair

twistedmoosie wrote: »

The points you need to go back with to the agents are that you were not given the opportunity to rectify the situation yourself with your own professional cleaner

If the tenancy has ended, LL has no obligation to give ex-T the opportunity to rectify anything.

cavework

Prices for cleans from website provided by Happy MJ (Thanks for the link)
Guidline price for 2 bed flat £155 plus VAT OUTSIDE of appliances only
Oven clean £35 plus VAT ( some odd thing about half price when booked with end of tenancy clean so not sure if this should be £17.50 plus VAT)
Carpets come in at £27 double bedroom, £19 for single, stairs £25, living room £30,
all guidline prices only exc VAT but a reduction in rates for letting agents
If the agent asks their approved cleaners to reclean a property the company they use would be very stupid to knock the price down just because someone has hired a cheap cash in hand cleaner in the first place
This really is not the cleaning companies problem and TBH if we are asked to do this type of job we would do a complete clean to our usual standard and the price for a full clean would still apply. We cannot afford to check out which areas 'might' be ok and which need a reclean. We might as well take another job that pays the full price for an initial clean.
You also had curtains and carpets cleaned so your estimate of £20 per hour for 2 people adding up to 10 hours is wrong.
They also supply all their own cleaning materials , who do you think covers this cost if it is not included in the price of the clean?
I think this is a lesson to anyone vacating a rented property .. use an approved Company who will give you an invoice that is broken down and not Mrs Mopp from down the road who does cleans cash in hand for a bit of bingo money.

auroan

twistedmoosie wrote: »

Actually, some can. It depends on your contract. I've rented in London for the past 5 years and typically agents pop in a clause about leaving the place as clean as you found it (which is never true, they really mean spotless regardless of how you found it!) and payment to be taken from your deposit by them if they have to hire in cleaners to make it up to standard when you leave. Friends who have rented in other parts of the country haven't had the same so perhaps it's a London thing.

To put it bluntly. !!!!!!!!. What is actually happening is that people are letting agents get away with murder. By putting that rubbish in a contract.