Poor Service on Cleaning - what are my rights?

tomreid10 · 23 June 2011 at 8:49AM

Hi

I engaged a cleaner to do a final clean on a property I was renting. No ballpark figure was agreed for the clean, but I have used the company before and they tended to charge me around £40 to clean this house before when it was occupied.

When I went back to view what they had done, they had done a very poor job and charged me £80.

I didn't have time to call the company again and ask them to rectify what they had done, so I rectified it myself and wrote to them this morning.

My memory of consumer law as regards to services is that if a buyer deems a service to be sub-standard they are within their rights to pay only what they think is reasonable. if that's the case, can someone point me to the relevant piece of law that states this?

As background, I have annonomised the e-mail exchanges between the company and I and copied and pasted them below.

cheers

Hi,

I was round at last night. I was hoping that the cleaning was all
done, so I could just hand the keys back to the Letting Agency. However, there
was so much of the cleaning that was not done, that I had to go down to
Sainsburys and buy my own cleaning materials and spend around 90 minutes doing
it myself.

The interior windows had not been done. See a scan of how dirty the new dusters
got as I had to do all the windows myself.
The bath was still very dirty. It looked as if it had just had a basic wipe.
The inside of the freezer was not done, despite the fact that I personally asked
the cleaner to do it. His response at the time when I asked him was "if you
like", is there no definitive understanding of what a "final clean" means? I
thought you said below he does this all the time and understands the
requirements? It looked as of the cleaner had just wiped the surfaces on the
fridge. He had not bothered to think that there was water and food waste under
all of the compartments. I had to spend around half an hour of my own time
rectifying this.
The inside of the walk in cupboard in the dining room was not vacumed.
The inside of the walk in cupboard in the upstairs was not vacumed.
There as a black bin bag of rubbish just left in the front garden. It's not a
big house, surely it was not too much to ask to have the cleaner just walk round
to the back of the house where the bins were and put the rubbish there?
When I removed the fire guard, the area of the floor of the fireplace below it
was still very dirty, he hadn't thought to do that to clean it properly.

On the day that the cleaning was scheduled I came back to the house and was
surprised to find the cleaner there at around 5pm. he told me that you had
double booked him on the day and he had had to do another job, and come over to
do mine later. He left around 5.30.

From what I can see, the work I think he actually did was:

Vacumed the carpets (not inside the cupboards)
Dusted the window ledges and tops of fire places
Given the bathroom units a basic clean
Mopped the downstairs floor.

Given the above, I was amazed to see the bill claimed that he had done five
hours work. There was surely no more than 2 hours work in this. What could he
have possibly been doing for those five hours? How could he have fitted that all
in as well as doing another job and travelling in to do mine? Obviously he was
more focussed on getting home that doing "his usual professional job" for me.

I hired a cleaning company so, at a very busy and stressful time for me, I would
have at least some of the stress and hassle of moving out of a rented property
and handing it back to the leasing company, handled for me. I found a sub
standard job that I had to rectify myself, spending my own time and money and a
ridiculous bill.

I am absolutely not paying £81 for this mess.

Please reconsider.

Regards,

Tom.

Original Message ----

My apologies,
I will do them tomorrow for you, £8-10.00, and put it on the bill.

Regards

Original Message

If you read down to the bottom of these mails you will see my question about
the exterior windows that you previously appeared to answer yes to. Can you
recommend anyone to do the exterior windows? I just spoke to the oven
cleaner, all is fine.

Cheers

>Hi Tom,
>I have sent the oven cleaner in on your request, I cannot send him just to
>wipe over as it’s a waste of his time, as he is expecting to do his usual,
>professional job, his number is , if you would like to discuss
>your requirements with him, he is starting at 9am today.
>Stuart will do everything required for your EOT; this is something he does
>all day and knows the requirements. As you never expressed the need for the
>exterior windows, to be cleaned, I did not book them in for a clean, its
not
>something the cleaners are allowed to do, this has to be booked separately,
>due to health and safety, and insurance.
>
>Regards
>
>
>
>

Original Message

, you should have the keys now. The house is pretty much completely
>empty.
>Can you make sure the cleaner does things like inside and outside of
>windows,
>and inside of kitchen and other cupboards. The bathroom needs a good clean
>too.
>
>On the oven cleaner, the grill is a total mess, so he really needs to do
>that.
>The main oven and the hob probably just needs a bit of a wipe. I remember
>the
>oven cleaner was a bit expensive and he charges one price for hob, one for
>main
>oven (and one for grill?).
>
>
>Can you remind me roughly of the costs for that?
>
>I have to hand the house back in good condition on Wed, so appreciate it of
>you
>can make sure all goes well tomorrow. If possible, can you leave the bill
>for me
>tomorrow?
>
>
>I'll check back at the house early evening tomorrow. Can you ask the
cleaner
>
>just to post the keys through the letterbox when he is finished.

, I'll be in touch nearer the time to drop off keys. Does the oven
>>cleaner contact me separately? Or will he arrive with your cleaner on the
>>day?
>>
>>Cheers
>>
wrote:
>>
>>>Hi Tom,
>>>That’s booked in for you, and the windows, I have informed the oven
>cleaner
>>>as well,
>>>
>>>Regards
>>>
>>>Kevin
>>>
>>>

Original Message

>>>
>>>We are moving out of our place, handing it back to the letting agency.
>>>
>>>Can you book us in for a final clean on June 20?
>>>
>>>It would have to be that day, as we need to hand the place back on the
>>21st.
>>>The place would be empty of all furniture, so should be really
>>>straightforward.
>>>
>>>I'll can let you have keys again.
>>>
>>>Can you clean exterior windows at the same time?
>>>
>>>Can you put me in touch again with your guy who cleans cookers? The grill
>>is
>>>in such a state it'll need a specialist.
>>>
>>>Cheers