Can we claim a refund for service not completed?

blurredgirl

Hello all
I have a query that I hope someone can help me with. It's pretty long so apologies and I'll post it over in renting forum too as it's sort of associated with our landlords.... bear with me....
I recently moved out of a flat we (myself and my housemate) had rented for3 years. We paid £345 for a professional end of tenancy clean including carpets and upholstery from a company that advertised great reviews on their website and had a host of 'famous' clients. We chose them because of this and because they offered a 'guaranteed' service. My housemate (gggrrr) signed the clean off with the company as I wasn't there but says they were very quick, were hard to understand and wanted to talk about the curtains and carpets. Regardless, they left and she didn't do a further check.
Upon inspection of the property the day after they had been in and cleaned, there were a list of things as long as my arm that they'd missed; hair in plugholes, dirty skirting boards, oven not cleaned properly, shower screen not cleaned etc. etc. the list went on and on. These have now been detailed in our inventory check out.
I contacted the company and requested a partial refund citing the sale of goods and services act and stating that services must be carried out with due care and attention which they clearly hadn't done. I also queried the guarantee. I was then told that the guarantee only applied to them being allowed to come back to the property if there were issues and re-clean. I explained I couldn't let them in as it was an END OF TENANCY clean and we weren't tenants. I contacted out managing agents to see if they would be allowed in to do this - no joy from them either.
Now the cleaners won't give us our money back and the landlord is charging us for a clean we've already paid for.
Help??

Valli

Write to them

Keep a copy
Head your letter LETTER BEFORE ACTION

Revise what you contracted them for

ie a one-off complete house/flat clean for an end of tenancy at a cost of £x

because the following items were not cleaned (list) your landlord/letting agency has charged you £Y for an end-of tenancy clean.

You are claiming back from them £Y (the amount you have had to pay the landlord).

Give them 14 days from the date of your letter to respond or you will take the matter further.

Keep a copy of all correspondence

Be prepared to escalate to Small Claims if they refuse (When you will be applying for £Y + cost of pursuing through small claims)

HTH

How much have you had to pay the landlord for the clean BTW?

Oh and you are claiming £Y from them because that's the amount you have lost through their inadequate work; the aim of the claim would be to put you back in the position you were (much like compensation amounts aim to do).

blurredgirl

do you think we'd stand a chance in small claims?
I don't know anything about it but am prepared to go ahead. It's just so frustrating that we're in the situation.
The landlord is 'yet to advise' our managing agents on the final figure but they've said he will go ahead with a further professional clean so I'm waiting to hear the damage Ho hum.

Valli

Yes I think you would (assuming company does not go out of business before then).

did you take any photos?

having said that your evidence is the landlords end-of-tenancy report and anything else relating to the state of the flat after the clean (clean 1); and the clean he is going to authorise/arrange (clean 2) , so you need a copy of THAT bill too; so save all that. Get onto your landlord and point out that you intend to reclaim the cost of cleaning team 2 from the company who supplied cleaning team 1 and you would like copies of bill etc and the final figure ASAP.

Ask your landlord to forward his copies to you, ensure you keep copies of everything BUT you must send them a letter (as outlined in my previous post) first; if they have any nous at all they will realise that a letter before action, if ignored, may lead to a claim in Small Claims. So they might pay up at that point, which would be better (ie quicker and easier) for you and better (ie cheaper) for them.

blurredgirl

THANK YOU! That's incredibly helpful advice.
Thanks so much